The days of the proverbial plaque on the wall saying, “Sales Employee of the Month” is over.  For a sales incentive program to be motivating, companies must recognize and reward their top-performers, empowering the recipient to choose their reward.

It’s not ‘all about the Benjamins’ any longer.  Cash alone isn’t enough to motivate people.  If you want to really motivate employees for exceptional job performance, remember that not everyone is looking for money. Consider giving them an experience they won’t forget, even if it’s just for one day.

Rewarding your sales force with cash doesn’t have the same impact of sales force engagement in the way that non-cash awards do.  When a sales employee receives cash, it just goes into their bank account, and they forget quickly why the reward was given in the first place.  Rather, if they were given a tangible reward, for example an HD television, every time they turn on that television or have friends over for that big game, they’ll remember why they received the television in the first place – it’s a ‘trophy’.  The most important thing to remember is that the reward leaves a lasting impression on the recipient and motivates them to continue to perform.

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Earlier this spring, the non profit organization WorldatWork, reported on their findings of a survey dealing with employee recognition programs.  They surveyed about 5,600 members across the US, and Canada, and measured their responses to their views as to where the trends are going with regards to employee recognition.

Of the 677 members who responded to the survey, WorldatWork reported that over 80% of their employers offered one or more type of employee recognition programs within the last 2 years.

With a median program budget 1% of payroll between the employers, over 50% of surveyed members responded that they felt their recognition programs had a positive impact on employee recognition, motivation, and engagement.  Retention, however, feel short at only 42% of respondents indicating a positive shift.

No matter what your budgets may be, its important to remember that just by offering any type of recognition to your employees will have a positive impact on your workforce.

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Over the past several years, many companies in the US have seen dramatic increases in the ROI of their existing wellness programs.  Much of the success can be attributed to a well designed health and wellness incentive program interwoven into the corporate culture.

Smart companies are realizing that overlaying an incentive program solution onto your existing wellness program not only engages employees with an increased program participation, but saves a huge amount of money in health care expenses due to a healthier workforce.

For health & wellness programs to be optimized, companies must celebrate with their employees for achieving their goals through exciting experiences and meaningful rewards.

One idea is to implement an activity tracker where employees may list the specific goals they would like to achieve for themselves against a period of time.  Perhaps a group of employees wishes to stop smoking within the next several months.  They may set a date within the tracker as to when they would like to be ’smoke free’ and monitor how they are doing along the way.  If they achieve their goal, you as the employer should celebrate with them by offering a reward.

No mater how large or small the incentives that are tied to healthy goal achievements are, its important to create a culture of engagement and celebration for employees wanting to live a well rounded lifestyle.

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Perhaps one of the most talked about topics in current events has been the ever rising cost of health care in America.  According to the National Health Statistics Group, “expenditure in the United States on health care surpassed $2.3 trillion in 2008, more than three times the $714 billion spent in 1990″.  With health care costs rising even steeper, today’s top companies are getting creative on ways of keeping their workforce healthy - by offering rewards.

Many companies are now offering an incentives to compliment their existing health & wellness programs.  For participating in a wellness incentive program, employees are more motivated to set goals for themselves, and taking positive steps in leading a healthier, more active lifestyle.  In accomplishing their targets, employees are celebrated and rewarded by the company they work for.

The truth is in the numbers.  According to a study by Brigham Young University, researchers found that employees who participate in health & wellness incentive programs miss fewer workdays, equating to “a cost savings of nearly $16 for each dollar spent on the program”.  Further, the Wellness Management Information Center adds that “he percentage of companies successfully measuring ROI for health and wellness programs has “sharply increased” over the years, from 14 percent in 2007 to 73 percent in 2009″.  The end result is a healthier, happier employees, with a dramatic increase in ROI.

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As the economy starts to gain greater stability, many corporations are beginning to discover an interesting paradox.  Over the past 3 years, corporate America has been thrust into a survival mentality, trimming resources in an effort to creating a learner and more efficient organization.  Now, with their ’sails trimmed’ and headed on the right course, strategies have become operate ‘more with less’.

The paradox, however, is that a company’s most valuable asset is their human workforce.  Corporations must walk a fine line between decisions based on efficiency versus the dangers of an under appreciated and disengaged workforce, which yields de-motivation and high turnover rates.

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We all know larger companies have all kinds of employee recognition and incentive programs, but what about small businesses? Most smaller sized companies just do not have the resources or manpower to oversee, organize, and implement an employee recognition program. It is important to reward good behavior and work performance, no matter the size of the organization. Studies show that most companies offer incentive programs in some form or another, but most don’t offer any sort of variety. Research has shown that employees are often rewarded for length of service, or attendance or for performing specific tasks. 

The key to implementing a successful employee recognition program is to offer variety. Think about it, not all employees are motivated the same way. What one employee may like as a reward may not be received as well with another. The key is to offer varied rewards in your incentive programs, allowing the employee a choice. In light of this, many small companies choose to outsource their incentive programs, or go with an online service to provide a managed solution to an organized employee recognition system. The rewards and benefits to such a system are readily apparent, as supervisors and management are more able to devote time and resources to direct business-related issues and concerns, which, as we all know, is crucial no matter the size of the company.

