Attracting and retaining the best employees
According to a recent Federal Reserve report, businesses are currently having difficulty recruiting well-qualified workers. Companies with the biggest benefits and incentive packages are attracting the most eligible recruits and holding on to their best employees. However, the definition of “incentive” is shifting. Today’s job seekers differ from previous generations in important ways. For instance, cash seems to be less of an incentive than it once was. In fact, such things as holiday bonuses, spot bonuses and other cash payments for performance have become so expected that many consider the added compensation part of their overall take home salary. And it’s this sense of entitlement that has removed a good deal of the motivational punch from cash rewards. Moreover, a recent Maritz, Inc. study found non-cash incentive programs, which focus on trophy-value rewards such as travel, are the most desirable and effective motivators.
Offering employees and recruits the possibility of earning exciting and rewarding travel for their productivity can serve to offset the perceived “negativity” resulting from curtailed benefits. And, the desirability of incentive travel is giving employees and prospective employees a good reason to choose an employer, and stay once they get there.
The use of travel incentives in training
Beyond motivating productivity and increasing the desirability of a company as an employer, the use of travel-related incentives can be used to motivate employees to make themselves more valuable to the company by increasing their knowledge base. According to Dennis Costello, sales effectiveness practice consultant for Maritz, companies are beginning to open up to training-based uses for incentive programs. “More and more companies are now willing to provide incentives for what we call enabling activities such as skill acquisition and product knowledge.”
Dare to achieve, and reap the rewards
With incentives such as cash and bonuses viewed by employees as “entitlements” and part of the normal compensation, they’ve lost their ability to motivate. In fact, according to an email survey conducted by Corporate Meetings & Incentives, 58 percent of respondents said travel is more effective than cash as a motivator. Survey respondents considered travel to be the most effective reward. Unlike cash, travel incentive programs are always seen as “something to strive for” that can be earned with the right dedication to on-the-job production. In other words, you “get” your bonus every year, come rain or shine, but you can “earn” a trip if you work hard enough.
It’s true that the prospect of earning incentive travel will drive productivity throughout a company. But by how much? According to a 2003 Incentive Travel Facts survey of companies, travel incentives increase sales by an average of 15 percent. In addition, half of the survey respondents reported that travel incentive programs met from 75 percent to 99 percent of their objectives.
To be Continued...
