Incentive Travel Council Honors GROWMARK's Dana Weaver as Advocate of the Year

October 10, 2011 – Naperville, IL – The Incentive Travel Council (ITC) has named Dana Weaver, marketing services manager of GROWMARK, as its 2011 Advocate of the Year. GROWMARK is a regional agricultural cooperative based in Bloomington, Ill.

This marks the third Advocate of the Year Award presented by the ITC, which is a strategic industry group under the Incentive Marketing Association (IMA). It recognizes an individual, business, or organization that demonstrates outstanding leadership in enhancing, educating, and/or promoting incentive travel as a value driver for achieving organizational performance.

At the ITC awards ceremony, held Tues., Oct. 4, 2011 in conjunction with the Motivation Show, Jim Ruszala of Maritz Travel, who nominated Weaver, said, “Dana has become a significant asset to the Incentive Travel Council and the industry as a whole. From various speaking engagements, and panel discussions, to the sharing of best practices and further perspectives, Dana has been a true leader in helping our industry understand and further tap into the fuller potential value of incentive travel.”

ITC President Carol Wain said, “Our industry is indeed fortunate to have individuals like Dana Weaver, who, as an incentive travel adopter and buyer, has made a significant impact in clearly articulating the value that incentive travel provides both to the companies and the travelers alike.”

“I am honored to be recognized by the ITC,” Weaver said. “At our company, it’s a privilege to recognize our top achievers with rewards that are meaningful, motivational and memorable. I truly believe travel incentive programs provide the most trophy value for our participants.”

Weaver joins both Dahlton Bennington of the SFN Group and G.J. Hart of the Texas Roadhouse restaurant chain (who is now with California Pizza Kitchen), as Advocate of the Year winners. “Together, these individuals have and continue to help shed stronger light onto the significance of incentive travel, both at the organizational and participant level,” Wain said.

Why Independent Dealer Networks Should Consider Incentive Travel

Reposted from Meetings & Incentive Travel - click here for link

True or False?  Incentive Travel Improves Channel Performance

Answer: True. Incentive travel helps organizations achieve targeted business performance goals, but they also represent a sound approach towards establishing and building strong relationships in your independent distributor channel.

Recently, one of our clients asked us to help provide further performance insights into their channel-based incentive travel program. This organization has run an incentive travel program for its dealer network for several years. While it understood the sales volume created by the dealers that earned the trip, it also wanted to understand other ways in which the program created value. Essentially, we wanted to answer the question – how has this long running, annual program provided value from the participants’ viewpoint? Here’s what we found…

Participants firmly perceive the incentive travel program as a strong and effective influencer in helping the organization drive performance through the dealer channel. A common participant response was, “the opportunity to earn the incentive travel award greatly encouraged me to increase my performance efforts.” As for whether the program was creating brand loyalty and advocacy, our findings were best summarized with another participant statement that said, “The program creates loyalty to the company, showing myself and other dealers just how much the organization cares and wants to help us.”

By continuing to establish and nurture dealer relationships through an incentive travel strategy, our client also created and experienced added, long-term value that went beyond short-term measurements. Program participant comments such as “I think the best part (as always) is networking with other distributors” and “[the award program is] a great way to build a long-term bond with other distributors” echoed throughout our findings.

To the dealer, relationship building is viewed as a high-value opportunity. With other channel representatives on the program, participants are continually afforded a setting where they can establish and build relationships with one another. This creates substantial, long-term value, as participants are able to further exchange ideas and insights on best practices, market shifts, challenges and business opportunities.

If you have distributors, sales networks or other channel partners, where are they fitting into the incentive travel mix?

Increasing the Awareness of Your Incentive Travel Program

Reposted from Meetings & Incentive Travel - click here for link

True or False?  3 of 10 people eligible to earn travel rewards don’t know it?

 

Answer:  Fact.  The existence of your company’s travel incentive program should not be debatable.  Leave that kind of uncertainty for Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster.

Shockingly, anywhere between 25 percent and 35 percent of your incentive travel participants may not even know about the program’s existence.  That’s a large number of participants that won’t be motivated or influenced, which reduces the potential impact to your business goals and objectives.  What’s the main culprit?  A primary suspect could be the communication’s model.

