But sometimes employees forget what they learned on their first day, or in the interviewing process. What are the company goals? What is the mission statement? How is this position benefiting the long term growth and sustainability of the company? It’s beneficial for employees to receive periodic updates on company policy and progress. Also, companies are constantly changing and employees need to stay informed. Many of our incentive and recognition program clients offer an e-mailed newsletter or an online version of their company newsletter. This allows employees to be continually engaged about goings on at their place of employment.

Unless one works for a multinational corporation who is in and out of the nightly news, how is an employee to stay informed? Companies are finding new and inventive ways to solve problems, increase profits and better the environment. I worry that employees stuck in their cubicles, heads down, working hard may miss these advancements unless they are made more readily available.

A great addition to any incentive or recognition program website is a company newsletter. Our complimentary custom websites showcase all aspects of a program, and we are always happy to incorporate any of your branding, culture or company periodicals. Office e-mails can be easily over looked; flyers posted in the break room can be missed. But when an employee logs in to check his points or redeem his gift, he is engaged and ready to consume information. He is already excited about his company’s reward program and it is a perfect opportunity to share success and improvements.

My hope for my programs who implement an employee newsletter is that accomplishments do not go unrecognized, innovations are praised and employees feel a part of a larger purpose outside of their own desk. We are all employees of the world. I would hate for your employees to feel like they live in a bubble.

Today, on LinkedIn, I ran across a guy who was looking to start a performance based incentive program. He is in the preliminary stages and is gathering information on how to start a program. From his discussion heading, I fear he is feeling overwhelmed: “So I have been tasked with developing a Performance based Incentive Plan...and am LOST!” He reminded me of one of our clients who has initiated their program but failed to get it off the ground. I cannot imagine being an employee of a company, knowing there was an employee incentive program coming, but not seeing any results. As an employee, I would be disappointed in my managers or supervisors not getting their act together.

I won’t lie; an incentive program is not an easy undertaking. I have great respect for my clients for taking on this task on top of their daily responsibilities. But as an account manager, I am here to help you! At Awards Network we want you to use our resources. We have a wealth of knowledge from working with so many different companies; we have probably run a program like yours before.

So as your potential future account manager I have some words of wisdom for you. First, stop kidding yourself that cash is a suitable reward for employees. We have found plenty of research why you should not use cash to incentivize your employees. Second, now that you will be using name-brand merchandise to reward your employees, let’s get them excited about your new program! How are you going to communicate the program to your employees? Are they savvy e-mail/ computer people? Would they prefer printed materials?

The next, and in my opinion most important step, is to establish the program goals and ways to earn points. For some reason this is the biggest hang-up for clients. After months of research, clients tend to loose site of the big picture: What are you trying to accomplish? What set you on the path to an employee incentive program in the first place? Our friend from LinkedIn was trying to boost performance. Think about your overall goal and we can help you tailor a program around your theme. You will find it is easy to reward employees once the program gets started. After rewarding employees points for going above and beyond (boosting performance), you can reward them for anniversaries (length of service, to boost employee retention) etc. It is a spiral effect that we will assist you with so you can stay in your budget.

I have two pieces of advice for you on budgets: 1) Have a budget 2) Talk to upper management about the budget and get it approved before the program starts. I have seen way too many programs delayed because proper approval was not obtained. With your budget approved and mode of communication ironed out, we are ready to begin. The hard part is over; it is very easy from here on in. Check out our incentive program checklist (a downloadable PDF) to help you stay on track.

Lastly, but most importantly, don’t lose sight of your goal whether that is boosted performance, enhanced employee engagement or employee retention. The end result is guaranteed to be happy employees.

You may not have heard, but there are much better ways to recognize your employees. May I suggest a peer to peer recognition program? Because really, who knows your employees better than their fellow co-workers? A couple of stand-out programs come to mind when I think of great employee recognition programs. Employees in these successful programs consistently write lengthy descriptions about their fellow employees going above and beyond. And as the saying goes, “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours,” after being recognized, employees are more likely to become a nominator themselves.

Many of the program administrators and managers are cc’d on all the nomination e-mails so they can monitor what is being submitted. This also gives them a chance to see a bird’s eye view of the day-to-day workings of their office. A great client phone call may go unnoticed if the person in the next cubical didn’t overhear and nominate that employee for a job well done. I have also seen very personal and detailed nominations submitted that only employees working right alongside someone would have noticed.

