When an employee incentive program starts on the right foot, a good majority of employees are aware of the incentive program and many are enticed to participate. The following best practices will help you to successfully plan an incentive program launch.
Entice your employees and pique interest in an upcoming kickoff event
Posters and flyers featuring award merchandise examples are a great way to gain the attention of employees before your incentive program kicks off. I have also had a few clients purchase award merchandise and put them on display to show off the new kinds of incentive awards available for employees to earn.
Communicate the incentive program launch by any means necessary
One of the best ways to kick off an incentive program is to hold rollout meetings. If meetings are not feasible or practical, then emails or statements, mailed letters and promotional posters should be utilized tocommunicate about the incentive program. The message you need to send to participants is the purpose of the incentives, how they will personally be able to earn rewards and how each individual can access the incentive program.
Be sure to take employee demographics into consideration when planning an incentive program kickoff. Depending on employee preferences or familiarities, incentive program information should be provided electronically, in print or both.
Place award catalogs in break rooms or make them available in the HR office
By having award catalogs available in common areas of the workplace, your company is providing employees a chance to look at the incentive awards they are eligible to earn while eating lunch or waiting for a meeting. This in turn will increase employee motivation to participate in the incentive program.
Award 1st log in points or kick off points to encourage employees to get familiar with the awards website and the incentive program in general to begin with
Modern incentive program reporting allows administrators to find out information on log in activity and once the word spreads that an employee can earn points simply by logging in for the first time, other incentive program participants will follow suit. Better yet, if your company displayed award merchandise in anticipation of the employee incentive program kickoff, take the incentive awards and give them away to the participant who logs in first, earn points first, places the first order, and so on.
Each time you hire new employees, make sure to include information on the incentive program as a mini-kickoff to them
Although an incentive program may be familiar to seasoned employees, newly hired workers should be introduced to the program with the same effort and enthusiasm as was dedicated to the initial launch. Sometimes organizations will give employees a welcome kit and often incentive program opportunities are presented in these kits.
By considering the best practices above when launching your next employee incentive program, the program is more likely to gain acceptance right away and will maximize employee participation and interest.
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