Hourly Worker Incentives: How Michael Fortinberry Uses Performance Pay to Change Behavior

Our Guest

Michael Fortinberry

Michael Fortinberry is the Founder of Protiv, a platform helping service and trade businesses modernize performance pay for hourly workers through simple, transparent, and frequent incentive structures. From growing up with construction roots to serving 10 years in the U.S. Army and leading in the multifamily/tech world, Michael now helps contractors unlock productivity, improve quality, and build culture by aligning labor budgets with team incentives.

Episode Summary

Hourly worker incentives are one of the most misunderstood—and most powerful—levers for improving productivity, quality, and accountability in service and trade businesses. In Episode 172 of Business Superfans®, Michael Fortinberry, Founder of Protiv, breaks down how the right performance pay system can fundamentally change behavior on hourly teams.

Most companies pay by the hour, unintentionally rewarding time instead of results. Michael explains why this model stalls productivity and how transparent, simple, and frequent hourly worker incentives realign teams around winning together. By turning the labor budget into a visible scoreboard, crews begin holding themselves—and management—accountable. The result is better output, stronger culture, and improved margins without adding headcount.

If you lead hourly employees in construction, trades, or field services, this episode delivers a practical playbook for building incentives that actually work.

Timestamps (Chapter Markers)

  • [00:00] Introduction — Performance pay for hourly workers & the crew motivation gap

  • [02:28] New York skyline = the messy reality of building a business

  • [04:07] Michael’s construction roots + why incentives became the mission

  • [05:20] The core problem: hourly pay optimizes for hours, not outcomes

  • [11:00] The “simple, transparent, frequent” bonus rule for behavior change

  • [14:17] The culture shift: team accountability + management pressure (alignment test)

  • [18:52] Recognition cadence: praise within 5 days or morale degrades

  • [26:51] How Protiv works: integrate budgets + time tracking → ProPay scoreboards

  • [34:16] Case study: +7% to bottom line with disciplined implementation

  • [39:49] Gamification: rankings, badges, and public wins to keep momentum

  • [44:35] Connect with Michael + Protiv

Guest Offer

Contractors and home service companies might be intersted in Protiv, our performance pay software. https://www.protiv.com

Takeaways

  • Hourly worker incentives must reward outcomes, not time — otherwise behavior will always drift toward inefficiency

  • Performance pay works best when it’s simple, transparent, and frequent

  • Turning labor budgets into “their money” changes how crews treat quality and rework

  • The best incentive programs create peer accountability—not micromanagement

  • Hourly teams need basic financial literacy for incentives to stick

  • Behavior changes faster with a visible scoreboard than with verbal expectations

  • Strong hourly worker incentives improve culture, not just productivity

“The minute you get them to view the labor budget as their own money, that’s when they treat it different.” Michael Fortinberry

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Freddy D's Take

This episode is a championship film review for any owner running hourly crews. Michael’s core move is classic: put a scoreboard where everyone can see it—and pay out when the team wins. In sports, you don’t tell the team, “Just play hard.” You track points, clock, and execution. Protiv’s ProPay turns the labor budget into a live game plan: budget vs. actual, progress tracking, and a clear bonus forecast.

The real power is ecosystem momentum: when your people win, they become internal Business Superfans®—promoting the company, recruiting talent, and defending the standard on the field. And that’s exactly the type of strategy I help clients implement through my SUPERFANS Framework™ in Prosperity Pathway coaching within the Superfans Growth Hub.

If you’re stuck working in the business, join the community that helps you work on it. EP Hub is free:

One Action

The Action:

Launch a “Friday Scoreboard Incentive” pilot as a Hourly Worker Incentive for one crew over the next 30 days.

Who: Your crew lead + hourly field team

Why: Because hourly worker incentives work best when crews can clearly see how daily behavior impacts pay—and when rewards are fast, visible, and fair.

How:

  • Pick one repeatable job type or project phase with a clean, predictable labor budget.

  • Set a clear labor target tied to performance pay so the crew knows exactly what winning looks like.

  • Share progress weekly with the crew using a simple scoreboard (budget vs. actual).

  • Pay bonuses quickly and publicly—recognition, a board update, or a “big check” moment to lock in the behavior.

When hourly workers can see how their behavior impacts their pay, effort follows clarity—and culture starts playing offense. 🏆

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