I’m not faulting upper management for not opening their office doors, but a peer-to-peer recognition program is a great way to reward employees who are doing fantastic things in the workplace. Sometimes it’s impossible to see what’s happening in every department all the time. Employees often have apprehension about talking to a manager even in positive situations. An online portal for recognition gives employees an easy and quick way to recognize their fellow co-works and then get back to work!

Best In Class organizations have the following in common:

• 83% of Best In Class companies' sales reps achieved annual quota in the last year compared with 51% of Industry Average firms and 22% of laggard companies.
• Best In Class companies had 23.1% average year over year growth in corporate revenue versus 7.2% for Industry Average firms and a decline of 5.9% for Laggards.
• Best In Class companies had 9.7% average year over year improvement in average deal size, compared with 1.9% for Industry Average companies and a .4% decline for Laggards.

Companies offering non-cash incentives have better results:

• Best in Class companies are more than twice as likely as all other firms to provide non cash incentives (21% of Best in Class vs 10% of other companies use R&R programs)
• Organizations that provide non cash reward/recognition had an average year over year annual corporate revenue increase of 9.6% versus 3% for all others.
• Organizations that provide non cash reward/recognition had a 2.1% year over year increase in revenue per sales FTE versus a 0.7% decrease for all others.
• Organizations that provide non cash reward/recognition had a 1.6% year over year increase in team attainment of quota versus a decrease of 2.2% for all others.
• Adopters of non-cash rewards/recognition also had 34% shorter sales rep time-to-productivity and 10% shorter sales rep time-to-hire.

Non-cash incentives were integral in achieving some of the results according to the survey. I have been seeing more case studies and research that confirms non-cash incentives such as merchandise and travel options have a greater impact than cash programs. If you haven’t read Fast Company’s article on Wooga, a German social gaming organization, this is a prime example of having non-cash incentives and perks elements come together to benefit the business. Incentive Magazine also has a great spot this month on The Continuing Case for Non-Cash Rewards that highlights how sales incentive programs delivery a higher return on investment when the rewards offered are merchandise and travel based.

All of the recent news about sales incentive program return on investment may inspire you to get started on a reward program for your company. If so, be sure to check out our free incentive program set up checklist in our resource center.

This is an issue we (your friendly Awards Network team) attempt to tackle on a couple different fronts; both as designers and maintainers of our own company website as well as in our roles as Account Managers. The way I see it, the reason people use stock photos is simple…it’s easy and gives a nice, clean look to the materials you’re creating. Plus, you don’t have to take the time to schedule a photo shoot for all your employees and/or wrestle with the camera shy employees who’d prefer to avoid the limelight.

Unfortunately, the result is a much less relevant, unique and memorable – especially when you see the same photos you carefully selected plastered around the stores and websites you visit (one of the “stock” people we used on our company site consistently mocks from a poster each time I stop by my local Goodwill store).

Now, I’m not saying I’m sold on the idea of completely structuring our company website around our own smiling faces, but our clients’ program sites are a different matter. The employee recognition programs we customize are for employees and about employees. They’re not marketing the company to the world, they’re sharing internal recognition and praise and the last thing that makes sense is to design your site around a bunch of “fake” photos…especially if you’re a small enough company that all the employees KNOW none of these people are their coworkers.

So even though we still run into companies that want to use the stock photo look, we encourage everyone to try to include as many of their own employee photos as possible. They warm the program; make it more relevant, accessible and interesting to your employees. Some of the most successful programs we’ve seen have worked their own employee photos in throughout the site or at least included a spotlight page where they can feature pictures of employees at work, at play and proudly brandishing their recognition awards. Remember, your employee recognition program is about your employees and your culture…make sure it makes that obvious in every way you can and your program will be all the more successful because of it!

This is an issue we (your friendly Awards Network team) attempt to tackle on a couple different fronts; both as designers and maintainers of our own company website as well as in our roles as Account Managers. The way I see it, the reason people use stock photos is simple…it’s easy and gives a nice, clean look to the materials you’re creating. Plus, you don’t have to take the time to schedule a photo shoot for all your employees and/or wrestle with the camera shy employees who’d prefer to avoid the limelight.

