Incentive Travel: Incorporating the 'Voice of the Participant'

Reposted from micePLACES - click here for link

More and more these days, we’re finding ourselves heading further into a marketplace that is returning to, and putting more value back onto, relationships. Establishing, building and retaining relationships with today’s employees, channel partners and customers requires more time, effort, focus and long-term commitment. As this shift continues to grow, many organizations find themselves at a crossroads with an “engagement compass” on relationships that’s not pointing north; it’s pointing west, east and in some cases south.

With so much attention focused on cutting costs and gaining efficiencies, organizations are realizing diminishing returns from these approaches and are beginning to make a U-turn by mapping their strategies back to their No. 1 asset, their people. It’s people who take care of customers and business performance. And it’s a leadership team’s responsibility to take care of this valuable asset by recognizing, rewarding and incenting their people.

Another Chair at the Table
This is where we can start to recalibrate our engagement compass. If people are the key focus, then we need to turn our traditional thinking on its head. A lot of organizations are still making decisions on programs using gut instinct and past experience – and I think we can all agree that there’s a degree of pre- and post-program evaluation that’s necessary to hit certain benchmarks, understand what worked and what didn’t work, and make it better the next time.

Over the last few years we’ve added chairs around the design and decision table. We have procurement, finance, marketing, sales, and planners – but there’s still one chair missing, and that’s the participants. We need to better understand and be able to distinguish, from the participants’ perspective, what is and what is not aligned to demand; such as program features and activities. For example, having these insights helps avoid situations where you identify 20 planned activities and cross your fingers and hope that you meet everybody’s needs, wants and preferences. Getting these insights from participant inputs – bringing the voice of the participant into play – gives us a much clearer perspective that can be used to help make more informed decisions that can cut those 20 activities down to, say, 10 before we start designing a program. This provides an opportunity to make targeted investments in those things that are more broadly meaningful and motivational at the individual level.

In other words, we’ve spent years asking participants what they thought, but we rarely, if ever, asked them what they think – before the fact; before the program was planned and designed.

Choosing to Engage

A successful incentive travel program is a delicate balancing act. When you’re talking about trying to bring a team together and motivate groups or departments, you have to really look at what your goals are from a business standpoint, as well as the needs, wants and preferences of attendees. When you look at the participant value chain of the experience, there’s a thing called ‘engagement choice’. At any point of the program, whether before, during, or after, participants can choose to stay engaged or disconnect themselves from the process.

So how do you make sure there are no weak links in the overall chain? Again, it’s all about the voice of the participant. You have to consider the participant in terms of what features, functions and activities they want to participate in or take advantage of. For instance, is there a specific group they’d like to go with to create some extended team camaraderie and networking opportunities or engage in other alternatives during scheduled leisure time? Or, are there participants who just prefer to do their own thing? Program participants who earn incentive travel rewards can either be engaged or disengaged. And if you force them into something they really don’t care for, they’re going to resist on some level, and the program next year is going to suffer as a consequence.

The bottom line is that incentive travel adopters, buyers, stakeholders and suppliers need to be able to benefit from that one-on-one conversation with incentive travel participants, and that can be facilitated in a variety of ways – whether it’s through meetings, social networking, emails, group settings, surveys, you name it. However you do it, it’s really important for effectively establishing, building and retaining relationships with your people.

The Incentive Destination’s Role in Driving Business Performance

Reposted from Elite Meetings Blog - click here for link

As 2012 quickly progresses, trends in incentive travel destinations continues to be a hot topic. Budget constraints as well as economic, political and social pressures will heavily dictate the growth of incentive travel and destination choice. Yet, among all of these considerations that come into play when identifying a destination, a program’s ability to drive desired results among its participants should remain paramount. So, what’s most motivating to participants? Let’s look at the trends:

• First, where are most group travel programs going?  Mainly driven by costs, not to mention likely residual hesitancy and concerns around public perceptions, organizations continue to place greater emphasis on short-haul and domestic destinations. A 2012 Incentive Travel survey conducted by the Incentive Research Foundation revealed that 27 percent of respondents shifted from long-haul to North American destinations to meet budget constraints. According to the study, destinations reflect economic realities with 83 percent of planners providing incentive travel within the U.S., 55 percent going no further than the Caribbean, 52 percent including Europe and 29 percent targeting Central America. Less than 18 percent are considering destinations in Asia, South America, Africa or the Middle East.

• Second, what are incentive travel participants telling us?  Through various insights from the Site Foundation and the Incentive Travel Council, it seems incentive travel participants are willing to trade-off other design elements in favor of a more motivating destination. According to a recent U.S. National Study, titled the Participant’s Viewpoint, study participants stated that “aspects of the destination” were more important than other incentive travel design elements such as length of stay, activities, hotels, etc. Also, based upon both national and independent studies from Maritz Travel Company, destination selection ranks among one of the top motivational values for program participants.

