The Omission of Commissions
A story is told about Don Drysdale the famous pitcher for the Los Angles Dodgers. One year the Dodgers offered Mr. Drysdale a bonus if he kept the amount of walks under a certain number for the year. Management desired to keep the number of opponent base runners to a minimum. It seemed like a good idea to offer a bonus on limiting the number of free passes to first base.
As the story goes, on occasion when he had a three ball no strike count, facing the fact that one more ball and the batter would walk hurting his chances of receiving the bonus, he would throw AT the batter. If he hit the batter, they would reach first base on a hit batter charge, not a walk. A hit batsman did not count in his contract, only walks.
Don Drysdale received his bonus that year, and the Dodgers learned to be more careful in establishing what they want to accomplish in setting their bonuses.
Many retail jewelers have felt the same disappointment as the Dodger management. Wanting to generate more work out of their shop, they put their jewelers on commission or other incentive program. However, what they found is the quality of work dropped as the jeweler hurried to finish more work. In addition, large time-consuming jobs lay around the shop unfinished as quicker jobs are finished earning the jeweler more money.
Yes, putting jewelers on commission can have its benefits, and many jewelry stores have found it advantageous to do so. However, doing so may create problems for many stores.
First, it puts all the responsibility of increasing productivity on the jeweler. Granted, there are those jewelers who need this motivation to get work done in a reasonable amount of time. However, there are many issues that influence productivity that are beyond the control of most bench jewelers. These include take-in procedures, shop design, job information control, interruptions, lack of equipment, work conditions, etc.
The front-end of many stores are so disorganized that it is impossible to run a productive shop. For management to put their jeweler on commission in these circumstances is irresponsible.
In addition, many jewelers do not know how to be productive. They are not taught in school how to schedule jobs and organize work to be more productive. To put them on commission and make it their problem without providing training is also irresponsible.
Before management puts any jeweler on commission, they need to take a long hard look at these issues and make necessary changes. You need a store with the front-end set up efficiently before you can expect jewelers to function under a commission system.
Ommission of Commission continued