Benefits of Incentive Programs
Written by:
Sheryl Strasser
Article Overview: Incentive programs are a great way for businesses to reach out to their employees in an appropriate and appreciate manner. Not only do they work to improve the livelihood of the individual worker, but they also help to improve the livelihood of the business as well. Everyone is able to take part in the success of the company and feel like they are an integral part of the company and the work which takes place inside the company.
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Benefits of Incentive Programs
Improving morale is hardly the only benefit of implementing successful incentive programs within the workplace. However, it is extremely important that the programs be successful and well planned in order for them to work. Implementing an unsuccessful program will likely do the opposite of improving morale and can potentially lead to resentment among the workers in the business. Because of this, it is very important to choose a program of incentives that will appeal to the average worker and make them feel important. The incentives need to be tailored to the particular needs and desires of the individual workplace. When the proper incentive program is put into place, the results will be noticed with ease and days will run much smoother.
For example, when employees are happy and content, they will have a better disposition. Obviously this is helpful for workers that are involved with customers since they will be more likely to have patience with the clients and to go the extra mile in order to ensure happiness on the part of the clients. Even better, the morale and disposition of the co-workers may actually enable them to work better as a team, together. This means that when one person needs help, instead of ignoring that individual’s problems and making sure that they look out for themselves, other co-workers may chip in and try to help that person, which would allow the company to work more as a team which is typically more successful than everyone being concerned on with their own well being.
The incentive programs that are implemented may also enable a company to improve communication between the different co-workers and levels of management. This helps to ensure that when a problem comes up, the company as a whole is more inclined to address the issue. If workers are too concerned with what others will think of them or how others will react that they may try to fix the problem on their own and end up doing more harm than good.
Increased communication will be beneficial in many different areas of the workplace. In addition, co-workers may begin to feel more like friends as opposed to individuals that work together and have nothing in common. Many business owners will even find that it feels good to reward their employees and that it is important not to take workers for granted in any market or in any capacity. Employee incentive programs will help with all of these issues.
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improving morale,
incentive program,
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levels of management,
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resentment
Related Forum Posts
Any experience with McManus UK Ltd.?
- Did anybody already deal with any of the McManus UK Ltd offshore entities? I do have a program, but not enough cash. I have been advised that they can fund investors with access to Private Placement Programs but they don’t want to joint venture with me. They want a fee for the service. This is why I want to find out if anybody has had first hand experience with this group?
Patrick Ohara, Financial Consultant
Re: Small Business Advice Seminar?
- Wow! Thanks for the detailed answer Takuya, and I'll be sure to highlight your response to the seminar company. The only problems that I could envision about inviting a guru speaker are a) this company wants to brand its owners and trainers as the "gurus" and b) they offer seminars all across Canada on almost a weekly basis, so it'd be difficult to get that many gurus.
[quote="Takuya":2ajo8olk]Incentive is nice, but it might draw greater number of attendance if a guru speaker can come. Instead of thanking people for attending, it'll make the seminar to look more of a privilege to attend.[/quote:2ajo8olk]
To expand on this point, perhaps they could advertise that seating is limited and notify those who pre-register how many seats are remaining to emphasize how it's a privilege to attend. Moreover, I believe that showing that most of the seats are taken will act as a "call to action" and get others excited about taking part in the event.
[quote="Takuya":2ajo8olk]I don't know what your friend's budget is, but if you happen to be promoting something real high end, instead of inviting a guru speaker, you could offer Ipod, too.[/quote:2ajo8olk]
I believe the sponsors of these seminars include Staples and Bell, so the prizes from their contest draws are already high end items.
Re: You don't need to go to a "real" school to get
- [quote="OmnivoreInk":cwl01a6m]There are, I think, two types of people who go to school. Those who want to learn, and those who don't.[/quote:cwl01a6m]
Hi Barbara,
I agree with your comment 110% and that's why I could probably argue that it doesn't even matter if you go to a community college or distinguished University. At the end of the day, you're all given: a) an instructor and b) a textbook and it's really up to the individual to decide what he/she wants to get out of it. The [u:cwl01a6m]only[/u:cwl01a6m] real difference between "schools" is the level of student competition since all grading is done on a curve. For example, my grades at Seneca College's Continuing Education Programs are about 15% higher than what I got during my UofT undergrad!
