Page 163 - Paulisms: Gold Nuggets for Small Business

Paulism: Don’t train by ‘Sitting next to Nellie’ and ensure you have written systems to provide reference, cut down on mistakes and speed up the training process.
6.3 Pay rises and doing your job right
I was always of the view that you need to be vigilant on rewarding employees. I used to say at interview time: ‘If you come to me asking for a pay rise, either you are not doing your job right or I am not.’
In summary, we have to be conscious of how much someone is worth. If you are not, they could start looking around for other opportunities. For this reason, I normally got in before they asked. It is very important in a company’s culture that you pay people at market or above and they know you are looking after them. I never had much luck with bonus schemes and often they caused more disruption than good. Better to simply just pay well and give the odd treat such as a trip away.
On the odd time when people did ask, and I didn’t think they were ready or deserved a pay rise, I would put it back on them by asking what they were going to do for the company to justify an increase. There were a few blank faces but sometimes I would backdate the increase to the date of that conversation if they met improved performance.