Today, companies need to assess and design a communication’s strategy that takes into account a fragmented participant base.  Technology has created significant shifts that are impacting how we communicate.  We, as individuals, are becoming increasingly sophisticated and diverse when it comes to what we read, listen to and how we interact.  Consider the following two communications model approaches:

§         Traditional Communications Model

Filled with one-way print, dimensional, direct mail and web communications, these approaches follow legacy practices that do not incorporate or benefit from viral or two-way interactions with and between program participants.

§         Advocacy Communication Model

In this approach, participants help create and foster communications that further drive awareness and program advocacy.  For instance, by leveraging and sponsoring program rallies or social media networking events, whether proprietary or third-party based, participants are encouraged to show, share and talk about the incentive opportunity with their friends, colleagues and family.  

Program sponsors and planners can further encourage these discussions, as well as benefit from them, by not only sharing additional program specifics, but also determining enhancements that further drive the participants’ motivational appeal and perceptions of program value.

Embracing one communications approach over another doesn’t take into consideration that participants are at different levels of preference and maturity as it pertains to receiving and participating in communications.  Today’s communication efforts need to be less about which channel you use and more about integrating efforts in ways that further inform and engage diverse program participants in different and more meaningful ways around incentive travel programs. 

Incentive Travel Council Names SFN Group Director as 2010 Advocate of the Year

Great news, the Incentive Travel Council has posted the following press release regarding the annual Advocate-of-the-Year Award. Read on...

The Incentive Travel Council (ITC) of the Incentive Marketing Association (IMA) recently named SFN Group Director of Business Meeting Services Dahlton A. Bennington, CMP, CMM, as the recipient of its 2010 Advocate of the Year Award. In its second year, the award recognizes an individual, business or organization that demonstrates outstanding leadership in enhancing, educating and/or promoting incentive travel as a value driver for achieving performance.

According to Incentive Travel Council President Jim Ruszala, “Bennington was selected for successfully merging four unique incentive travel programs from six specialized businesses into one ‘best-in-class’ program called Performance Forum.” He explained Bennington was able to achieve buy-in from all the participating interests by:

-Clearly communicating program criteria, monthly rankings and final results;
-Strategically aligning qualification metrics and limiting subjectivity;
-Providing opportunities for both producing and supporting employees to participate;
-Offering meaningful business meeting content; and
-Successfully executing the new program.

“Bennington wisely convinced her CEO to participate with the Incentive Research Foundation Case Study detailing the Anatomy of an Incentive Travel Program, which helped to highlight the value of incentive programs to all the stakeholders, benchmarked the program’s ROI and paved the way for an increased budget to further drive performance for the company, “ said Karen Renk, CAE, Incentive Marketing Association executive director.

Upon receiving the award, Bennington told her colleagues, “I believe within each of us is a voice and, if we can take better advantage of the tools we have and better articulate our value in what we deliver to drive performance and engage associates, we will continue to elevate our industry.” She also pointed out the value of the IRF study to the industry in terms of the measurement information it provides about the ROI, engagement, cultural and efficiency aspects of incentive travel.

The ITC Advocate of the Year award debuted in 2009 with the Texas Roadhouse Restaurants as the first recipient. The national restaurant chain was recognized for its public support of incentive travel programs as cost-effective business investments.

Incentive Travel Program Resurgence Driven by New Uses, Expanded Participation - Part 3

More participants, more results
Once reserved for the sales team, use of incentive travel to motivate employees throughout an organization is becoming increasingly popular. Based on the principle that organizational success is better achieved when all areas are driving performance, the trend is to use incentive travel programs to motivate staff members throughout an organization. According to a 2006 incentive travel user survey by Incentive, an industry publication, today’s travel incentive trip earners’ breakdown as follows:

• Sales personnel 65.9%
• Non-Sales personnel 39.5%
• Dealers/distributors 39.5%

*Note: Some respondents indicated more than one group is included in their programs.

Travel incentive programs are still most frequently used to motivate sales. But more and more companies are beginning to successfully drive total organizational performance, with travel incentives. These companies know the programs pay for themselves — and the proof is in the bottom line.

