Holy Cow! & Also advice needed

[DFW Area Landscaper]

Wow! I'm beyond belief. Stunned is more like it.

I posted a job offering on Craigslist that reads:

+++Need one person with typing skills to perform data entry for small business. Accuracy is critical. Hours are Monday - Friday, 6:30PM until finished...should take about 2.5 hours per evening. Pay is $200 per week plus a quality/completion bonus of up to $20 per week paid annually in November. Office is a home based business.++++

I have more resumes than I can count. Literally. Within the first 45 minutes I had 14 applicants. Just woke up this morning, checked e-mail, and there are WAY more applicants than I could possibly count. I'm guessing 150 people have applied for this work in under 24 hours.

Amazing.

So I'm interviewing 6 people for this job today, Sunday, and figure I'll make a selection today.

Ok, so, now for some advice. I have a lady who does this work for me, who needs to be let go. She has been great about not calling in sick or "I can't make it tonight" but she just makes too many errors. I'm done spending my time cleaning up her mistakes. This job is just too easy.

Anyway, my goals for the new hire are a.) non-smoker b.) I don't EVER want to get the call that says "I can't make it tonight" and just as I'm heading out to a Ranger's game I learn that I have a 2.5 hour chore dumped in my lap and c.) I don't want to deal with training a new person again this season.

So this is what I dreamed up: week one, the new hire doesn't phone in sick, the season completion bonus is $20, payable after we finish the lawn mowing season. Week two, the bonus is $21. Week three, the bonus is $22. Week four, the bonus is $24.

If the employee goes the entire season without skipping a day, by week 31, the bonus is $51.

However, if the employee calls in sick just once, the bonus is re-set to $20 for the next week.

It would look like this:

Week 1 $20 (perfect attendence) YTD $20
Week 2 $21 (perfect attendence) YTD $41
Week 3 $22 (perfect attendence) YTD $63
Week 4 $23 (perfect attendence) YTD $86
Week 5 $24 (perfect attendence) YTD $110
Week 6 $25 (perfect attendence) YTD $135
Week 7 $26 (perfect attendence) YTD $161
Week 8 $27 (perfect attendence) YTD $188
Week 9 $28 (perfect attendence) YTD $216
Week 10 $29 (perfect attendence) YTD $245
Week 11 $30 (perfect attendence) YTD $275
Week 12 $0 (called in sick) YTD $275
Week 13 $20 (perfect attendence) YTD $295

You see, one phone call to skip a day, and the weekly year end bonus drops from $30 per week back to $20 and the whole thing starts over. In fact, I was thinking of keeping ALL the extra $1 premiums that accumulate over the season if the employee calls in sick just one time, such that it would look like this:

Week 1 $20 (perfect attendence) YTD $20 + $0
Week 2 $20 (perfect attendence) YTD $40 + $1
Week 3 $20 (perfect attendence) YTD $60 + $3
Week 4 $20 (perfect attendence) YTD $80 + $6
Week 5 $20 (perfect attendence) YTD $100 + $10
Week 6 $20 (perfect attendence) YTD $120 + $15
Week 7 $20 (perfect attendence) YTD $140 + $21
Week 8 $20 (perfect attendence) YTD $160 + $28
Week 9 $20 (perfect attendence) YTD $180 + $36
Week 10 $20 (perfect attendence) YTD $190 + $45
Week 11 $20 (perfect attendence) YTD $200 + $55
Week 12 $0 (called in sick) YTD $200 +$0
Week 13 $20 (perfect attendence) YTD $220 + $0

And if the employee quits mid-season, they forfeit the entire bonus.

What do you guys think?

[HOOLIE]

I think more people need work than most Lawnsite guys want to believe, which should bode well for anybody needing to hire this year.

That's not a bad incentive to keep people from calling in 'sick', they might try a little harder to keep the bonus level up.

Is this something where the person could work from home?

[DFW Area Landscaper]

Nope, it's gotta be done at my house each night.

One of my former customers sent a resume. Doesn't that seem ironic?

[BCarlson]

Sounds like a good incentive. I like it, I was going myself for team members of a yearly bonus to be determined at the end of the season and then paid before xmas. As for making mistakes and fixing them, Billing and paperwork on? My wife was working for a trucking company that they're billing and fuel logs when she had me take a look at it to help her at home I was WTF. Billing was due on the 5th but employees at another office would be adding to it on the 4th, when it should have been all entered on the 1st. Company pays for quickbooks but does all of it on excel.

[DFW Area Landscaper]

In just over 24 hours, I got 166 applications! I interviewed 6 people and finally found a girl who seems really smart and has Quickbooks experience. As long as her attendance is good, I have high expectations.

[THC]

I wonder if this will work with labour.

btw, I don't like the bonus system there. I think it would cause resentment if she really had to skip work. It happens.

[TXNSLighting]

It is going to be so very easy to find employees this year. I posted a craigslist ad for a sales person, and had well over 30 people applying. Good luck with everything this year.

[albhb3]

Is she hot???

[IMAGE]

If you delete the entire 1+ bonus for missing one time... then after they miss that one time, they have NO REASON not to miss again. reset it, and allow it to start accumulating again, so they still have a reason to come after the first missed shift.

[cg1]

DFW - what is this person doing for you and why does it need to be done at 6:30pm?

[THC]

DFW - what is this person doing for you and why does it need to be done at 6:30pm?

He grabbed his business plan from Just Mowing so that person would be entering info into quickbooks, they bill the day after the mow. They bill one mow at a time.

[MarkintheGarden]

DFW. I think incentive programs are great and I know how important reliability is, but, If the incentive to not call in sick is too high, then sick people will go to work and make other people sick. And in your case, you will be obligated to pay the bonus even though the employee gave you the flu.