Unfortunately, the result is a much less relevant, unique and memorable – especially when you see the same photos you carefully selected plastered around the stores and websites you visit (one of the “stock” people we used on our company site consistently mocks from a poster each time I stop by my local Goodwill store).

Now, I’m not saying I’m sold on the idea of completely structuring our company website around our own smiling faces, but our clients’ program sites are a different matter. The employee recognition programs we customize are for employees and about employees. They’re not marketing the company to the world, they’re sharing internal recognition and praise and the last thing that makes sense is to design your site around a bunch of “fake” photos…especially if you’re a small enough company that all the employees KNOW none of these people are their coworkers.

So even though we still run into companies that want to use the stock photo look, we encourage everyone to try to include as many of their own employee photos as possible. They warm the program; make it more relevant, accessible and interesting to your employees. Some of the most successful programs we’ve seen have worked their own employee photos in throughout the site or at least included a spotlight page where they can feature pictures of employees at work, at play and proudly brandishing their recognition awards. Remember, your employee recognition program is about your employees and your culture…make sure it makes that obvious in every way you can and your program will be all the more successful because of it!

Ending a program

Incentive programs end when an organization decides to no longer give recognition and rewards to participants. Sales contests, employee performance and training awards programs are often started with an end date in mind. Other incentive programs may continue but have a clause for unspent points to expire within a certain amount of time; the same considerations apply to these programs as if you were ending them.

If you have decided to end a program, there are several considerations to make. Mainly, you do not want to abruptly end a program without giving participants a chance to spend all or part of the points earned. If you do not give notice, not only will employee engagement be negatively impacted, but if you ever decide to start an incentive program in the future, some people may not be interested in participating for fear of losing all their points earned at a moment’s notice. In order to avoid these situations, I recommend giving employees at least a 30 day notice to spend any points earned or lose them.

Another consideration will depend on how your company is billed for your incentive program. Although participants may stop ordering by a certain date, sometimes points are not paid for up front and you could continue to receive invoices for orders as the items ship out. These incentive program invoices could continue for a couple of weeks after the program has ended. Don’t forget to allot extra time and maybe even budget after orders are placed.

If your incentive program is ending because it fulfilled its purpose and helped you meet your goals, be sure to communicate this as well. Incentives are often used to help get a business where it wants to be by providing an extra reward for desired behaviors. When these goals are met, the end of a program can be more of a celebration of life than a funeral.

Pausing a program

The difference between pausing and ending an incentive program is that unlike ending it, if you put a program on hold, it will resume in the near future. Often companies do this if they don’t want people to earn points anymore but do want people to still have access to the program and points earned in the past. If you decide to put a program on hold, make sure you communicate this with participants and tell them when the program should resume. If you put a program on hold without a date of resumption, it can be just as upsetting to employees as ending the program.

Not all companies allow participants to place orders while the incentive program is paused. This makes putting a program on hold ideal for organizations going through structural changes or budget restrictions. If you decide not to allow people to place orders, be sure to communicate the reason why this is being done so that your ramp up time is decreased when the program resumes.

Starting a program to end it well

When a program is started and management knows that points are going to expire at the end of the year or that the incentive program is going to come to a close by a certain date, be sure this is communicated from the start to participants. Sometimes clients of mine will have a certain budget already worked out for the program and one of the easiest ways to ensure the program budget is spent (and adhered to) within an allotted time is to prepay for points as they are awarded instead of as points are spent. Clients of mine who have prepaid point incentive programs receive credits if a participant is no longer eligible so that the unused amounts can be put back into the budget.

If employees have accrued points for several years, they have more than likely been saving up for a highly desired item. Abruptly ending an incentive program without communication or letting people redeem what has already been earned can severely impact employee engagement and trust. Instead of losing this trust, be sure to follow these two options to end your incentive program.

Just ask us to setup your award program, including a complimentary website that can be customized any way you like. Your employees can select a gift of their choice, in a price range that you choose. With lifestyle brand name merchandise, there’s surely something that your employees can get excited about now!

Who says you have to wait until someone’s birthday or service anniversary to recognize his or her special day? Most employees have different priorities and motivators. Awarding good behavior with cash rewards is painfully easy. Think about the consequences when you’re making an employee associate a number with his or her hard working habits. What happens when that person uses all the extra money to pay off a credit card? Their sense of achievement disappears and you’re back at square one. Consider making your awards truly special. Awards are a splurge item and provide benefits that cash cannot.

