It's not always easy to get bosses on board with incentive travel, as they often see it as more expensive than other rewards. Here's how to convince them.
Incentive travel. For employees, it conjures up images of white sand beaches, beautiful clear water, and an amazing holiday earned for a job well done. Mention the words incentive travel to managers and executives, however, and a lot of them see only a hefty bill. This is because incentive travel tends to cost more than some other employee rewards, such as electronics or household appliances.
But this doesn't have to be the case. Because incentive travel is such a standout reward, it also means that organisations that use it tend to get more return from their employees. So how do you convince the higher ups that a Travel Incentive and Rewards Program is worth the investment?
1) Measure Return on Investment
As with any business practice, it's important you measure the return on investment (ROI). To do this for your program, work out what contribution to profit can be directly linked to incentive travel, and then minus the cost of running that program.
Whatever returns you make over the cost of running the program is your ROI. You can use this as an easy way to show your bosses that incentive travel is worth it. Managers and executives tend to see things in numbers, so if you can display a significant increase in revenue above and over what you're spending on travel, you'll likely win them around to the idea of incentive travel much more easily.
2) Show the bosses how it's helped improve engagement
Organisations all over the world are suffering from a serious lack of employee engagement. In fact, Gallup reports that just 13 per cent of employees across the globe are engaged. Incentive travel is one of the best ways to increase engagement. It helps to show your employees how much you appreciate them - the knowledge that you are prepared to invest in something as special as a holiday is certainly going to get them to feel valued.
Just as you should measure ROI, you can also measure engagement across your organisation, and see to what extent it is linked to incentive travel. Consider sending out surveys asking targeted questions around this. You can then easily show your bosses the results of the survey. Most bosses will care about engagement in itself, but even the ones that are solely concerned with numbers will see that engagement is positive, as it so closely links to productivity and lower turnover.
3) Use it as a way to stand out from the competition during hiring
Another argument you can make to your bosses is how well incentive travel helps you stand out from other employers. Conduct some research into your competitors and what sort of rewards they offer to employees - many are unlikely to include incentive travel among their employee benefits. This means you are likely to sway a lot of the best talent to your organisation by offering such an exciting reward.
4) Make incentive travel scalalbility clear
Another point to make is that incentive travel is fully scalable. You don't have to offer flashy holidays to luxury resorts on the other side of the world if it's not within your budget. Instead, you can pay for trips to destinations that are closer by, or in your own country. Employees will still be extremely grateful for the holiday, and you will still contribute to them feeling appreciated.
Travel Incentive and Rewards Programs with Power2Motivate
Power2Motivate is a global leader in reward and recognition management and has been a full incentive specialist for over 25 years. We assist clients with concept development, program design, teaser programs, registration, travel and destination management and onsite logistics.
Speak to Power2Motivate today and see just how much your organisation can benefit from tailored travel incentives.