So you want to have an incentive program for your employees to motivate them and reward their hard work. That is wonderful, but not all incentive programs are created equal. Certain missteps can cause your well-meaning efforts to backfire. Here are three ways to make your incentive program a success!
1. Choose the Right Reward
Not all incentives are ideal for all employees, so make sure the one you’re offering matches with employee interests and have the details at hand. A week-long cruise would be a dream come true for some people; others might enjoy a wine tour in Paris or the opportunity to go hiking in the Rockies. It’s also important to make sure the itinerary is clear, so your staff understands exactly what the employee incentive covers—details like whether the cruise includes any excursions, how many vineyards are on the wine tour, and whether there’s a cabin to stay in during that hiking trip in the mountains.
Choosing the incorrect incentive reward can result in some employees feeling left out, unmotivated and unappreciated. They will have no drive to work towards the incentive reward, and this can negatively impact the team as a whole.
2. Plan Well In Advance
Organizing travel, hotel stays, events, activities… it takes a lot of time and effort. It’s important to remember to give yourself enough time to set it all up. Ideally, you’d have the details all figured out before you even kick off your incentive program, and then finalize the information with details from the employee(s) going on the trip well before you board the plane—trying to get everything figured out over a long weekend, or too close to the date of the trip can result in additional costs from airlines, hotels, etc., due to the short timeline.
If you’re new to this sort of task, don’t have the time to do it yourself, or want to have the confidence of having everything taken care of by experienced professionals. At MTI Events we are equipped to plan employee incentive travel programs for your whole team, and individual incentive programs for individuals that reach whatever incentive goal you have set. Making memorable trips is what we do!
3. Make Sure Employees are Prepared and Informed
If it’s an international trip, your employees will need to have their passports—this is the most important part because if they don’t have a passport, they can’t go. It can take weeks or even months to process the paperwork to get a passport. If it’s not an international trip, it can still be more convenient to take a passport to get through the airport. Email employees who are going on the incentive trip a list of helpful links, including a link to the US Passport Agency and the airline you’ll be flying with so they’ll have information about things like carry on size and bag limits. It can also be helpful to pass on any information you have about the destination, such as weather conditions, typical style of dress and information about cultural differences.
Send your employees an itinerary via email and give them a physical copy of the itinerary. Make sure to have a meeting or two to make sure everyone is clear on the details of the trip.
Now that you’re thinking about your employee incentive program in more detail, what’s the most important thing? If you’re not sure about something, leave it to the professionals. MTI Events will set up an employee incentive program you’ll be delighted with, and that your employees will talk about for years to come!
