Quote from CaptainObvious:
What I've seen work is incentivised, merit pay type structures. The dead beats leave this type of organization rather quickly and you're left with good hard workers. One caveat. These workers must be rewarded. You must actually provide clear path of advancement opportunites for them. If it's only lip service the good help will take their skills down the road. It should also go without saying that you must stay on the cutting edge of whatever technology is pertinent to your business.
Agree, but my experience is that when we have proper incentives, most flock to that. A long time ago, one of my companies made a single product. We had a union, but we also gave them the option to be paid by number of units manufactured per shift. Well, they dumped the union and went on to make a hell of a lot more product. With several teams, not just individuals. Nice.