How to Create an Incentive Program for your Company

Incentive programs can be a great boon for your company

Incentive programs can be a great boon for your company, improving employee engagement, performance, and retention. However, achieving these results can be a challenge and requires a well-designed program with clear measures of success and rewards.

Consider Your Organization

An incentive program may look much different for a new start-up than for an older business. What are the specific metrics that you wish to reward, and how do employees demonstrate them? How is the program tracked? If rewards feel arbitrary, it can cause frustration.

Determine a reasonable budget and include all employees in the program. Encourage teamwork, and also a healthy dose of good-natured competition with the right balance of team-based and individual rewards. Giving out smaller, affordable prizes such as office posters may keep morale better than a single, big prize at the end of the program, whether it’s every year, quarter, or month. 

Define Success

What defines success for your program? It should be challenging but realistic and attainable. If the goals are too easy and prizes are given out too often, it can devalue the program at the cost of trying to keep everyone happy but instead being overly generous. With that said, small victories should be celebrated to keep employees on the right track, keeping them motivated and inspired to do their best.

What Rewards Do Employees Want?

The next puzzle piece to a successful incentive program is choosing rewards. Smaller thank you gifts for employee appreciation can be easier to manage than one large reward, but larger rewards as part of a longer-running program can be a great additional incentive. What will your employees want? Do they want something like a highlighter set or a tumbler for their morning coffee? A notebook or a stack of sticky notes? 

The key to choosing appropriate rewards is understanding the culture and the employees themselves. Some may want a teamwork sculpture they can admire during a brain break at their desks, while others might prefer a company-branded mug or T-shirt. 

Measure Progress and Refine the Program

Once the program’s goals are outlined and there’s a good idea of what kinds of rewards are appropriate, it’s time to kick off the program. Once it’s in motion, continually monitor progress. You will be able to see what is working and what is not in the program and adjust accordingly. 

If the raffle system based on managers recognizing employees is not working, for example, switch to a different incentive system or refine within the system. What deserves a ticket, and what does not? If the goals are still not clearly defined, they may need to be revised.

Another critical part of a successful program is communication. This includes informing employees of the program’s goals and rewards, and when monitoring the program, letting them know what is working and what is not. Then, tell them who won, and what the next steps of the program are.

About Successories

Successories is committed to helping others succeed. “Success” is in their name and they mean it. They aim to help their customers succeed, and their customer’s organization, employees, and clients succeed. Successories provides the tools and services to help make that achievement possible, with positive reinforcement and recognition as key facets to success. Their goal is to help customers inspire, motivate, and recognize employees, unlocking their potential. Founded more than 30 years ago, Successories invented motivational posters for offices and also offer executive gifts, custom corporate gifts, employee gifts, and more.

Find all the employee incentive gifts you need at www.successories.com