Motivating Sales Staff: A Study of Johor Insurance Incentives

This report analyzes the incentive structure for sales staff at Johor Insurance, focusing on the need for a comprehensive incentive plan to address issues like low productivity and employee burnout. The report proposes a detailed incentive scheme with financial elements, including salary structures for different sales staff positions (phone sales, team leaders, shift managers) tied to performance metrics. It also suggests non-financial incentives such as flexible working hours and paid trips. The analysis emphasizes the importance of aligning with Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) and National Wages Council (NWC) guidelines to improve the company's image and attract employees. The report highlights the significance of training and development to adapt to market dynamics, providing a holistic approach to improve employee motivation and performance.

Running head: INCENTIVES OF SALES STAFF MEMBERS AT JOHOR INSURANCE
Incentives of Sales Staff Members at Johor Insurance
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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INCENTIVES OF SALES STAFF MEMBERS AT JOHOR INSURANCE
Answer 9:
The position selected for the incentive at Johor Insurance would be sales staff members.
The case study clearly mentions that the the sales staffs are divided into phone sales staff
members, shift managers, team leaders, and reselling team. The case study also mentions that the
sales staffs work from seven in the morning to ten pm at night. This means that the sales staffs
were overexploited by the insurance company and did not receive any incentive. Their target and
salary are also not mentioned1. The insurance company management should form an incentive
system to motivate the sales staffs to perform higher. The following are the components of the
incentive scheme of the sales staffs:
Parties to the incentive plan:
190 phones sales and policy renewal staff.
12 sales team leaders.
8 shift managers.
20 shat sales staffs.
2 chat sales team leaders.
9 reselling team members.
Incentive plan:
The first requirement of an incentive plan is the basic salary and the key performance
indicators which every staff members have to achieve. The case study does not provide any
1 Cerasoli, Christopher P., Jessica M. Nicklin, and Michael T. Ford. "Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic incentives
jointly predict performance: A 40-year meta-analysis." Psychological bulletin 140, no. 4 (2014): 980.

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INCENTIVES OF SALES STAFF MEMBERS AT JOHOR INSURANCE
information on the basic pays or performance parameters of the sales. It is assumed that the sales
phones sales staff members get the minimum salary of $3600 a month2. The phones sales staffs
report to the 12 team leaders who in turn report to the 8 shift managers. It has been assumed that
the monthly basic salary of each of the team leaders is 10 percent more than the sales personnel
and the salary of the shift managers is 10 percent more than the team leaders.
The case study does not mention the KPI and hence it can be assumed that the incentive
plan would be in parity with the KPI. For example, the Staff members would get 10 percent more
of their basic salary as incentive if they achieve 10 percent more on their target. The data has
been shown in the table below:
2 "Employment Pass Salary Criteria To Increase In 2017". 2018. Gov.Sg.
https://www.gov.sg/factually/content/employment-pass-salary-criteria-to-increase-in-2017.

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INCENTIVES OF SALES STAFF MEMBERS AT JOHOR INSURANCE
Per staff per
month salary
($)
No of
staffs
Total
salary
basic
($)
Incentive
($)
Bsic
+Incentive
(monthly
in $)
Yearly ($)
Sales staffs 3600 190 684000 68400 752400 9028800
Team leaders 3960 12 47520 4752 52272 627264
Shift
managers
4356 8 34848 3484.8 38332.8 459993.6
Total CTC 10116058
The above table shows the incentive structure and the total cost to the company. The
incentive structure should contain financial and non-financial elements. The financial elements
as shown above should be limited to incentives on the basic salary. The case study mentions that
the sales staffs work foe long hours which should be curtailed to prevent burnout. The apex
management should incorporate systems like flexible timings and work from home to all the
sales staff and upwards. The incentive structure can also include paid trips to exotic locales for
the sales on attainment of a certain targets3. However, the extent of paid trips should also be
equivalent to the posts. For example, for a sales staff, the insurance company can provide 50
percent of the trip expenditure while for a manager the reimbursement can be 100 percent. These
incentives would motivate the sales team executives, their team leaders and their managers to
3 National Wages Council (NWC) Guidelines 2017/2018". 2018. Ministry Of Manpower Singapore.
http://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/press-releases/2017/0531-nwc-guidelines-2017-2018.

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INCENTIVES OF SALES STAFF MEMBERS AT JOHOR INSURANCE
work hard to earn more financial incentives. The differential incentives would also encourage the
sales executives to work harder to appraisal to gain promotion to higher posts to get the
incentives4.
Answer 10:
Johor Insurance should stay with Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment
Practices (TAFEP) and NWC (National Minimum Wage). The company can derive certain
advantage by staying with these two bodies. The case study clearly mentions that the Johor
Insurance suffered from employee practice issues like low attendance and certain sections of the
employees were suffering from very low productivity. This analysis showed that the company
should remain with bodies like TAFEP and emphasize on developing human resource planning.
Remaining with TAFEP would enable the company to create a strong image of itself among the
stakeholders like investors, employees, labour unions and the society5. This strong image would
enable the company attract more employees from the competitor companies. Moreover, the
company must concentrate on training its employees to adapt to the dynamic environmental
conditions in the insurance market. Remaining with the TAFEP and NWC would enable Johor
Insurance gain stronger support of the labour unions and the government. Thus, staying with
these two bodies would enable the company create stronger image of itself in the market and
among the stakeholders6.
4 Cascio, Wayne. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education, 2018.
5 Saeidi, Sayedeh Parastoo, Saudah Sofian, Parvaneh Saeidi, Sayyedeh Parisa Saeidi, and Seyyed Alireza Saaeidi.
"How does corporate social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of
competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction." Journal of Business Research 68, no. 2 (2015): 341-
350.
6 Koh, Ping‐Sheng, Cuili Qian, and Heli Wang. "Firm litigation risk and the insurance value of corporate social
performance." Strategic Management Journal 35, no. 10 (2014): 1464-1482.

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INCENTIVES OF SALES STAFF MEMBERS AT JOHOR INSURANCE