• Third, what can we learn from leisure-based travel?  According to Stephanie Ramos of Maritz Journeys, “Individuals, couples and families are looking to make the most of a limited number of destination bound vacation days, and, a mix of both domestic and international destinations continues to weigh on travel planning decisions, with seasonality also playing a big part. The idea of introducing leisure-based travel is that it helps distinguish what we, as individuals, would most ideally like to experience and how that compares and differs with destination choices for incentive travel. A mix of choices will likely exist in your ideal list, whether it includes the likes of Queenstown, New Zealand; Hong Kong; or domestic choices such as Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Should leisure and incentive travel based destinations be all that different?”

Recalling The Return on Investment of U.S. Business Travel study at the advent of the recession, the U.S. Travel Association and Destination & Travel Foundation research revealed that an employee’s total base compensation would need to be increased by 8.5 percent to achieve the same effect of incentive travel. However, to simply provide a pay raise wouldn’t necessarily help drive higher-level business goals such as building trust, loyalty or morale, nor would it foster improvements in teamwork or job satisfaction. Additionally, from an ROI perspective, Incentive Travel was found to yield an ROI of more than $4:$1. These intangible, hard-to-measure benefits, on top of tangible fiscal returns, provide a unique perspective when it comes to the current need to stretch dollars. Businesses need to invest wisely in key areas to effectively deliver the greatest returns.

The spirit of this post is not about promoting domestic over international destinations, or vice versa. It’s more about identifying the greater need to provide destinations with the most motivational value for program participants that will ultimately help achieve business objectives. We’ve all had to hunker down and tighten our belts these past few years, while continuing to make a lot of hard decisions. When it comes to incenting, rewarding and recognizing employees, channel partners or customers, identifying the right program design is tougher than ever; especially when budgets remain constrained and the cost of rooms, air and food & beverage continues to rise.

Destinations play a keen role in program design and business value creation. Beyond the affinity values associated with any destination choice, surrounding elements hinge on what a program has to offer. Activities, tours, cultures, scenery, history, related group events and other onsite elements can be important decision factors on the destination. And, depending upon the diversity of interests, passions and preferences of your program participants, destination selection can either agree or disagree with what effectively motivates your audience. Where you decide to take your business can be greatly influenced by where you decide to take your next incentive travel program. Overall, we need to spend less time and effort on ways to stretch our incentive dollars across broad design inclusions and focus more on specific areas that matter the most.

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 Your Participants Should Design Your Next Incentive Travel Program

Reposted from Meetings & Incentive Travel - click here for link

True or False? Asking participants to help design an incentive travel program will only drive up costs and make it more difficult to appease all their wishes.

Answer: False. Instinct, past experience, managerial judgment, beliefs and budgets are simply not enough to effectively drive participant engagement and business performance. Planners need the participants’ insights.

Times, and probably the people involved in your incentive travel program, have significantly changed. Incentive travel strategies aimed to effectively motivate the behavior of program participants must change as well. Generational, ethnic, family structure, and the plethora of social and economic forces impacting your participant base is having a profound effect on what people want from your incentive travel program.

Considering this, incentive travel participants need to be viewed as and treated more like a stakeholder. In our opinion, they are the key stakeholder. Why? Your success hinges on whether these individuals commit to achieving your goals and targets. Given the importance of personal commitment, it just makes sense for your employees and channel partners to have a voice regarding program design. At the end of the day, these individuals will weigh the experience against the required level of investment of both their and their families’ time and effort.

Authors James Gilmore and Joseph Pine first coined the words “Experience Economy” in a 1998 Harvard Business Review article Welcome to the Experience Economy. Paraphrasing a bit for the purposes of our industry, people seek unique and personally meaningful experiences. Travel programs represent some of the best opportunities to create these very meaningful and highly motivating experiences. Getting the most from your incentive program requires a more complete understanding of the motivations of these individuals. This understanding translates into better program design and a better experience.

Organizations that view incentive travel programs as part of a broader strategy of creating “places of engagement” for their people can achieve great results. It all starts with placing a seat at the stakeholder table for the participant to help better inform incentive travel design decisions. After all, it’s the people who create the business results. It makes practical business sense to include them in the conversation.

What do Incentive Travel Participants Think about their Program?

The Site International Foundation and the Incentive Travel Council (ITC) commissioned Dr. Scott Jeffries and Monmouth University to conduct a joint study focused on The Incentive Travel Participant Viewpoint.

With the study currently underway, insights and findings will be shared over a period of time beginning with initial outcomes in mid-October release, providing dialogue for 2011 IMEX America and the Site International Conference events in Las Vegas. The full published report will be released at the end of the year and will be distributed globally via both organizations.

"Collaborations like this one are important and benefit a diverse group of industry professionals, said Steve O’Malley, SITE International Foundation president. “When we leverage the power of shared resources we can deliver some amazing data. We are positive The Incentive Travel Participant Viewpoint study will deliver insight into participant behaviors and key motivators that each of us can consider as we design and deliver extraordinary motivational programs in the future."

