Material motivation of staff in the department of Internet marketing

On the issues of staff motivation written many articles and broken mountain of copies. Each manager strives to create a dream team, the members of which would be loyal to customers, professionally improved, value wage growth and put 100% of the work time.

But the ideal is often broken about the commonplace everyday difficulties and the mentality of specific people. I have been working in the market of website development and Internet marketing for many years and I constantly face problems of growth and motivation of personnel.

In the field of IT-technology, success is achieved by those who have high intelligence, good creative thinking and a creative component. A certain symbiosis of lyricists and physicists in one bottle. Working with such colleagues is very interesting, but incredibly difficult. The team management process is similar to working with hundreds of shiny mercury balls, which, when gathered together, can give an outstanding result, and can crumble, roll out and turn into nothing. To date, WebCanape has more than 90 employees, 10 years of work experience and a lot of stuffed cones. In this article, I would like to share "with colleagues" the experience of how we rebuilt the scheme of material motivation on the example of the Internet marketing department.

Problems

In companies similar to ours, the manager most often has to contend with professional burnout, mismatch of expectations and actual employee costs for the agency, unwillingness to rationally organize their work processes and increase their professional competencies.
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How to set up and motivate the team so that new customers, led by the sales department, would be of interest and excitement, and not a reaction “again halt”? In order for the manager to fight for the retention of the client base and see the transparent dependence of his income on the efforts made? So that employees would equal the leaders of production and strive for their results? So that everyone tried to carry a real benefit to the client and was guided not only by the financial, but also by the qualitative result of their work?

Trying to answer these questions, I realized that it is necessary to build a staff motivation system, but this should be done very carefully. To get the effect of improving performance and eliminate resentment and sudden dismissal.

I consider the principles of building a motivation system for the Internet marketing department, without affecting the rest of the company's structural divisions. The motivation of the sales department, production department and support staff is the subject of a separate article.

I will also not touch on the intangible aspects of motivation, such as comfortable working conditions, a floating schedule, active eventful life within the company, team building, etc. All this is in the culture of WebCanape, grows, supports and successfully develops. It's about money, knowledge, and technology.

General principles of motivation

To begin with, I formed a list of goals and objectives that I would have to solve with the help of a motivation scheme, and then I determined the principles that I would follow when distributing bonuses.

Aims and objectives of staff motivation:

• encourage employees to achieve their personal goals;
• increase the professional growth of the company as a whole and of each member of the team individually;
• more effectively plan and distribute the load on the departments;
• carry out the company's income and expenditure plan approved for the current year;
• improve the quality of services provided by the agency.

The principles of motivation that I laid the foundation for the incentive model in the Internet marketing department:

• The amount of the premium depends on the total income. The bonus fund of employees is incorporated in the financial plan of the agency.
• The award should be a pleasant bonus that the employee receives in case of achievement of the super-result. The main component of his material well-being lies in the basic salary.
• The specialist can not constantly show over-result, the effectiveness of the employee is similar to a sine wave. The task of the head is for the sinusoids of the efficiency of his subordinates to work in antiphase. In this case, the group will constantly show a stable positive result.

• The rules for the motivation and distribution of bonuses are recorded in a publicly available corporate document and are adjusted no more than once every 6 months.
• The goals and objectives for each of the employees are formed once a month and are objectively achievable.
• Goals and objectives are distributed based on the qualifications of specialists. All employees know the personal goals of colleagues.
• Employees of departments and groups in real time can monitor the percentage of performance as a general plan, and their own.
• The size of each award depends on his personal contribution and the total contribution of all colleagues from his group.
• The size of the award has a progressive scale and can vary from 60% to 120% of the maximum possible.
• Everyone can increase the size of the premium by selling additional services and one-time work to customers.

A bit about the structure of the Internet marketing department

At WebCanape, Internet marketing is divided into 3 main groups:

The compositions of each group are completed according to a single scheme: a group leader, account managers, technical and financial specialists. The latter are not tied to any particular group, but serve the department as a whole.

Motivation schemes for different categories of staff

Being in different positions, employees are focused on fulfilling their range of tasks; therefore, motivation schemes are different: for managers, account managers and specialists.

The total bonus fund of the department is formed as a percentage of the amount of services and agency fees paid in the current month, minus overhead costs and is divided into 2 parts:

1. bonus for groups (managers, managers) - 80% of the total fund;
2. Award technical and financial professionals - 20% of the total fund.

Team leaders are involved in the formation and approval of a financial plan that takes into account both the interests of the company as a whole, and the indexation of the wage fund and the change in the number of employees of a particular group. The adopted and approved financial plan becomes the main KPI for its manager.

The awards of all group leaders are interrelated. Executives receive a 100% bonus only if the total plan of the entire Internet marketing department is completed. Such a scheme is implemented so that all three groups do not compete for customers and service budgets, but help each other to complete a cumulative plan.

The award of the head of the group is calculated and paid monthly. The amount of the award depends not only on the performance of financial indicators, but also on how well the work process and personnel training are organized:

• current work regulations;
• the presence of qualifying examinations for subordinate specialists;
• the number of positive and negative feedback from customers;
• drawing up and implementing plans for professional growth of employees.

The size of the group manager’s bonus is calculated as follows:

• Bonus fund of the group, which is calculated in proportion to the financial contribution made. If SEO earned 60% of the department’s turnover, its employees will account for 60% of the total bonus fund.
• The potential bonus of a manager is 25% of the bonus fund of the group.