Two areas to think about when considering the potential impact an incentive travel program can have on non-sales roles: costs and profits. Benefits will vary from company to company, but key targeted objectives include a variety of specific performance categories including:

• Recognition of performance excellence
• Promoting teamwork
• Building morale
• Improving customer service, experience and loyalty
• Supporting the sales function’s success
• Meeting Safety Goals

All of which impact cost efficiency gains and productivity improvements throughout the organization.

Recognition matters
According to a recent Maritz Poll®, 55 percent of employees “agree” or “strongly agree” that the quality of their company’s recognition efforts impacts their job performance. That’s a large segment of employees who will work harder and better for the right kind of reward.

Pleasing more, and different kinds of employees
When it comes to travel incentives, one size definitely does not fit all. It’s important to know the different segments of employees within the organization. The travel experience that motivates a single, 25-year-old male may be quite different than what interests a 40-year-old mother of two. For instance, that 25-year-old might be drawn to trips involving eco and adventure travel or emerging destinations such as Bucharest, Romania’, Reykjavik, Iceland, or the Baltic region of Latvia, while the mother of two might prefer a family getaway to Orlando, Florida.

Knowing who prefers to swim with the dolphins as opposed to taking a sight-seeing trip to Rome, then directing the program accordingly, will spell the difference between a good program and a great one.

It’s a new day
Times have changed in the world of employee benefits. Once, you could satisfy your employees and prospective employees by offering a good package of health benefits. Today, the cost of health insurance coverage for employees has gotten to the point of being burdensome – and promises to only get worse. Taking benefits away without a suitable replacement is a morale killer. Companies can still attract and keep first-class employees with another kind of employee benefit: incentive travel. Not just for sales personnel anymore, incentive travel programs can reward everyone for loyalty, hard work and productivity. And, have a positive impact on the bottom line.

Incentive Travel Program Resurgence Driven by New Uses, Expanded Participation - Part 2

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...

Incentive Travel Program Resurgence Driven by New Uses, Expanded Participation - Part 1

Until recently, travel as an incentive had been on a bit of a downturn – corporate scandals, terrorism, more stringent accounting standards and regulatory constraints had put a damper on companies’ and participants’ appetite for travel.

Today, companies have overcome the concerns of the last several years, and travel incentives are not only back, new applications and more participants are driving its resurgence.

Helping fill the benefits gap
The cost of employee benefits, particularly health care, has steadily risen almost to the point of being crippling to many companies. According to figures compiled by the National Coalition on Health Care, in 2005, total national health expenditures rose 6.9 percent — two times the rate of inflation. Total spending was $2 trillion in 2005, or $6,700 per person. In 2006, employer health insurance premiums increased by 7.7 percent — again two times the rate of inflation. And U.S. health care spending is expected to increase at similar levels for the next decade, reaching $4 trillion by 2015.

As a result of escalating costs, many companies have scaled back their company-paid health plans and looking for employees to share more of the burden. The effect of this cost shifting on employee satisfaction is clear. According to a September 2006 Maritz Poll®, conducted by Maritz Research, benefits are extremely important to almost half (48 percent) of respondents; and 80 percent consider benefits to be at least “somewhat important” as a selection criteria for employment. In the same poll, nearly half (45 percent) of respondents with a health plan indicated that their employers had asked them to shoulder more of the costs of their health care benefits within the past year. The paradox is that, while employees without benefits are less satisfied with their jobs than employees who have benefits, they were significantly more satisfied than employees who had benefits reduced or eliminated. So for the sake of morale, a company that finds it necessary to cut back on benefits would be wise to find a lower cost supplement.

More companies are adopting incentive travel as the replacement for other, more traditional benefits. This is because it’s a desired and effective reward for performance. In a 2003 Wirthlin Worldwide Research survey of employees, the question was posed “Suppose your employer wanted to reward your work performance. What would you find most rewarding?” An overwhelming 88 percent indicated “a trip they plan and take with a companion to the destination of their choice.” Another 5 percent indicated “a trip planned for them and a companion of choice with their coworkers,” while .50 percent said they would prefer “a trip planned just for them and their coworkers.”

In a world where employee benefits, once used for recruiting and keeping employees, are shrinking, the addition of travel incentive programs is a viable and valued replacement for lost or reduced benefits.

To be Continued...