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“Whose system of rewards or punishments is clearer? This is how you can know who will win.”

A lot of people equate the modern methods of employee recognition and motivation with the recent scientific study of proper management practices. This is certainly not the case though as systems of rewards and punishments for subordinates have been around for thousands of years. The quote above is from the classical text ‘The Art of War,’ by the Chinese General Sun Tzu, which has been regarded equally by both famous generals and by business professionals for many centuries.

In the very legal-minded business world that we operate in it is very easy to focus too much on the punishment side of management and not enough on the rewards side. Negative employee performance or actions are monitored and recorded closely to make sure that any punishments given out are justified, legal and defendable. The General Sun Tzu, a legend in many minds for his wisdom in battle and his strategic thinking, knew that rewards were equally important to the moral and performance of men under his command.

Of course the modern business world is very different from the ancient battlefields of China, but some lessons are timeless. Incentive programs designed to reward employees for their performance can be critical in motivating and indeed, winning the battle of business. It is easier than ever to set up employee incentive programs from an online solutions provider that can make incentives fair and well proportioned. In the end, it is as one of Sun Tzu’s ancient commentators Du You noted… “If rewards are immoderate, there will be expenditure that does not result in gratitude.” Set up clear and fair incentive programs and watch your employees’ motivation soar.

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When we first considered establishing an employee rewards program, one of the things that sold us on doing it was the flexibility of the program. We were a start-up company at the time and, as such, our budget was very limited. However, after doing a lot of research on incentive programs we found that we could successfully initiate - and manage - a program regardless of our budget. We had only to choose prize incentives that were within our budget; which is exactly what we did. We were able to motivate employees and optimize production with limited investment and it was a huge success right from the start. During our research we also learned that we could change the program as we saw fit and as our budget allowed. This was when we were going to put it to the test.

Here we are, five years after we first implemented our employee program and we’re finally ready to change up the program. While we certainly don’t have an unlimited budget we definitely have more economic flexibility. As the company’s owners, we decided that this was the perfect time to change the program with the holidays and new year approaching.

So we went back to our prize incentives to see how we could spice up our employee recognition program for the holidays. We made some different choices that we are we happy to introduce for the holiday season including:

The ability to win vacations. We’re not talking week long getaways at five star resorts but we are talking long weekends at hot spots within driving distances. If there’s one thing that anyone could use right now it’s some time away.

Electronics. When we first set up our employee program, we steered clear of these prizes because they were higher ticket items. Now we were ready to offer up televisions and even iPods as prize incentives.

More in the next post…

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A successful employee program comes down to a few crucial features. For one, it has to be well organized. Employees need to be completely clear about the goals that are expected of them in order to be allowed to participate, progress and achievements need to be well documented and prize incentives - and what accomplishments they relate to - need to be clearly understood by those involved. Of course, all of this also requires ongoing, professional management. Prize incentives are also absolutely critical to the success of the program. There’s no use having employee incentive programs if the prizes that you choose are not interesting or motivational to employees. So it’s important to choose wisely and with your employees in mind. This, unfortunately, is what also tends to stop business owners/management in their tracks. They think that they don’t have the budget to compete and there’s nothing that they can include in their rewards program that will be good enough for their employees and still within budget.

This, however, is not the case. One of the truly great things about an employee program is that it can be completely customized to fit the needs and the budget of the company. That means that you can start out small if you want and work from there, adding additional choices to your prize incentives as your budget allows and scaling back when you have to tighten your financial reigns.

So what are some of the choices when it comes to an employee program that will help motivate employees and achieve your goals as a company but won’t break the bank?

Gift certificates to restaurants and stores. There’s no better way to help employees than to let them choose what is most important to them. Having a great dinner at their favorite restaurant or having extra money to spend at their supermarket can be a real motivator.

Small electronics. Televisions may be out of the question for your budget but that doesn’t mean MP3 players or cell phones are off the table.

Jewelry. Perfect for gifts or to treat themselves and not too expensive for your needs.

These are just a few of the ideas for prize incentives. Work with your management team to choose the prize incentives that work for your company.

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In the last post I talked about how my job had become something that I did with little regard for achievement. I went to work, did what I had to do and went home. I had gotten to a place where I didn’t give much thought to what I was doing and I didn’t feel any burning desire to go above and beyond the call of duty. As I said, I was on autopilot until management put in place incentive programs that changed the work atmosphere as we knew it.

This employee recognition program allowed management to communicate several goals that they were looking at for different departments as well as the company as a whole and these goals were organized as short term objectives as well as long term goals. They called on us to help reach those goals and if we were successful - both in the short term and over the long haul, we would be considered eligible for a host of prize incentives.

As you can well imagine, the opportunity to win prizes put everything into a different perspective for us. We learned about the different tiers of prizes - everything from jewelry to cash and trips. This changed the scope of everything and gave us some ownership in the work process. Suddenly I felt recharged; like what I was doing on a daily basis could actually make a difference and that my work was being seen and acknowledged by management. Most of all, I could affect my own path of achievement. If I worked hard and worked in a focused manner towards a particular goal I could find myself in a position of being able to bring home something really spectacular and supplement my yearly earnings with prizes that could impact my whole family. This rewards program put the spirit back into our company and the enthusiasm for my job back into me.

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