In today’s tough economic climate, employers’ attitudes to personnel can be a key factor in influencing a successful outcome when recovery does come.
For the travel industry in particular, the growth in internet bookings, combined with the tightening of consumers’ purse strings, has made it harder for store-based staff to achieve sales targets.
In such difficult times, many businesses turn to staff incentives to try to boost morale, and help their personnel feel secure, appreciated and rewarded.
Incentives can encourage higher levels of performance, whereby employees will work hard to achieve goals if they’re treated with respect and remunerated accordingly.
Incentives can be used to reward an employee for achieving a target, to acknowledge loyalty, to encourage teamwork and to improve an individual’s general performance when business is hard to find.
But creating a successful staff incentive programme needs careful planning to ensure that management get the best out of everyone.
Identify the scheme’s objectives
You might be looking to motivate personnel to meet certain sales targets, or to encourage teamwork or greater productivity. Clarify your objectives, and then consult with employees to discuss the motivational rewards available.
Find out what will incentivise
It’s only by knowing more about who you want to incentivise in terms of age, gender and interests, that a decision can be made about the motivational reward. Offering the most attractive incentive that will suit everyone is difficult, but evidence suggests that non-monetary incentives are more attractive than a cash equivalent, which will often end up being used to pay a bill, leaving the recipient with nothing to show for their hard work.
Involve senior personnel
Senior personnel will help drive forward any incentive scheme, as they’ll be able to ensure that the project is workable from an operational point of view. It’s also a good idea to elect a project leader to co-ordinate activity and answer queries.
Communicate
Ensure the scheme is simple to understand – and communicate using appropriate media channels; noticeboards, newsletters, email and intranet. If staff know what they have to do, and how they’re progressing, it will help keep them interested.
Make some noise about a job well done
Everyone loves a public pat on the back, so publicise good news stories at presentations or conferences. Acknowledgement of success is almost as good as the reward itself.
Stay up to date
The UK Gift Card and Voucher Association has a useful website which provides information on a range of topics, including:
- VAT on vouchers and gift cards.
- Tax and National Insurance on voucher/gift card incentive schemes.
- A nine-step guide to motivation.
- YouGov Gift Giving Research.
- Directory of suppliers.
- History of vouchers and gift cards.
- Details about forthcoming UKGCVA conferences.
For more information on House of Fraser’s corporate incentives, visit its Business Incentives site, which can be accessed via houseoffraser.co.uk.
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