Jim Ruszala, past president of the ITC commented, "The incentive industry has made strong strides over the past few years in better providing transparency into the business values achieved through incentive programs. However, the industry is still starving for specific incentive travel based insights on ways to improve that business value by creating more meaningful, motivational and memorable experiences for its incentive travel participants.  Organizations are increasingly facing new as well as unique business challenges every day. To overcome these challenges and help achieve business performance objectives, we need to approach incentive travel design differently with an added attention towards how we can better engage and improve participant experiences.”

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?

Is My Travel Program "Reward and Recognition" or "Incentive" Based?

Reposted from Meetings & Incentive Travel - click here for link

True or False? “Reward and Recognition” and “Incentive” programs are really the same thing.

Answer: False. Reward and recognition programs focus on reinforcing behaviors by providing awards and personal recognition based upon an observable behavior. Incentive programs inspire participants by influencing efforts that help achieve future business goals.

Think about the basic qualification structure of these programs. Often, open-ended qualification structures are more incentive-based while closed-ended qualification structures reflect a reward and recognition orientation. Closed-ended structures tend to fall in line with the Pareto principle (80/20 rule), where 80 percent of your performance is contributed by 20 percent of participants (“A” level or top performers).

The challenge with closed-ended qualifications occurs when only the top portion of your sales team feels they can achieve the award. Also, keep in mind that the effectiveness of a program’s performance can be misleading as “A” level performers tend to perform despite what’s going on around them. As such, if your next level of participants (“B” level performers) are not motivated by the program design, it will not achieve the best possible results. Representing the majority of your participant base, “B” level performers can easily be disengaged from your program’s sales targets because of a closed-ended qualification structure. They already know who is going to earn the award and don’t feel that they can achieve the qualifying performance objectives.

Consider the situation faced by Pacific Life. While their “A” players were motivated by the incentive travel program, their “B” players weren’t because they didn’t view the sales targets as attainable. Maritz Travel suggested a shift to an open-ended qualification structure that kept the top performer program intact, but extended the motivational value for mid-level performers by establishing attainable sales targets that would not have qualified them under the old closed-ended qualification structure. These targets represented significant new volume for the company and resulted in “B” level performers contributing 80 percent of total sales growth for the year and $14 million in incremental profit.

By focusing on these two distinct concepts companies can create more effective programs.

Family Friendly Incentive Travel

So, what’s up with kids and incentive travel programs you ask?  Well, there’s certainly a growing shift towards being more family friendly these days, which is being driven by a variety of factors.  Primarily, these would involve today’s demands at work with leaner and “doing more with less” philosophies, family lifestyles as well as the idea and desire of organizations to create stronger motivational value for participants in order to achieve greater business performance.

If you or anyone within an organization have been thinking about whether or not a "Family Friendly" element within your incentive travel strategy is a worth while idea, consider reading this article - click here

As organizations make family friendly decisions, concerns typically surface regarding potential distractions, objections by participants without children as well as with regard to how they would fund such inclusions. Here are a few short insights to keep in mind:

• Distractions – Typically this surrounds the desire to have an educational, networking or award element within a program. With the right destination selected and good planning, there are a number of ways to have one-on-one time with your participants, and they with their families.
• Participants without Children – Based upon a National Study by Maritz Travel and Maritz Research, we found that nearly 4 out of every 5 incentive travel participants without children believe that kids should be allowed to participate. It seems that they want to celebrate with their colleagues and peers, as well as get to know their families better too.
• Budgets – Whether you’re paying for, subsidizing or creating special buy-in rate options, incentive travel earners are looking for ways to bring their families along and reward them for their support in helping achieve business objectives.

Overall, organizations that don’t’ think family friendly incentive travel programs can play a big role need to think again. Helping create the opportunity to share these rewards and experiences go a long way in building stronger affinity with the organization. While it might not be right for every program, it’s worth the time and effort to do some research and gain a better view of what’s best for your participants and your organization.

Why Incentives Trump Cash

Great article featured in Meetings and Incentive Travel titled, "Why Incentives Trump Cash".  Take a look to further seperate fact from fiction as to why non-cash based incentives, specifically Travel, create more Motivational, Meaningful and Memorable experiences that provide both immediate and long-term tangible and intangible returns - click here.

Increase Motivational Value with Family Friendly Incentive Travel Programs

American culture and the work place have experienced dramatic changes, especially over this past year. Today dual income families are the norm. Unemployment is up. So is the average work week. The corporate demand to do more with less has had a significant impact on incentive program participants … and their families. The result is a significant increase on the stress levels of the family.

Incentive travel programs have long been a key way to motivate performance by providing experiences that embody attributes such as camaraderie, credibility, respect, fairness and pride – all key attributes associated with the 100 Best Companies from the Great Place to Work Institute. So how does the family play into this?

Incentive travel programs aren’t just an opportunity to recognize and reward the employee, channel partner or customer for their commitment and achievement; but, a chance to recognize the sacrifices and support the family made as a whole. Including the family in the program can greatly boost participant engagement and performance.

Leading organizations are turning toward the adoption of more family friendly program elements. The main reason, it’s a significant motivational factor that provides families the opportunity to share in striving for and achieving incentive goals, as well as in the reward and recognition. After all, participants with families look to their spouse and children for support and want to have an opportunity to reward them as well.

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...