With US unemployment low and top-performing employees highly mobile due to this factor, employers need all the help they can get when strategizing around retention. All the tools in your toolbox are needed in a climate like this, so this post is about the many ways travel incentives make employees produce better results.
Employees who produce better results are icons, representing the success of your corporate culture. They’re also the people most likely to stick around when they’re treated well.
Let’s look at how travel incentives can improve motivation, inspiration, and results.
Everyone loves a trip to a place they’ve never been. And when that trip is a travel incentive offered to your employees for a job well done, or for having returned the top sales figures, it’s highly desired.
A trip as a reward creates a vacation that the employer pays for, recognizing the successful employee’s efforts toward obtaining it. Who doesn’t want that?
Having a travel incentive program in place, allows HR professionals to point to the program as a benefit, attracting great talent. And word gets out about companies with cultures that encourage high-performing employees this way.
Those are companies that highly skilled, rock star employees want to work for.
Once you’ve got them through the front door, there’s nothing like travel incentives to inspire loyalty. That’s especially true when you’ve tailored your program to the desires of employees.
Feeling respected and valued, employees who benefit from travel incentives are more likely to stay. They’ll be nourished by an enhanced feeling of connection to the organization they work for when they sense that you notice what they bring to the party.
And there’s no question that employee loyalty puts a dent in turnover and the high costs associated with it, both fiscally and in terms of morale.
There’s no question that a healthy workforce out-performs an unhealthy one. Burnout and stress can both be mitigated with a well-deployed and carefully crafted travel incentives program.
Stress has physical consequences for human beings. When you’re able to provide your employees with a “thank you” in the form of an all-expenses-paid trip, you’re giving them the gift of time away from what’s stressing them and burning them out.
Your business reduces absenteeism and healthcare costs associated with sickness caused by stress (illnesses like heart disease, for starters).
Rear ends in seats don’t mean much if those rear ends aren’t producing.
Travel incentives inspire employees to reach a little higher. The time they spend out of the office serves to reinvigorate their efforts, helping them to refocus and return better results, via boosted productivity.
These are just some of the ways travel incentives make employees produce better results. Those results are the ROI you want for your travel incentive dollar. Increased productivity, reduced turnover, and enhanced motivation and loyalty are all factors that mean a healthy, robust workplace that gets your business where you need it to be.
Contact Incentive Travel Group for more information.
If your enterprise is situated in the retail sector, you’ll be aware that almost all your employees (95%) are paid hourly. What’s more, your workforce is diverse, employing people from many different demographics, from high school students to seniors supplementing their pension incomes. So, how do you make everybody happy? How do you inspire your workers with incentive programs for the hourly workforce?
Here are some basic guidelines.
Your best bet with lower cost incentives is to include everyone. Even if you’re a Main Street mom and pop store, you can invite your employees to celebrate a great month by hosting a pizza party, or providing them with gift cards, as a way of thanking them.
A monthly birthday celebration for all employees having a birthday in the same month is another good way to show your appreciation.
Considerate gestures like providing snacks and coffee in the break room is another winning strategy. Instead of giving them one small break at noon, give them a little more time and some great snacks. Instead of going out to buy a bite, they can relax on-site and feel catered to by their employer.
Plan events that will interest your staff. Invite a speaker to talk about the finer points of customer service or display strategies that boost sales at the point of purchase.
Plan meals out together, “just because”. These can be tied to a seasonal event, or just be a picnic in a local park with games for employee families, burgers, and hot dogs. It doesn’t need to be fancy to build team spirit and loyalty.
Get your employees involved in your sponsorship efforts. Give them discounted tickets to local events like hockey games and new film releases. Little gifts like this encourage your employees and show them that you’re thinking of them.
If you can manage this one, bonuses and other fiscal perks never go out of style. Just remember - be fair. Include your entire staff and base your incentives on goals that aren’t too far out or unattainable. And tie those goals to company growth, so they have a purpose that is easily discernable.
To be avoided: favoritism. That’s actionable under the law and awarding bonuses and other money-based rewards this way can land you in hot water.
Base bonuses on yearly, average salary, or choose things like years of service to award bonuses, or sales figures for the year. Also, time off with pay is a highly prized incentive your employees will love you for.
Incentive programs for the hourly workforce don’t need to be unduly complicated. They just need to do their job. Think carefully about who your employees are. A best practice in this regard is to survey them to find out what they’d like to see.
Incentive Travel Group is your source for all kinds of incentive and rewards programs. For over 20 years, we’ve been raising the bar in the sector. Contact us to get the incentives edge.
