Leading organizations across the United States have established employee incentive programs that have not only contributed to the success of the company but also help to solidify a winning culture among participants. Many of my clients have found proactive incentives can improve employee performance and have a dramatic impact on the bottom line. These programs all have some key ideas that combined make the employee incentive program both a successful and powerful tool for management. If you are planning or re-evaluating an employee incentive program, I would recommend the following 5 keys as the corner posts of any successful program.
1. Budget for Fairness- Determining the cost per person that will be spent annually is the first place a person should start. It is also essential to have a set point value for each goal of the program. Although goals may vary for different job positions, equal effort should mean equal rewards for all participants. Nothing kills an employee incentive program's effectiveness quicker than it being perceived as unfair by employees.
2. Make Program Goals Relevant and Attainable- In order to successfully complete your program's budget, the next logical step is to plan the different achievements that your employee incentive program will reward need to be well planned and relevant to your organizational goals. Make sure your employees are well informed of what goals they must attain to receive an award and feel that they can actually attain them. Kicking off a safety incentive program that requires 3,000 accident-free hours before any awards can be redeemed may not be very motivational and rewarding for participants. Keeping the incentive program “top-of-mind”, as Ernest F. Oriente puts in his article about designing powerful employee incentive programs, is a great way to keep the participants informed about how the program is relevant to each of them. Communication through different media can really help to grab any audience’s attention and ensure their participation.
3. Decide on the type of reward- Tangible merchandise based awards are quickly becoming the norm for employee incentive programs, beating out non-tangible rewards such as cash bonuses and gift cards that have been popular in the past. While non-tangible rewards are taxable and must be reported, tangible merchandise used in safety incentive program, for example, usually is not. Merchandise based awards selected by the recipients ensure that every recipient will receive a valued award that will provide a lasting memory of the goals they achieved each time it is used. Tangible merchandise based reward programs also tend to provide important reporting capabilities that allow management to track award redemption and verify the success of their employee incentive program. Read a full article on the benefits of tangible awards.
4. Ensure Award Accessibility- Once you have set up the budget, decided upon program goals and what to award participants, you'll want to make sure your employees will have no difficulty selecting and receiving their gift. Depending on the participant demographics, a program administrator can decide on what method to offer employees for redemption and program communication. A successful employee incentive program is flexible enough to meet the needs of any demographic and can also ensure ease of use for companies with employees working in different locations, in the field or from home.
5. Reporting Ability- Reporting capabilities need to be discussed to ensure that management can track the progress and acknowledge successes in the incentive program. At the end of a year or the program itself, as Mario Churchill reports in his article on corporate incentives, quantifiable results must substantiate the employee incentive program
. All of my clients have access to reports throughout the duration of their incentive program, allowing for feedback on a quarterly, monthly, or even weekly basis.
Following these five keys can help an organization with an employee incentive program to ensure that the program will be a success. In general, the longer the incentive program is in place, the greater the results will be. However, one should note that additional steps may need to be taken in the future to keep the program relevant for participants. A successful employee incentive program can help an organization reach its goals, as many of America’s top companies have already realized.
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