Management Bonus Plans That Work

This is a story about Frank. He was one of three managers of a popular full-service, casual-theme suburban restaurant. He worked his schedule, fulfilled his responsibilities and on the 20th day of the month received a bonus for his previous month's efforts.

This went along for more than a year, over which time he received about the same bonus, on the same day each month for the same work. Then, like a light switch turning on it happened: Frank peaked. He didn't work any harder, didn't do anything extra, didn't make any suggestions for improvement or help out if needed. Frank was just there, simply going through the motions, putting in his time doing the basic daily shift duties. Soon, things began to slip. It was little things at first, but then it worsened and became quite obvious that Frank had lost his incentive to provide top performance.

This shouldn't happen right? After all, he was getting paid a competitive salary for his time and earning a bonus for his work every month. This was the first time I came face to face with this situation because this was my restaurant and Frank was one of my managers.

"What is wrong with him?" was my first thought. He should want to work harder, grow to become a better manager, and look to do the little things that may be needed without being told, because that is why he was getting a bonus. I knew I was right to expect this. After all, I know that a bonus is supposed to create an "incentive." So where did I go wrong?