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Company leaders are increasingly concerned with attracting and retaining key employees and increasing employee engagement. Incentive, reward and recognition programs are effective ways in which to accomplish these goals, yet many in the business community are still not aware that there is a formal, experienced network of suppliers to serve this marketplace. These companies may be putting programs together in house, they may be buying rewards at retail or from big box stores, Amazon or other sources that have little or no experience in the rewards & recognition space. These sources do not understand the special needs and deadlines critical to the success of employee and customer programs.

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Listen to this blog:

The latest Gallup State of the Workplace report confirms what we’ve suspected about employee engagement, but there are encouraging signs as well:

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?

Sounds easy enough, right? Any time you hear that a company tried an incentive program and “it didn’t work”, it’s likely that the company managers tried to design the program on their own. Designing effective employee reward & incentive programs is not as easy as it sounds.

Incentives… we all want them. From earning $.05 cents off a gallon of gas after spending $100 dollars food shopping to receiving 50,000 sky miles for signing up for that “Free” credit card on a flight to Vegas We all love when we think we are getting something for “free”.  But are these incentives really “free”?  What is the true cost of  50,000 sky miles or $.05 cents off a gallon of gas   cost  the promoting company.  From the companies perspective, the cost associated with the discount, miles, or points pale in comparison to the objective to drive and change our behavior.  

Market research has been a valued strategy for decades. Traditionally, marketers have employed focus groups, product testing, interviews and telemarketing surveys to get that all-important customer and prospect input. Companies that invest in employee incentive and recognition strategies can also benefit from market research.  For incentive and recognition programs, input from representatives of the target group is critical to ensure that the process is effective and the rewards will be motivating to the audience.