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I have a very simple bonus program that seems to work for us.
Each employee starts with a certain amount in the "bonus bank" for the month. This amount is different for foreman vs. laborers. Throughout the course of the month, deductions are made from the bank based on a defined set of "rules." Be to work on time... off the lot by a certain time... leaving tools at the shop... return calls... customer complaints... etc. I post the deductions along with the reasons on a board in the office. Each deduction carries a certain amount (except for losing a tool or destroying something which gets deducted at cost). What's left at the end of the month is their bonus.
This is not perfect and I know the objections of "why give people a bonus for doing their job right?" but I can tell you that it seems to get the guys thinking about what they need to do. For instance... I had one guy who's a hell of a worker but was consistently 15 minutes late. Once that was going to cost him $10 a day, he hasn't been late one time. All the foreman now really pay attention to end of day cleanup at the shop, etc.
In addition to that, I'm a firm believer that frequent praise and random small tokens of appreciation, nothing formulaic, adds a lot to an employee's positive attitude about their job. I try to stick to the "say 10 positive things for every 1 negative" method of management and my employees seem to appreciate that.
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Jesse
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