What are some employees incentives that proved great long term results in your company? What are the ones that backfired?

The answer lies in creating an aspirational culture, or a culture of opportunity. Organizations owe their employees pathways for recognition and upward mobility, with inbuilt mechanisms for mentorship and skill augmentation. In a sense, organizations promote their brand to a customer and employees alike -" this is what we stand for, this is who we are, trust us, we will take care of you!" McJobs being devoid of these qualities are then high turnover, whereas the Starbucks job is a pathway to learning customer service and management skills under middle class values. But yes, creating this ethos takes enormous concerted effort! Complicating matters are trends of talent poaching and paypacket competition between industry rivals (this affects mid level and up more). Great question - happy to help you create a strategy of belonging!

I'm going to answer this from the perspective of an engineer who has worked in similar environments and who has had leadership changes that went well, as well as ones that didn't Basically you're describing an environment in which people aren't doing as much as they are capable of, they were working in a hostile environment in which threats were common, and there's a sort of lack of accountability + poor communication / collaboration. Okay first thing, I wouldn't recommend using analytics to hold people accountable. Not yet anyway. It's a carrot and a stick problem and bringing out the stick first... you're likely to add demoralized staff to the list of problems you're trying to solve. What if instead you talked to everyone and explained your vision for the company and then followed up with each employee over the next week or two. Figure out what their vision for their own career is and what they want the next year to look like, the the next three, the next five. If you can align your employee's goals and ambitions to your own, I think you'll have a lot more luck getting people to solve the disfunction that they can. And they'll be a lot more understanding when you start taking measures to hold people accountable. Again, just my perspective as an engineer. I would bet you that the people you are working with are aware of the same problems as you. And they would probably agree with you that people need to be held accountable. But you need to be careful about how you do that. Accountability right now probably will look like more micromanagement and intimidation. Paint a picture for where you want to go and commit to helping your people reach where they want to go... well, then accountability isn't such a bitter pill and it will likely be seen as necessary, not more of the same toxic leadership that wrecked the culture last time.

Absolutely. And it is easy as your imagination.You can create it to fit your culture. That said, I believe that the biggest incentive is to tie compensation to the profitability of the unit. 1) Be sure to include everyone who touches outcomes. 2) Create a profit share by deciding how much you want to land in the hands of your employees. Be sure to use a net profit and be sure to account for future capitalization and cash flow. (Typically between 5-25%) 3) Divide the profit share by salaries or some other very obvious criteria. In other words, don't make it arbitrary or people will be dis-incentivized. 4) The profit share is always paid to the group, not the individual. 4) Be very involved in teaching net profit creation. They will need business acumen. Lastly, 5) While stock options and employee ownership may be a future goal, a profit share let's people hit the ground running, creates excitement right now, teaches needed business and finance skills and adds a fabulous team culture. Work with your unit to create the options or ownership they want later when they understand the principles and can help design the rules and criteria. I practiced this for over 20 years and the results were phenomenal. People grew the business, put cash in everyone's pocket, created an exciting environment and was in real time, not future time. It is magic. This is a quick answer. Let me know if you need more. I'm happy to discuss. Ruth Schwartz High Performance Advocates 530 802-2075

Your Team will have a direct impact on whether or not you will succeed as a business. I know exactly how hard it can be, especially when peoples lives are in your hands. Even more so if you outsource, outsourcing might seem cheap by our standards but that money goes a long way overseas, so usually one employee is paying for their entire family back home in their village. But you as a boss have a responsibility to all your staff, each one of them relies on you and a poor employee that lets the team down, is letting the company down and putting every at risk. Selecting your team is one of the most important parts of any startup You have not only invested your money, but your time and your life. If someone has getting in the way of that, and you have given them every opportunity to improve. You cant feel bad, you need to remove them and rehire. When you have the right person you will know. A motivated and hardworking employee will work for the business and not for their pay check.

Backwards. I'd make sure that person didn't stay in the company. "One dirty fish muddies the whole pond" It's not personal or malicious - they're just not the right fit. A great skill set, while very important is always secondary to cultural fit if you really want your company to flourish.