I have received a lot of feedback and advice from co-workers, my comrades on Twitter and actual clients regarding avoidable incentive program mistakes. Last week I covered the first five avoidable mistakes and wanted to follow up this week with the last six mistakes you can avoid making in your employee incentive program.
Limiting the number of rewards a person can select a gift from
This mistake either happens because one person decides what everyone in an incentive program will receive as their reward or because someone in the company does not want employees to be able to view gifts that can be earned in the long run. Either way it is not a good idea to allow one person to make such decisions for a diverse group of people and expect everyone to be satisfied and engaged with the incentive program. Additionally, showing employees the rewards they can redeem in the future often encourages participants to work harder to reach goals and reap the rewards from their labors sooner.
Not communicating the program consistently
Communication plays one of the most vital roles in achieving long term success in an employee incentive program. Administrators can maximize participation and employee engagement throughout the incentive program by consistently keeping employees up-to-date with point earning opportunities and progress reports.
Awarding the same amount of incentives to participants
Sometimes managers do not take the time to evaluate individual efforts and will award the same number of points for the same reason week after week of the incentive program. In these cases, the incentive program becomes a joke or just a given and the employee incentive program fails to achieve its goals.
Making the incentive program too easy
Much to my surprise, a few clients have told me about past failed incentive programs that did not work because too much budget was spent in an allotted period. In these instances, the incentive program goals were not properly designed as participants easily reached goals in a short time frame. Administrators can work with experienced incentive program providers and evaluating the program regularly to ensure goals and budgets are being reached at the appropriate times.
Not rewarding both individual efforts and team results
Tracking individual performance can be difficult when one manager oversees a huge group of employees. However, rewarding great individual effort and rewarding overall team results are often equally important for overall participation and engagement.
Poor quality gifts or lack of customer service
Sometimes clients of mine will add an item or two to our reward catalog. I always ask them though, what happens when John has a flashlight he just ordered and it is broken? Is HR responsible for returns and customer service issues? Offering rewards to participants that are bought in bulk may seem like a good idea but can turn into a nightmare for HR folks who are left to deal with customer service and ordering for these gifts.
Thank you to everyone who provided me with such an insightful list of common mistakes that can be easily avoided. For each mistake there is often a much better alternative and even though I feel administrators have their hearts in the right places, we are all human an often make avoidable mistakes. Have anything to add to this conversation? Please feel free to log in and post a comment.
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