Rewarding employees as important as ever!

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Connie Cornelius

Who doesn’t like to be rewarded for success? Companies across all industries are finding that it can cost more NOT to have an incentive program than to invest in the carrot that motivates and engages the sales staff.

Incentive rewards help sustain and maintain the strong bonds between the firm and the employees. Well-designed incentive programs can also act as a marketing tool to excite participants about the work required to reach the goal. In addition, an incentive program helps promote the company internally by demonstrating how the firm values recognition and gratitude.

Rewards are part of the cost of doing business. But finding a program that successfully motivates the workers and makes economic sense for the employer is a balancing act. From the company standpoint, the improved performance resulting from the incentive must outweigh the cost. But from the participants’ standpoint, the incentive program must be meaningful as well as motivational.

Sales reps and employees are sophisticated consumers and not easily swayed by dangling prizes in front of them. In order to be truly motivational and create the desired result, the top choice of rewards is overwhelmingly “Leisure Travel”. It is not just offering an excursion that they couldn’t or wouldn’t normally do on their own, but it’s about providing an environment where both management and participants can bond and develop a mutual respect.

Here are just three suggestions for rewards that are both engaging and enriching:

• Antarctic Expedition
• Voyage into the Amazon Rainforest
• Norwegian Fjords & North Cape

Choosing an exotic destination does not have to be cost-prohibitive. Expedition vessels and tall-mast sailing ships can be exciting and memorable without costing more than an average resort in Hawaii. Affinity Group Tours provides a comparative analysis of resorts stays versus specialty cruises.

Rewarding employees and sales representatives with travel incentives is as important as ever. In fact, it might be wise to implement a program now – even though we are not in a robust economy, knowing that when the economic upswing begins, it will be harder to retain restless employees.

Categories: General Interest  |  Incentive Travel  |  Meetings & events
Tags: corporate  |  incentive  |  adventure  |  Amazon River  |  cruise  |  Expedition cruise  |  jungle  |  reward  |  River cruise  |  sales

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