All Star - Blog

Because we’re in the business of helping companies improve business, we are especially skilled in structuring effective employee programs that improve engagement, increase sales and achieve other metrics and improve business in general. (There are many reasons why improving employee engagement is beneficial.) This recent article suggests that some company leaders may be unclear about the difference between corporate gifting and properly structured employee incentive, recognition and reward programs.

Rewarding and recognizing employees is more important than ever as employers struggle to keep employees motivated and engaged in a work-from-home environment. Reward choices matter. In any economy, the right rewards can make a lasting impression on your workforce and increase the return on your program investment.

This year has been a challenge for most businesses, and especially for HR managers as companies transition to a work-from-home workforce. We’ve discussed the trends in marketing next year; here are some trends that experts predict we’ll see in 2021 for human resource professionals:

It is an understatement: 2020 has been a crazy year! Many organizations have moved to a work-from-home model. Workers are finding themselves balancing their work schedule with that of their spouse and kid’s schoolwork. The fight for the computers and laptops is likely settled by now. For 2021, what is keeping marketers up at night? Here are some marketing trends to watch in 2021:

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are an increasingly popular way for all stakeholders, not just investors, to evaluate companies. Many mutual funds, brokerage firms, and robot-advisors now offer products that employ ESG criteria. ESG criteria can also help investors, employees, contractors, and others avoid companies that might pose a greater overall risk due to their environmental or other practices. What can ESG criteria mean for your business?

There are many definitions of employee engagement. In a nutshell, employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization.

Although employee incentive, reward and recognition programs are popular, many program coordinators skip the steps that would prove their effectiveness. Critics of these programs claim that they’re not measurable, they are nice to have but can’t document any financial benefit to the company. In fact, it is possible – and advisable – to measure employee programs. The latest Incentive Research Foundation study reports how many companies are measuring success.

The pandemic has affected every business and every employee. When businesses make necessary accommodations and transition employees to a work-from-home environment, it is tempting for companies to focus on the immediate crisis and put employee programs on the back burner. Putting employee programs on hold may be the worst thing businesses can do.

Most companies have some sort of employee engagement initiative underway and company leaders expect tangible benefits from those initiatives. Fortunately, there is data that proves that companies with high employee engagement and a positive culture enjoy greater customer engagement and profitability.

Companies with defined incentive, reward and recognition programs enjoy a higher market share, lower turnover rates, a more highly engaged workforce, higher productivity and a host of additional benefits, so it makes sense that an increasing number of companies are turning to these programs. But very few company leaders know which reward vehicles work best, understand the legal tax and regulatory issues involved, or employ staff with relevant experience to properly design programs. Yet, despite this, many still attempt to do so using in-house resources.