Redesigns and rebranding your company do not happen that often, but when they do, there is so much to keep in mind. On top of updating your own website, online/in print marketing and everything else with your new logo, I am asking you to do one more thing: please don’t forget about your employee incentive program website! Updating your logo and incentive website colors can lead to a great opportunity for your provider to update the incentive program.
When you initially setup an employee incentive program, there are so many things to keep in mind. Everything is fresh and you are just trying to get the program up and running. After a new logo is created, you can take the time to go through the employee incentive program website and carefully review the goals you initially setup. I am working on the website pictured here for Lee Local (click for larger image). While on a call with my contact, he mentioned that after reviewing the goals of the program, they had decided not include a few goals originally set up. Even though the program was set up earlier in 2012, enough had changed in their pay structure that they needed to update the goals. We updated this information on the website and reviewed the rest of the site to make sure it was still relevant and up to date. Since you may only be changing the colors/look of the website, a redesign gives you a lot more time to analyze the goals and information on the incentive website than when the program was first implemented.
Another goal to keep in mind when redesigning an employee incentive program website is to make sure it is user friendly. I was really excited to have another try at the text this client wanted to include on their home page. The text on the initial website took up a lot of room, which in my experience means a lot of people glance at it, but won’t read it. I am hoping with this new design, people will take a minute to read the details about the purpose of the program and how people can get involved. Creating a recognition culture is not easy, and the text they came up with is both inspiring and relevant to each employee of the company. I also worked with the client to change the links at the top of the page and to create a dashboard page that included all of the account information, peer recognition components and leader board pages all linked from one page. Dashboard pages can really help to ease the navigation of the incentive program website and are very user friendly.
Additionally, redesigning an employee incentive program website gives you the opportunity to incorporate new capabilities or ideas into the program. Since this client had just setup the employee incentive program website this year, there were not a lot of features to add. However, two of my other clients who are doing redesigns for 2013, are adding a lot of new incentive features not available when the programs were setup in 2009. For example, although peer recognition has been a part of our employee incentive program offerings for years now, in 2012 we added the ability to incorporate profile pictures. This new feature can be worked into an existing employee incentive program, but knowing that a client wants to use this in their website, I can design it with the knowledge they will be using profile pictures throughout the site. Adding the newest features is a great option and be sure to ask your incentive program provider about what updates they have had since your program was originally implemented.
Lastly, keep in mind is that when you redesign an incentive program, it is a big deal to the participants of the program. If you are adding in new capabilities, changing the ways people earn points or how people will navigate the website, be sure you communicate the incentive program updates via email and flyers. Redesigning an incentive program is the perfect time to re-launch the program as well and get everyone excited about it. I often see login rates spike with redesigns that are communicated well. The more people are logging into the incentive website, the more they are learning about how to participate and reach your goals.
When redesigning an incentive program website due to an updated logo, take the time to review the content and usability will help to improve the program. Be sure that instead of just swapping out a new logo or changing some of the colors used on the incentive website, you also ask about new incentive program features that you could take advantage of. And as always: communicate, communicate, communicate!
