Building your Brand
It’s more critical than ever to include employee recognition and incentive programs in your arsenal of tools for building brand equity. It’s equally important to get the program right as well-a slipshod attempt at motivating employees could backfire and derail your brand-building goals.
Here are five key steps needed in conducting a successful program.
- REWARDS & RECOGNITION
What types of awards will be used, and how will they be delivered? No award works for every program or audience-it’s imperative to make sure the awards are compelling to your audience and commensurate with the effort they will need to put forth to attain them.
- BUDGET
How much will you spend and for what? Will you want an open or closed program? How will expenses change based on various outcomes-positive or negative?
- MEASUREMENT
How will you measure the award payout in terms of financial and non-financial value to the organization? Plans should include a clear timeline and owner for each step and take into account any outside factors that could influence the outcome.
- TRACKING & ADMINISTRATION
One of the key benefits of an incentive program is the ability to collect valuable data about results and the process. Both types of data will be useful in refining the program along the way and designing new programs in the future.
- ANALYSIS & FEEDBACK
Programs often have quantitative and qualitative measures of success. Compare your actual results with your plan and isolate factors that may have affected performance.
Michelle M. Smith is vice president, business development, O.C. Tanner Co., and president of the Incentive Marketing Association.
W
For more on premiums and incentives, go to www.promomagazine.com/incentives/
