I like what they did at one company I worked for. That is, they picked out one employee each week(or month) and said they were the best in whatever they happened to be great at. Then the next week they picked someone else out, and then another employee until they went through everyone. In that way, everyone was rewarded and everyone realized that each person contributes. In this case they gave out movie passes, which can be had cheapy when bought in bulk. But it could be something else like seats to the corporate box office or whatever. By awarding these prizes it reminded the employees what helps the company makes money, and thus help all the employees.
The problem that develops when you try to reward all the employees by setting a goal of 80% billing or whatever, it tends to drive the wrong behavior. If a technician doesn't get to bill because of the territory that he covers, then he or she becomes disgruntled, and their spouse demands a transfer to they can pay for the kids college or buck teeth.
I've seen it so many times where employees will hurt the customer by trying to get some metric to look better.
It happens to me every time I call into a call center. I worked in a call center for over 10 years and I can tell you point after point every time I call in how my time is wasted because of metrics that the agents are 'beat with'.
If you give bonuses based on how the company did for the year if can backfire when you have a great group of employees that work very hard, but then you have a bad year due to a hurricane, the economy, or a new competitor. And the employees get no bonus even though they worked harder than ever. Why should they be punished?
