The Great Game of Business Blog

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6 Benefits of Having an Employee Bonus Program

There is no more powerful tool a manager can have than a good bonus program. If a bonus program works, it can be an incredible motivator. It can get people producing at levels that make the cost of the program seem like peanuts, no matter how much you may have spent to set it up.
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Is Your Bonus Program Sabotaging the Health of Your Business?

Dec 21, 2022 by Steve Baker, VP 0 Comments
In an effort to motivate and reward employees, companies often mistakenly develop bonus and reward programs that ultimately sabotage the overall health of their business. While rewarding employees is valuable, you must consider the backlash of a poorly-designed incentive plan. In the end, every bonus program should be built on a solid foundation that ensures the long-term financial security of the business first. Let’s look at three steps you can take to ensure your employee bonus program is not sabotaging the health of your business:
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What Makes Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For so Great?

Each year, Fortune partners with the Great Place to Work Institute to survey employees at hundreds of corporate America’s top firms to determine which companies will be named as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. The most recent list, released in 2022, included Great Game Hall of Fame winner, Hilcorp Energy.
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Learn From My Mistakes: Why Caregivers Need To Embrace Financial Literacy

Sep 28, 2021 by Dr. Ray Tuck, DC 0 Comments
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The Building Blocks of an Effective Bonus Plan

If you’ve watched the movie National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, you probably remember the failed “Jelly of the Month” bonus program. Picture Clarke W. Griswold daydreaming about the pool he couldn’t afford, based on a bonus he was simply expecting to get. Did the bonus make him work harder? Did it make him feel good about his job? Feel more connected to the goals of the company? No way! The bonus was seen as an entitlement; it was not intended to motivate behavior in any way. Most bonus systems for employees are disappointing because they’re a mystery, they’re unpredictable and they’re never, ever enough. So what can you do? In this article, we'll share the building blocks of an effective bonus plan. There’s no more powerful way to engage, motivate and involve people in their everyday work, their own goals, and the goals of the organization. Here are the steps you need to take in order for your bonus plan to be most effective:
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3 Things You Need to Design into Your Bonus Plan

Dec 30, 2019 by Steve Baker 1 Comment
Yup. It’s that time of year. We gather the family for the holidays, light the fire and watch Christmas Vacation. And it’s hilarious…until you remember that you still haven’t finalized your company’s bonus plan for the New Year. Yikes! You don’t want to end up like Frank Shirley (Clark W. Griswold’s boss), do you? As you design your organization’s bonus plan for the New Year, I want you to keep in mind a few things about designing what we call a Stake in the Outcome®. For those who play the Great Game of Business®, providing a Stake in the Outcome is one of the most important parts (and least understood practices) of the entire business operating system. And it goes way beyond the bonus!
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Our 10-Step Approach to GGOB Implementation

In more than 35 years practicing The Great Game of Business® at SRC, as well as three decades helping thousands of companies implement The Game in their own companies, we have determined the fastest, most efficient and most reliable path to Rapid Financial Results and Lasting Cultural Change™ follows a set process. We honed and developed the 10-Step Approach to GGOB Implementation to guide companies implementing The Great Game of Business in their organizations.
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7 Best Practices to Take Your Bonus Plan Up a Notch

Jul 10, 2019 by Bill Collier 0 Comments
Did you have a bonus plan in place last year? If so, was it effective? How is this year’s plan working out? If you have a good year and want to share some of the fruits of your labor with your team, great, but to do so without a well-planned and executed bonus plan is a wasted opportunity. So, here’s a list of best bonus and incentive practices to help you get the most bang for your bonus bucks.
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Kiolbassa Uses Core Values to Celebrate First Quarter Bonuses

Kiolbassa Smoked Meats, 2014 Great Game Rookie of the Year and subsequent All-Star Finalist, celebrated achieving their first quarter employee bonus in a unique way. Instead of shaking hands and handing out bonus checks, President Michael Kiolbassa decided to send videos to the entire team during "Bonus Week" to show his appreciation for their hard work. In addition, Mike wanted to emphasize the company’s core values and how he saw those values in action as an instrumental factor to hitting the bonus.
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Catering Company Survives Tough Times by Teaching Employees to Think Like Owners

Tasty Catering began as a fast-food hot dog stand called Tasty Dawg more than 25 years ago. Founded by a trio of entrepreneurial brothers, Tom, Larry and Kevin Walter, the company, which is based in the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village, Illinois, now serves up tasty treats at weddings, corporate meetings and conferences, social events, residential parties, special events, holiday parties, outdoor picnics, and more. Beyond its great food, Tasty has also garnered dozens of awards for its outstanding company culture.
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About The Great Game of Business

Our approach to running a company was developed to help close one of the biggest gaps in business: the gap between managers and employees. We call our open-book approach The Great Game of Business. What lies at the heart of The Game is a very simple proposition: The best, most efficient, most profitable way to operate a business is to give everybody in the company a voice in saying how the company is run and a stake in the outcome. Let us teach you how to develop a culture of ownership, where employees think, act and feel like owners.