But another reason why online courses aren't that great is because I don't know why I need to pay $300-600 to read a bunch of "cookie cutter" content (via course website and textbook) and then have an "instructor" grade my paper or test? I mean, if you're really interested in learning more about something and have the self-discipline, why not just save your money and read a bunch of related articles on the web for free or buy a textbook for $100 to read at home?
One might even argue that taking courses and getting degrees and diplomas are really only beneficial to people who want to have a career working for someone else.
HRPreneur
- Hi everyone,
I am new to the forum and I recently started my own Human Capital (HR) consulting firm called HRPreneur Inc. HRP focuses on making human capital a strategic differentiator for SME's.
Below is a summary about HRP;
Who We Are:
HRP is a Human Capital consulting firm with 30 years of experience that becomes an extension of your company by providing a full array of services to help you create a highly engaged workforce focused on achieving strategic results in order to build a long lasting great company!
Mission:
HRP provides small and medium sized businesses a Strategic HR Business Partner to increase employee engagement, resulting in cost savings, increased productivity and results at an affordable rate!
Vision:
To inspire and warrant SME's reach their full competency!
Cost Effectiveness:
We provide over 30 years of experience at a fraction of the cost at a strategic executive HR business level
You will save between 50% to 60% in costs per year on salary, bonus, benefits, training, office space alone
We will provide you additional cost efficiencies through our services
Services:
• Strategic Human Resources Planning
• Organizational Redesign
• Change Management
• Organizational Culture Development
• Employee Engagement Programs
• Leadership Assessment and Development
• Compensation Design
• Talent Acquisition
• Assimilation and On-Boarding
• Performance Management
• Talent Management & Succession Planning
• Human Resources Due Diligence
• Human Resources Audit
• Full Service HR Outsourcing
Small Business Advice Seminar?
- Small business advice seminar is pretty generic though. Unless the host has pre-existing relationship with the audience, it's kind of hard for the attendees to assess the value of a seminar in such situation.
And it's easy for the rest of us to say something you see tested everywhere else so let's get something creative so that Kevin could find something he never would have thought about.
Here is my suggestion...
Incentive is nice, but it might draw greater number of attendance if a guru speaker can come. Instead of thanking people for attending, it'll make the seminar to look more of a priviledge to attend.
Whenever you finish a seminar, the attendees would look back evaluating the ROI for the time that was spent being there. Even though the content wasn't a perfectly delivered one, the greater the influence the host would have with the attendees, the better its after effect would become. So that the bit of celebrity attendance, it would boost the credibility for the next time around. It doesn't have to be a super guru, but just a well known local one once seen on TV news or something.
I don't know what your friend's budget is, but if you happen to be promoting something real high end, instead of inviting a guru speaker, you could offer Ipod, too.
Now as for the email campaign ...
I would pay someone in the local area who has huge database of newsletter subscriber list and approach him with can't lose offer, like paying him upfront and splitting some of the revenue from the backend.
Then have him do a few promotions to his list just about the seminar while building anticipation.
My friends and I have done similar what we could call "launch" to our lists of people using a few step methods.
First mail invited people to click through to our first video -- this showed some "private" behind the scenes type of screen shots of what we wanted to sell with just a small lead capture form below the video to build more list.
Second email had another set of short video that showed more content inside, which lasted like 5 minutes so that anyone interested would stop and watch what we had to say.
Third one, forth one just kept on building up some anticipation until people said,
"Umm.. it's impossible for me to physically attend your seminar (or luncheon) on Monday 12 pm, would you take our cash in advance so that we could buy your recorded DVDs?"
Of course, who would refuse that!
Well, this time around may not be possible to do anything like that, but as soon as this seminar is over, you might want to video some of the attendees and ask for testimonials.
Before the next seminar, have people pre-register for the email list and you can send promotional emails to that list every three to four days, just showing the testimonial videos and results of the attendees.
I haven't personally used this method but I know this works the same way as the method I mentioned above.
At this time, the audience is thinking "I don't know what you're going to do in your seminar, would it be worth my time to attend or are you going to waste my time?"
Most pre-seminar promotions sort of leave it up to the attendees to figure out if it's going to be worth or not. And some hosts mistakingly think if it's free, there is nothing to lose. But they don't realize is it still requires people's opportunity cost to attend a seminar so no matter if it's free or not, it's still costing their valuable time and the only way to really build anticipation is clearly articulating the benefit they'll receive in advance.
So if your friends could come up with something super unique to say about the seminar, it could expand it from there. But if their message happens to be still generic, I think it would need the help from a guru speaker.
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