Keeping employees motivated can be challenging. The task is made more difficult when client work, projects and agency management pile up. That’s why it’s important to set aside time for praise and acknowledgement. 

“Considering the hours your employees spend at work--often more than what they get with family--it's essential to tell them when they've excelled on a project or gone above and beyond the call of duty.”

To maximize the impact of rewards, praise the activities that matter most to your business. The result? Happy employees, and a well-oiled business. Here are three behaviors to praise, and their sweet rewards.

For Teamwork: 3 Musketeers

Project completion often requires the work and input of multiple parties within your business. This requires good communication, workflow processes, and efficient coordination using agency project management software. Reward teams that have a proven track record of working together efficiently to get the job done well, and on time.

Metrics to evaluate:

• Efficiency rates based on time tracking reports.
• Percent of projects completed on time.
• Project teams consistently on-pace with project deadlines.

For Management: Mr. Goodbar 

If your business consistently juggles multiple clients or projects, it can be difficult to keep all parties, jobs and projects on track. So appreciate those managers that know how to structure teams and wield technology to get the job done. How can you tell? Projects don’t fall through the cracks, jobs are completed on time, and team members’ time is used effectively.

Metrics to evaluate:

• Job tracking accuracy.
• Forecasting accuracy—estimated vs. actual time tracked.
• Average team member productivity based on billable hours.

Profitability: Pay Day

At the end of the day, your business existsto make money, right? So why do so few business owners take time to figure out which employees, managers or teams bring the greatest revenue and profitability potential to your company?

Run reports on staff recoverability, billable jobs and service revenue to identify your most profitable employees, customers and services. Then, find and acknowledge the all stars that help make it all happen.

Metrics to evaluate: 

• Staff recoverability—billable vs. invoiced time.
• Invoiced vs. paid revenue by customer.
• Profitability by service.

Want more ideas? Here are 37 ways to keep your employees motivated.

With the right tools and reporting in place, you can easily identify the services, employees and customers that are most valuable to your business. Then make sure the A-players get to enjoy the sweet taste of success.

What metrics do you use to measure and reward performance?

Image Sources:

• Evan-Amos via Wikipedia
• Evan-Amos via Wikipedia
• Evan-Amos via Wikipedia