It’s no secret that we all like to be appreciated, be it at work or on a personal level.
Acknowledging your employees’ hard work, as well as their special dates (e.g. their birthday) are simple things which create a highly positive atmosphere within companies. This ultimately creates a sense of community among employees and has a positive impact on their productivity.
Increasingly, companies are looking for solutions to create an employee recognition and incentive program. We have outlined below key elements for designing an effective program that can generate the motivation for your teams that you need.
5 keys to creating your employee incentive program
1. Define your objectives
You have to trace your north. Map out your goals. Objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and relevant. For example:
- Encouraging innovation
- Fostering collaboration between departments
- Increasing sales
- Improving talent retention
In your employee incentive plan strategy, you should also indicate how you will control the management, award attribution, and budget. These aspects are crucial for presenting internally to Management how employee engagement will improve.
2. Attractive incentives
Not all employees are the same, not all employees have the same needs.
Age, generation, family and economic situations can vary greatly within a company. Therefore, in order to generate general interest, it is essential to have a broad catalog of varied prizes.
Another aspect to consider is value, not only monetary value but perceived value; You don’t need to have expensive prizes that may compromise the viability of your project.
3. Reaches all employees
Allocating rewards to the entire workforce for certain behaviours and actions can be complicated, especially in terms of budget. One solution to this can be to use a points-based programme.
Based on the defined objectives, it creates rules for obtaining points and assigns different values according to their complexity or weight for the company. For example, award points for birthdays, completing 5 years in the company or referring a candidate for a potential job. Employees will then be able to access different reward levels in the catalogue, depending on the total amount of points they have earned.
The actions or behaviours which are most highly valued by the company will earn the most points. The more of these actions and behaviours the employee fulfils, the more rewards they will be eligible for. This ensures that even small achievements are rewarded, in this case, with points.
4. Assesses the necessary management and control
Managing an incentive programme can involve a great deal of work, in addition to implementation and maintenance costs. If you lack a warehouse, a central purchasing office and a team that can dedicate hours to the management, communication and monitoring of your programme, then do not do it on your own. Hiring specialised companies is the best, most cost-effective and efficient solution.
5. Incentive starts with communication
Incorporate programme details within your usual systems of communication, in addition to information regarding which behaviours and actions are rewarded. This generates not only awareness, but also incentivises employees to pursue the objectives.
Mentioning the employee incentive program in the selection process is a differentiator for attracting talent and adding value to the company’s benefits package.
Create your dream employee incentive program
Are you ready to take the plunge and create your own employee recognition and incentive platform?
Ask for a demo and find out more about Vip Incentives, our incentive platform based on points, rewards and gamified challenges.
A turnkey solution where you can:
- Create ad-hoc campaigns for all your employees or just for certain selected departments or teams.
- Automatically allocate points according either to defined rules or allow points to be allocated manually.
- Control the performance of the programme and obtain usage and budget reports in real time.
- Enjoy access to a wide and varied catalogue of awards, including many big brands. The platform takes care of 100% of the communication and delivery logistics.
