8 Questions That Can Help Ensure Success

In the case of incentive and recognition programs, answering a few basic questions can make the difference between measurable success and ending up behind the 8-ball

 

Ask any solution provider in the incentive, recognition and loyalty space about their biggest challenge, and they’ll undoubtedly say it’s clients who simply wish to conduct “do this, get that” incentive campaigns to achieve critical business goals. 

While organizations think nothing of engaging expert consultants to manage their training and development, enterprise technology, customer relationship management, advertising and direct marketing campaigns, the dirty little secret is that management frequently views incentive, recognition and loyalty programs as a “nice shiny thing” to help them achieve critical short-term goals, unaware of the potential dangers.

Of course, it’s understandable that managers looking to achieve a short-term goal might feel that a comprehensive strategy addressing all key levers of engagement would require more organizational buy-in than they have time for. But incentive programs – like any investment of this magnitude focused on a key audience – warrant a basic attention to detail that many don’t appreciate. Poorly designed sales, dealer and employee programs almost always do more harm than good and carry high hidden risks, including:

MISGUIDED EXPECTATIONS

The sad truth is that the incentive and recognition field is shown so much disrespect from corporations that solution providers often have difficulty getting clients to pay for program design or technology – they expect those services to be provided as part of the markup on rewards. In effect, these clients aren’t buying performance improvement, they’re buying “things.” The irony is that effectively designed incentive programs are actually profit centers, not cost centers, and can be funded with a level of pay-for-performance available nowhere else. 

While there’s no research explaining why corporate management often places little value into what goes into proper program design, there are several possible explanations:

 

1. Most companies conduct little to no return-on-investment analysis on their incentive, recognition and loyalty programs (based on surveys by World@Work and other organizations).

2. Few companies consistently assess their audiences to determine what actually might engage them to help achieve organizational goals.

3. Companies often turn to “carrots” to address a short-term issue or because a competitor is doing something, with little understanding of potential collateral damage. 

4. Few people in business have any formal training in incentive program design and assume it’s just a matter of finding the right “lure” to dangle in front of their audiences.

 

NO MORE EXCUSES

There’s no longer any excuse for failure due to inadequate program design. Over the past 15 years, the rewards and recognition industry, through the Incentive Research Foundation, has funded extensive third-party and academic research on all aspects of program design, along with compelling research on what is required for success. In addition, industry organizations such as the Incentive Marketing Association and Enterprise Engagement Alliance have extensive education programs on program design for incentive and engagement programs, respectively, and much of the information is available at little or no cost.

The good news is that the framework for effective incentive program design – or even, for that matter, more comprehensive engagement strategies – is no more complicated than the framework for any other types of marketing or human resources programs. In the case of incentive and recognition programs, answering a few basic questions can make the difference between measurable success and having egg on your face – or even worse, undermining your company’s relationships with its top talent, distributors, or customers. Here are some questions to address that will ensure a successful investment: