Incentive - February 2009 - (Page 45) AWARDS Th e H u m a n Element S ometimes the highest-value rewards aren’t the most expensive. Last month, Incentive spoke with Joy Kosta, senior director for the Human Capital Institute’s Talent Communities of Practice, and Gordon Green, executive vice president of recognition & reward strategy, for Rideau Recognition Solutions, about incentives and motivating employees in a down economy. The full conversation and information about HCI’s recent webcast,“Doing More with Less: Motivate Your Talent with Self-funding Incentives,” can be found at incentivemag.com/humancapital. Here is an excerpt: “As a company, you have to make a decision, says Green. ” “You will either position yourself during a recession to catapult out when the recession releases some funds, or you will be the victim of the recession. That starts with your people. Are you going to keep the creative ideas that are going to make you a leader in the next wave, or are you going to have a pull-back position?” Financial challenges force companies to review what Green calls, “the human element that incents people, and the stuff that incents people.” “When you run out of money for the stuff, that’s when it starts becoming clear whether your program really has the intellectual and emotional capital to carry itself. That’s where we often talk about recognition as a human need, not a need for more stuff. When I treat you well, when I say ‘thank you,’ it doesn’t cost a thing to the company. But if you didn’t have that kind of culture before, but you had lots of stuff flowing out—‘you did a great job, here’s your iPod, now get back to work’— there’s no culture there of courtesy and personal recognition, so when you strip away the iPod, what loyalty is there? The companies that get it right will get it right with or without the stuff.” Green points to the lasting value of a meaningful thank-you card, which you may find at the bottom of a drawer after months or even years, and upon rereading it, the positive and motivating feelings will come flowing back. This is the value of offering a tangible reward, whether a thank-you card, merchandise, gift card or travel, along with verbal recognition. It will be rekindled and strengthened by having the meaningful tangible attached. But according to Green, rewards given out haphazardly during flush times, are like giving away blank thank-you cards. When financial realities make simply buying the dedication of people impossible, the human element becomes a higher priority… Read the full story at: INCENTIVEMAG.COM/ HUMANCAPITAL Mont Blanc pen and TAG Heuer watch to the employee who makes the most transactions in a given month. These short-term contests don’t consider the dollar value the salesperson is bringing in, but rather the number of contracts being settled. “The transactions are really what drives things,” says Hollander. “You focus on a specific dollar amount that people have to hit, it can be daunting to employees on a psychological level. But if you keep it for something simple, it doesn’t seem so bad.” Simplifying goals is a big reason Hollander has embraced the use of merchandise incentives, which give his sales staff a clear, desirable reward to reach for. Awarding the merchandise frequently, rather than as a large “bounty” award, say every six months or year, adds to the sense that the goal is clear and present, according to Hollander. “If you keep the focus off of what’s happening outside, keep it on ‘Who wants this TV? Who’s going to step up?’ you get continual drive, and focus on the transactions,” says Hollander. “It’s not as ominous to knock down your quota or knock down all these sales. You’re just going for one sale at a time, trying to get that TV, and then, hey, at the end of the month you’ve got this big fat commission check too.” Hollander uses the example of running a marathon and how overwhelming the thought of running 26.2 miles would seem to the beginner, while focusing on regular, more manageable, distances is far more likely to lead to long-term success. This is the advice that Mark Repkin, vice president of Arlington Heights, Ill.–based Certif-A-Gift Company, is giving his clients as well. It’s true that Certif-A-Gift’s system— in which executives can give employees certificates redeemable for merchandise at any one of 18 levels in its catalog—allows for a points program where employees build up their point bank over a long time. But right now, Repkin is seeing a shift to shorterterm contests. “When we’re talking to senior executives right now, we’re talking not about the concerns, but about the opportunities that they have to try to drive the motivation of their sales force forward,” says Repkin. “When the economy becomes unstable, companies continue to want to drive interest to their product, particularly through their salespeople, to get them to do that one extra thing.” But while shifting to shorter-term programs, he emphasizes making it fit the type of sales the company is doing. For programs like the one run by WBS, that award for transactional sales, Repkin is recommending two- to four-week programs. Consultative service companies that have longer selling cycles should go with 60- to 90-day programs, he says. But gone are the six-month or annual contests, at least for the time being. “You’re really trying to jump-start people’s behaviors to get them to make that extra incremental effort,” says Repkin. “It’s very powerful and very effective.” He also stresses using individualized and incremental awarding schemes. For example, encouraging each employee to make a 5, 10 or 15 percent improvement in their individual performance will foster small improvements and extra sales on a incentivemag.com | February 2009 | Incentive | 45 http://www.incentivemag.com/humancapital http://www.incentivemag.com/humancapital http://www.incentivemag.com/humancapital http://www.incentivemag.com
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