Incentive Publications PM40801507 - Manual (Page 13)

detailed, open-ended questionnaire that sensitively collects
information the company needs to design a satisfying trip,
without impinging on employees’ privacy.
BE FLEXIBLE
“Respect your participants. Give them breadth of choice,”
says Shapansky. Employees at Elevate’s client companies
collect Aeroplan
® miles that can be exchanged for a range
of rewards, including travel, merchandise and services.
Since many of Elevate’s clients ask the company to set up
an online portal for their rewards program, an expansive
range of rewards can be tweaked infinitely. “The notion of a
[paper] merchandise-based catalogue is something we used
to hear clients ask for a lot, but we find clients really shy-
ing away from that approach,” says Shapansky.
He gives the example of television sets, once a popular
prize in company contests. Back in the days when Gilli-
gan’s Island ruled the ratings, simply offering a colour TV
could get employees excited. But today, there are many
choices in televisions: LCD, plasma, high definition, wide
screen, you name it. Let your employees choose.
Flexibility can also be built into something like an incen-
tive travel trip. “[In] some cultures, family is very impor-
tant,” Krueger notes, adding that employees from those cul-
tures will be reluctant to take a reward trip without their
spouse and kids. However, the company may not have the
budget to pay for an entire family to attend. A good compro-
mise, which Krueger has used with several clients, is to
allow employees’ family members to join the trip at their
own cost.
Such programs can be particularly crucial to building
employee morale, says Krueger. High-achieving employees
often spend long days at the office and need support from their
families. Getting spouses and kids to feel warmly towards the
company can pay many dividends. But, warns Krueger, “If you
want to get on the side of the family of the person who works
for you, you’ve got to address their concerns.” That includes
making sure there are enough appropriate activities at the des-
tination to keep family members amused while employees are
engaged in teambuilding exercises.
BE OBSERVANT
Sometimes employees will tell you more by their actions than
they will through a questionnaire. Elevate tracks partici-
pants’ activity on its online portals and tailors its communi-
cations to match. If an employee clicks several times on a par-
ticular reward—say, a clubbing weekend in Manhattan—it’s
clear that item has a strong appeal for that person. Elevate’s
automated systems can send tailored e-mails to each employ-
ee, based on their surfing history, encouraging them to do what
they need to do to earn their dream reward.
Shapansky mentions a national preference for reward
programs that allow people to collect miles or points both
inside and outside the office. In an Aeroplan program, for
instance, employees can earn points on their Aeroplan
card, through retailers like Esso and via other partners, as
well as at work. Such multifaceted programs are “more
popular in Canada than anywhere on earth,” he notes.
Simple observation will also tell you many things about
large groups of employees. For example, Shapansky notes
that “Generation Y are pretty cynical about programs. They
want spontaneous rewards. They want them now.” Older
employees may be more inclined to save up points or to
participate in long-running contests.
BE OBJECTIVE
Just because you think something is a great reward
doesn’t mean your employees will. Age, income, culture
and other factors all play a role. For instance, Shapansky
says the Aeroplan program is particularly well suited to
high-earning salespeople who fall squarely within the plan’s
demographic. However, it might not work well for lower-
income employees. Since they are less likely to be existing
Aeroplan members, it will take them longer to earn signif-
icant rewards.
BE INCLUSIVE
Ensuring that incentive programs and their ancillary com-
munications are inclusive of diverse ages, genders and cul-
tures just makes good business sense. After all, if peo-
ple don’t see a program as relevant to them, they won’t
be inspired by it. That communication can be as finely
tuned as the pictures on the gift cards you distribute to
employees.
“An agency will ask us for 100,000 gift cards, and there
might be five different faces…so the client can segment as
much as he wants,” says Harvey Caron, who’s in marketing
and sales with Montreal’s Pentagon Graphics, one of North
America’s leading manufacturers of phone, cellular, transit,
loyalty, membership and gift cards.
SO WHAT’S THE MESSAGE?
The experts agree: understanding your employees is one
of the keys to creating an incentive program that works.
Keep factors like culture, gender and age in mind, then
make sure your program is flexible and responsive. Just
remember the mantra: in 2007, one size definitely does
not fit all.
CIM
Laura Byrne Paquet is an editor and freelance writer living in Ottawa.
➤ [email protected].
13
CANADIAN
IN
CENT
IVE
MAGAZINE
BUYERS’
GUIDE
W W W . I M A C A N A D A . C A 2007
By Laura Byrne Paquet
KNOW THY END-USER