SHRM’s article explains how nonmonetary compensation can maximize effectiveness in aligning the goals of the organization with the emotional priorities of its people.

Noncash incentive rewards programs, through which employees earn gifts and merchandise for meeting performance-based milestones, help bolster performance and morale, according to a survey of U.S. office workers completed in July 2011.

The Incentive Research Foundation’s analysis indicates that across a variety of industries noncash awards can capture employees’ imaginations better than cash—thereby motivating them to increase performance. Need an example?

A survey by Staples Advantage provides promising results: The noncash incentive rewards program resulted in 85% of participants feeling more valued, 70% are happier and more motivated at work, 65% are more loyal to their company and 60% are more productive and able to get better results.

Don't you think it's time to start recognizing your rockstar performers?

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Adding Play into the Enterprise
The Power of Recognition in the Enterprise

To be honest, I think it has a lot to do with the culture of each workplace. In the entertainment industry, a strong recognition culture is the norm. People expect to be recognized - whether due to their own performance or for the strange contraption they’ve dressed themselves in - and once everyone is expecting that recognition, it becomes a lot easier to both give and get it.

Now strip out the frivolous reasons celebrities get so much recognition and translate a peer recognition program back to your actual workplace. How would it change if it became the norm to be recognized for your hard work and accomplishments that benefit the organization and all of its employees? What if every time a coworker helped you out or went above and beyond you had an easy way to send him/her a quick thank you and really express your appreciation?

More and more we are seeing companies looking for just that. Some of them are even mimicking the celebrities and modeling their peer recognition programs after the Oscars…complete with awards for Leading Role in a Team Environment, Best Role Model, Achievement in Profitability / Efficiency and Solo Performance in Customer Care. Efforts, in my opinion, much more worthy of praise.

While I may not have the interest or patience in watching the celebrity world pat each other on the back, I do believe that a well executed peer recognition program can go a long way in building a self sustaining recognition culture in the workplace…giving well deserved recognition to your hard workers and making for a much more supportive and engaged workplace.

I am currently working on three different peer recognition programs planning to launch on the first week of March to coincide with Employee Appreciation Day on March 2. There are many reasons companies decide to begin a peer recognition program:

• Increase teamwork

• Institute a formal recognition policy

• Allow for instant recognition/feedback

• Open an opportunity for 360° recognition

Aside from these well-known reasons for setting up a peer recognition program, another great reason is to prevent silos in the workplace. If you aren’t familiar with this term, I think Michelle Hamilton’s definition of silos in her article, Risks of Business Silos and Tips for Breaking Down Barriers to Success will help to fill out in. Hamilton defines organizational silos as occurring, “when individual people, departments, or companies, conduct business in a vacuum, without taking into consideration the impact their actions have on the entire organization. The term silo literally means a ‘storage tower’ – a tall, cylindrical building that separates and stores material on a farm.”

Organizational silos, as described in the book Breaking the Fear Barrier by Tom Reiger, tend to form as companies go from small businesses to larger enterprises. Eventually you may have a situation in which people create protective polices and rules and start to focus on the success of their department instead of the success of the entire organization.

Peer recognition programs help to break down barriers by challenging employees to recognize others. In each of the peer recognition programs I am setting up, employees can be recognized by demonstrating at least one of the core values of the organization. Some common core values include: teamwork, going above and beyond the job description, being safe and going the extra mile to please a customer or client. I am working with clients on different strategies to help keep the peer recognition program in mind so that people can get used to having a good experience with a co-worker and following up by filling out the short peer recognition form. These clients are working hard to make sure we set up a recognition program their employees are aware of and make use of.

I am working with clients to keep the recognition program top of mind by doing a few different things. Automated peer listings help to publicize all of the approved nomination once the program kicks off. Employees can access the recognition program website and view all of the approved nominations on one page. This can help to inspire new nominations and let everyone know what people are doing to earn recognition and rewards from co-workers. One day a month, my clients with peer recognition programs send out a reminder email to ask employees to submit a nomination. With some of my smaller clients, we even send out a weekly nomination summary email on Fridays to let people know who received recognition during that week.

Even if employees work in different departments and tend to be isolated from others during business hours, recognition programs can help bring people together by making everyone more aware of what other people are doing within an organization. After all, no one should be able to get away with coming to work naked.