Award Employees

This blog post on BNET, the CBS Interactive Business Network, makes some very relevant points about employee awards.

The author is writing from the perspective of an HR professional who, (we assume) has implemented employee award programs as part of her job responsibilities.  We submit the following  opinions on each of her points that derive from the perspective of designing, implementing, communicating and measuring the effectiveness of employee rewards systems for over 40 years with hundreds of companies. Read the rest of this entry »

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Award giving can be a difficult business. Tastes change, trends fade and what someone may have wanted a couple of weeks ago isn’t what they want today. We all face the same situation when it comes to selecting awards for incentive programs, and for many of  us  the best conclusion in these fast moving times – let them get what they want! 

The gift card has been a godsend for anyone who can’t pick out the perfect thing that someone wants. And they’ve grown in popularity faster than anything else in the retail world. In 2004 we spent $20 billion in gift cards. Last year we spent over 4 times that. Gift cards have gone from being considered impersonal gifts to being the most thoughtful gift of all. The gift card is a sign of the times – tastes change quickly, options should remain open, and you never know what you’ll spot something you just can’t live without! 

Why the huge increase in demand for gift cards? Simple. Not only does it let someone buy what they really wanted (but were maybe too polite to say), it also lets them get it at the best price possible. They can wait until the sales, they can take advantage of special offers and maximize that gift. But there’s still a problem – what gift card to give?

 You can try and pick the specific store they want to go to, but more often than not they might want to go somewhere else or they don’t get the chance to visit for some time. And those gift cards sit on dressers, or in the back of wallets until they’re forgotten. There is the universal Visa or American Express card, but with those you have hidden fees, fine print and expiration dates. Not the mention the many problems some purchasers have had with these types of cards. 

That’s where we come in. The Award of Choice is the ultimate in flexibility when it comes to award programs. It can be redeemed when the time is right, for cards from hundreds of your favorite retailers, hotels, theatres and restaurants. And best of all the certificate will never, ever, expire, so they can take as long as they like to choose where to spend their gift. All this choice, and you can create it right from your computer, customized for your special someone. 

We think this is the ultimate award, we know it’s something we’d like to get for every occasion and we hope you feel the same way.

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Now here’s a question that the incentive industry has bounced around since the beginning and client after client has weighed with on their opinion.  It is still the most volatile question you can ask in the incentive world, or for that matter the entire compensation and benefit industry.  I’v heard just about every answer for it, some less original than others, some with a great deal of research and thought behind it, but most with the same approach.

In short, the incentive industry will tell you that cash does not make a good incentive award, period!  They will go on and on about the reasons why, but only supply some philosophical or psysological evidence for their stance, never any empirical data to support the conculsion.   Yet, cash incentives as understood by sales and marketing professionals can be very effective, all proper design issues taken into consideration.  Cash bonuses and profit sharing for all employees to be rewarded for their part in the profitiability of a company are certainly appropriate, especially in times of recessions. 

So in many ways cash can be a very effective incentive.

On the other hand, non cash forms of awards such as gift cards or travel definitely have their place in the Incentive award mix and they too can be very effective.  Hate to cop a plea, but the answer is ….it depends.  Depends on what, well initially what you are trying to accomplish which is the first step you’ll have to take to get to the answer of whether cash is the award that you need to use.

We have put together a long list of  things that you should consider and some arguments on both sides of the issue and will be happy to send it to you.  If you think that this would be helpful, just click here.

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Today it seems that it’s almost de rigueur for us “experienced” incentive sales types to say to a client that we are completely “Award Neutral” when it comes to recommending the right award solution for their incentive program.  But what does that really mean?  And are we being totally honest with the client?  

In the “old days” 

Back in the early 1970’s I was pounding the pavement of the San Francisco bay area looking for unsuspecting prospects to listen to my well rehearsed presentation on the merits of sales incentives.  When the motto of the company back then was “Motivating Men to Sell Your Product,” do you think it was a different time?  How do you think that motto would fit into our world today?? 

At that early time in my career, I was taught never to approach a client initially about awards.  It was drilled into me never to take our beautiful hard bound deluxe book of merchandise awards to the first meeting, and often not the second or even the third.  My job was to learn as much about the client as I could.  The theory was that if I learned about their company, organization, products, distribution, pricing etc. I would be in the best position to recommend a program that would produce results.  And, my teachers were right.  Approaching the business from this perspective allowed me to concentrate our resources on building the best solution for the client before we discussed what they should use to award the participants for results.  We didn’t have to worry about being “award neutral” because in fact we were.  Of course it helped that at that time all the industry had to sell were two rewards, merchandise, and group travel.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Whether it’s old age setting in or just a little nostalgia, I often find myself thinking back to my early days in the industry and contemplating how things have or haven’t changed.  I see articles written on subjects that aren’t really different from what was said many years ago.  It’s almost as if we just dust off old philosophies and restate them in today’s terms and for today’s audience.  One thing’s for certain, the philosophy of why and how to motivate performance hasn’t changed much.  The tenets and rules we used in the 60’s and 70’s are just as valid today as they were then…and in some cases even more so.  Have generational changes brought us back to the future?  Read the rest of this entry »

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