Employees should be paid on results

Imagine government department staff no longer on salaries but target driven and paid on results.

You need a pardon renewed or UK driving licence replaced? No problem. One call, an appointment made, followed by a visit to your home. The paperwork is helpfully completed and prompt delivery assured.

You need to acquire an NIE or residency, register with Social Security or apply for a business licence? No need to cross fingers as each document is analysed for the slightest excuse to reject it. The clerk is paid on completions so obligingly helps you through it all.

It may seem fanciful but the pay of millions of non-salaried workers is based on performance and results; an environment I worked in for more than 30 years. No salary, commission only. If I failed, I starved.

As a sales manager I refused to interview job applicants from certain careers. Government employees were definitely excluded. Experience had shown that some are unable to function effectively in a performance-related competitive environment.

The worst thing that ever happened to Europe’s work ethic was transfer of payment from results to wages. Working in both sectors I realised that those who gravitate towards safe, salaried posts tend towards sloth; driven, ambitious achievers write their own pay cheques.

Effort, cost effectiveness and results are much higher in the private sector than in the public sector. Official figures show that public sector workers are 63 per cent more likely to take a ‘sickie’ than are private sector workers. The self-employed just shrug illness off.

Self-employed staff tend to be optimistic, customer-friendly achievers. The dispirited ‘hard done by’ are those whose income is guaranteed regardless of their performance. A safe, salaried job is a curse on society. Robbery by indolence, it fails to bring contentment or a sense of achievement to those ensnared.

As an employer you might find that gradually reducing wages and switching to a system of performance-related earnings pays dividends. Bonuses and incentives fuel employee motivation and efficiency, reduce staff absence and increase profitability.