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The current 'credit crunch' has got business owners across the country looking for ways to motivate their employees into going 'above and beyond the call of duty'. In hard times we all have to work harder, and business owners know that in order to survive unscathed this year they're going to have to knuckle down. Sometimes this means making cutbacks in outgoings i.e. redundancies, but sometimes employers would prefer to motivate their staff in order to make sure business grows despite the slowdown.

One way to motivate employees is to implement a reward scheme. The idea is that good work gets you a financial reward and in these economic times employees will be happy with the potential for extra money on their payslip. A reward scheme also has the knock-on effect of acting as a measuring-stick. If an employee consistently doesn't get any rewards, either they really don't care about the money (maybe they just want an easy life!) or they're not working as hard as everyone else. Reward schemes set goals by which to get rewards and a clever employer will also make these goals a part of an employee's personal development. That way the employee has to aim for them or risk failure.

The funny thing is that reward schemes have actually been blamed for the situation we now find ourselves in. City workers after all were offered rewards for making money on certain trades, which is why they all got so rich so quickly. These short-term goals, i.e. getting the reward, took the emphasis away from (it turns out) more important long-term goals, i.e. not ruining the economy. Reward schemes have engendered a culture of risk-taking that unsurprisingly couldn't last. This is a warning to everyone; employees will be happy to aim for any extra money that's offered to them, and it's up to the company to make sure these aims are correct.

Whilst it's unlikely that reward schemes within your company could have effects on a similar, global scale, the fact remains that you, like the banks, will have to plan your measurements carefully to focus on the right goals. This is where HR comes in - human resource professionals understand what motivates employees and also what direction businesses should take when it comes to employee relations. An HR consultant can help you to plan and implement your reward scheme so you don't lose sight of the end goal. They'll also cover things like what to do if it turns out your employees are abusing the system which is an unsavory but most possible outcome of any scheme were money is involved.

If the big banks had planned their reward schemes properly and not focussed on such short-term aims, it could be that we wouldn't find ourselves in this mess. HR will help you to find the right goals - even if these are long-term they'll ultimately be sustainable for your business. Sometimes it's easier to let an outside agency help - they can take an objective view of your situation and give impartial advice. They focus on what's necessary, not what's easily achievable.

Sylvia Kittens lives in Harrogate, England

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