There is a growing need nowadays to get and keep the best employees available. Most companies will pay top dollar to attract the best talent, but once they take up the offer, few managers bother keeping these employees. With the increasing business competition, this might be the biggest mistake that you make since your competitors will swoop in and poach your best talent, leaving you with significant losses. One of the best ways of retaining the best performing employees is the introduction of an incentive travel program.
However, very few companies are reaping all the benefits of corporate incentive travel programs. When well-handled, you should get an energized and motivated workforce ready to give their all to your company and win the vacation on offer. One of the mistakes that companies make is handling their incentive travel program through one of their departments. This only leaves their employees with dull travel destinations and a lot of hassle when traveling for what should be a stress-free vacation after meeting set targets. Your first step is hiring a professional travel agency to handle this crucial program. The following are other tips for maximizing your company’s travel incentive program:
Create Networking Opportunities for the Employees
Use your incentive travel program to create an opportunity for the best performing workers to network. This will boost their performance in the subsequent business year, more so if they come from different branches of your company. You can, for instance, have them all travel together to one location rather than have different destinations for them.
Change Your Destinations
Some companies have only one destination for all their best performing workers year in, year out. Although some argue that this creates a standardized reward program, it also does little to motivate your employees. If, for example, an employee is the incentive’s recipient this year, he or she will see no need of being the top performer the subsequent year. This defeats the essence of an incentive program.
Focus on the Experience of Your Incentive’s Recipients
Some managers will pick the best destination during a particular season for their incentive travel. While this is easy to do, focusing on the experience, the employees will get to the destination you choose rather than the destination itself being the prudent alternative. Pay attention to how they will be treated during their stay and what activities they will engage in. You can, for instance, have several beach destinations, but the activities a worker can participate in at these beaches are different.
Show Workers the Impact of Their Work on Your Business
Incentive travel will, of course, make the best employees feel appreciated. However, you should go a step further and show them how their work has impacted your business’ revenue or customer retention efforts. This will allow them and others to learn from their strengths and feel like they deserve the reward.
With the right travel agency and the tips mentioned above, an incentive travel program will turn out to be the best investment for your company. Remember that the partnership with the travel agency will be a long-term one. As such, pick the best agency to run the incentive incentive program for your company from the start rather than the cheapest.