The manager receives his award according to the following scheme:

Percentage of the total plan for the month	Premium in% of potential
Less than 90% of the plan	premium is not paid
90.00–99.99% of the plan	60%
100.00–109.99% of the plan	100%
110.00% or more of the delivered plan	120%

Additional bonus bonuses:

1. for the successful passing of internal qualification examinations by employees;
2. for employees passed the first time Yandex, Google qualification exams, etc .;
3. for the introduction of new technologies and methods to improve work efficiency.

A manager’s bonus reduction is possible if employees pass exams with a low score, there are retakes, a decrease in the client base for 3 consecutive months, negative reviews, staff’s failure to comply with work regulations, for lack of training and advanced training in the group.

Such a motivation scheme encourages the manager to fulfill the overall financial plan, monitor the level of professional knowledge of their employees, track customer satisfaction with the quality of services, introduce new and improve current technologies, and monitor the relevance of service regulations for services.

Analyzing the work of the motivation scheme for group leaders for 10 months, we obtained the following figures:

• The head receives an increased bonus, on average, once every four months.
• The reward in the amount of 60% of RPP managers receive every second month.
• Without a bonus, managers remain 1 out of four months.
• The bonus in the amount of 100% of the RPP is 60% of the basic salary of a manager, which is a pleasant and significant bonus for an employee.
• In general, the company managed to organize work in which the leaders are well motivated to be effective, the agency’s financial plan is being implemented, and the client base is growing.

KPI for account managers is formed on the basis of 7 components:

• personal monthly financial plan, which depends on the qualifications of the manager and the amount of client base that he leads;
• availability of successfully passed qualifying exams - internal by company products and external services exams;
• compliance with service regulations;
• the number of positive and negative reviews;
• the percentage of loss "dumps" of the customer base;
• personal contribution to innovative work technologies;
• Managers who have achieved a certain qualification and oversee a sufficient client base are allowed to participate in the awards.

The bonus account manager is calculated according to the scheme:

Potential manager bonus = total bonus for all managers of the group * personal share of the manager.

The final bonus amount depends on the percentage of the fulfillment of his personal plan:

Percentage of the total plan for the month	Premium in% of potential
Less than 90% of the plan	premium is not paid
90.00–99.99% of the plan	60%
100.00–109.99% of the plan	100%
110.00% or more of the delivered plan	120%

Additional manager bonuses:

1. for the strict implementation of project management regulations;
2. for having at least 4 reviews from clients with an average score of 4 or higher during the reporting month;
3. for the introduction of new technologies and methods of work, personal contribution;
4. for keeping customers of employees who go on vacation or on sick leave.

A manager’s premium reduction is possible in cases of violation of project management regulations, lack of positive or negative feedback, regular customer churn, personal manager’s requirement, and not passed in time qualifying exams.

Such a motivation scheme encourages employees to carry out a personal financial plan, increase knowledge, monitor customer satisfaction with the quality of services. In addition, it helps to comply with standards and regulations, contributes to the fact that people think about improving the technology of their work.

An analysis of the work of the managers motivation scheme for 10 months showed

Project managers almost always get financial bonuses and feel a return on their own invested efforts. They are more willing to serve new customers to increase the proportion of their personal participation, and, consequently, the size of the premium. They understand well: the more the staff is, the less will be the share of their personal bonus fund. In general, for the company such a scheme stabilizes the client base, allows you to carry out financial plans, optimize the number of managers and the burden on them.



KPI for technical and financial specialists is formed on the basis of 6 components:

• the implementation of the overall financial plan of the department;
• availability of successfully passed qualifying examinations;
• compliance with work regulations;
• the percentage of loss "dumps" of the customer base;
• personal contribution to innovative work technologies;
• Specialists who have achieved a certain qualification and have passed the required set of exams are allowed to participate in the awards.

The award of a technical or financial specialist is calculated according to the scheme:

Potential specialist bonus = total specialist bonus * personal participation rate.

The final size of the specialist award depends on the percentage of the overall financial plan of the department:

Percentage of the total plan for the month	Premium in% of potential
Less than 90% of the plan	premium is not paid
90.00–99.99% of the plan	60%
100.00–109.99% of the plan	100%
110.00% or more of the delivered plan	120%

The specialist may receive additional bonuses for clear compliance with the regulations for the conduct of work, the introduction of new technologies and working methods, and an increased load during vacation or hospital periods.

Reducing the premium of a specialist is possible if there are violations in the rules of conducting work or for personal comments from account managers and team leaders. The specialist may be completely deprived of the award at the reasonable request of the team leader, for not passing the qualifying exams.

Such a scheme helps professionals work more effectively on the overall financial plan of the department, improve their own professional knowledge, strive to introduce new and improve current technologies, and comply with the work regulations.

Analysis of the work of the motivation scheme of specialists for 10 months showed

Although specialists do not work directly with clients, they feel the value of their contribution to the overall plan, so they try to close the tasks assigned to them as fully as possible, which is ultimately beneficial for the company.

RESULTS

What gave the introduction of an additional motivation scheme for the Internet marketing department for the first 10 months?

1. The aggregate financial income of efficient and qualified employees has increased, which has increased their loyalty to the company.
2. It was possible to reduce the turnover of the client base by 15% and accelerate its growth rates.
3. Increased overall customer satisfaction with quality services.
4. Stabilized the curve of the financial plan of the department.
5. It turned out to optimize the staff, because they clearly understand: the increase in staff reduces the burden on each of them, but also reduces the size of their personal bonuses.
6. It was possible to give a general vector of achievement of goals for all groups, to eliminate competition between them for customers and resources.
   

Vasily Churanov and WebCanape team