Every year, One Acre Fund strives to improve the core program model that we offer to farmers. This upcoming year, we will be focusing on two goals: increasing client density, and increasing the average transaction size per client. Achieving these goals will bring clear benefits to our farmers. Increased client density means that a higher percentage of each community is benefiting from our program. More farmers will see increases in food production, which raises the overall food security of a community. Larger transaction sizes and new products will provide additional income increases to our farmers.

Increasing client density and average transaction size will also help One Acre Fund move toward financial sustainability (see this blog post for an in-depth discussion of the key factors affecting financial sustainability).

But we will only meet our core program goals if our field staff can execute these changes on the ground. To motivate our staff and align their personal goals with One Acre Fund’s organizational goals, we are rolling out a new compensation structure.

This new structure will compensate field staff based on the total credit amount that they are managing—the overall size of their “loan portfolio.” This will allow us to recognize the additional work that they are doing as well as the positive impact they are having on financial sustainability.

As in any incentive scheme, achievable yet ambitious targets are an important component in our new bonus structure. We have developed a field officer ranking system, from “1 star” to “5 star,” based on the total credit amount managed by that officer. Field officers will be given a “star target” based on the “age” of the site they are working in (i.e. a brand-new site will have different enrollment targets than a third-year site).

Once the enrollment period is complete, field officers will be assigned a field officer rank based on their total credit amount, and their performance-based compensation will kick in. Currently, most of our field officers in Kenya serve roughly 100 clients. We have made next season’s targets aggressive, because we believe that as our program improves, our staff will be able to handle well over 200 clients and much larger credit amounts.

The new system gives performance-based bonuses around two key areas of our operations: total credit under management, and repayment. The bonuses will be divided as follows:

• Enrollment bonus – Field officers will receive a bonus based on the total credit amount they are managing.
• Monthly bonus and airtime increment – Each month throughout the season, field officers will receive a bonus on top of their base salary, as well as an increase in their airtime allowance, to provide ongoing recognition of the work they are doing. This bonus is also tied to total credit under management. We are giving monthly bonuses instead of a permanent raise so that compensation is always tied to credit under management, which could fluctuate from season to season.
• Repayment bonus – Field officers can earn up to 1 percent of their total credit amount as a repayment bonus, assuming they reach 100 percent repayment (which almost all of our field officers do).

Top-performing field officers stand to benefit greatly from this new system. A 2-star field officer – the target we are setting for all returning staff members – can earn 500 to 700 percent of their monthly salary in bonuses throughout the year! This may seem like a lot, but this incentive structure accurately reflects the additional value that field staff will be creating for our farmers and our organization.

One Acre Fund aims to reach over 50,000 farmers in 2011, and over 85,000 farmers in 2012. Our new compensation scheme will help us meet these targets, as well as propel us to serve 1 million farmers by 2020.

One Acre Fund wants to reach as many needy farmers as we can, as quickly as possible. Our current districts in Western Kenya are each serving between 3,000 and 4,000 clients this season. At the top of each district, we have one extremely dedicated, highly competent leader – the field director. Field directors are the engines of growth within One Acre Fund, pushing the organization to reach even the most ambitious goals season after season.

Our field directors have set aggressive growth targets for the coming season. Our biggest district will aim to reach more than 7,000 clients. Yet field directors already manage on average thirty-three field officers and six field managers. Growing a district staff to fifty field officers and eight field managers necessitates some additional management support to maintain the quality of our services.

In preparation for rapid growth, this season we have developed a new role with our field operations – the assistant field director. In Kakamega, our largest district, we promoted one of our top field managers – Joan Lihru – to the assistant field director position in January.  She has thus far done an amazing job helping to define this important role. Joan joins the Kakamega field director and fellow Egerton University alum Daniel Okongo as a leader of Kakamega District.

Based on this first experiment, we have so far identified three critical roles filled by the assistant field director:

• Field presence and supervision: With 35 field officers per district and more on the way, there is a lot of ground to cover in the field. The assistant field director gives the district another set of highly trained eyes to observe key field activities, to monitor staff, and to capture best practices to improve our program.
• Mentorship of Field Managers: A growing management team needs additional mentorship, and the assistant field director helps fill this role by taking primary ownership over mentorship of half of field managers.
• Planning and logistics: As the district grows, planning and logistics become even more critical to a smooth operation. The field director and assistant field director meet twice weekly to discuss field progress, and to make plans for upcoming field activities.

Within a few short weeks under Daniel’s guidance, Joan was able to independently manage her new mentorship and training responsibilities. Not only has Joan benefited from Daniel’s experience and perspective, but the process of training a high-level manager at the district level has also helped to develop Daniel’s leadership skills.

Aside from helping a district to handle the challenges of rapid scale-up, the assistant field director position serves another very critical strategic purpose. In the next few years, we will grow our service territory in Kenya by opening up new districts and even new regions. These districts will need strong leaders like Daniel and Joan to build a new team, to start a new operation, and to instill their nuanced understanding of the One Acre Fund model and organizational culture. The assistant field director role is a valuable opportunity to rapidly develop future leaders of One Acre Fund. If the experience thus far with Joan is any indication, we can look forward to a fast-growing team of excellent leaders, helping to expand the reach of One Acre Fund to smallholder farmers across East Africa.