Creating an inspiring incentive involves more than attendees having a great time. While it’s an important part of the process, it’s just one goal of many.
The trip must excite the imagination enough to push employees to perform beyond what an encouraging boss or competitive peer could do during a typical work week. It has to leave them with memories they will draw on for years.
Such goals may sound daunting, but many incentive planners say it is not as hard as it may seem. By taking specific steps, an incentive trip with colleagues can become something much more impactful simply by breaking down the sum of its parts.
Step 1: Define “Success”
While every incentive trip should pay for itself through additional sales and improved performance, travel rewards may have other goals, such as retaining top employees. The planner must determine these goals and shape the trip in such a way to ensure they are met.
“Some audiences think a travel program is successful if they come away with two to three key learnings, and others feel it’s a success if they never get out of a lounge chair,” says Jeff Broudy, executive vice president and COO of United Incentives, an incentive house.
Defining what the organization expects to get out of an incentive trip and how much it is willing to invest to reach those goals will inform every subsequent decision made about the event.PageBreak
Step 2: Communicate
Much of the motivational power of an incentive trip comes from anticipation. During the period that employees work to qualify, enticing communications and performance updates should be sent.
Once winners are announced, planners should keep them updated as the trip nears with basic information and lighter communications.
For example, if the event is taking place in Mexico, each attendee can be sent an English-to-Spanish dictionary. Details or cryptic clues of what will take place on the trip can be sent regularly to create buzz.
This is also the time for planners to gather further details about participants, from dietary restrictions to history with the company.
“You must do the work upfront to identify what your audience needs and what’s going to motivate them,” Broudy says.
Step 3: Make it Special
Before and during the program, it must be made clear that this trip is special. That process begins with destination selection.
“There are some great vacation places that do not work for an incentive,” says Andy McNeill, CEO of event marketing and meeting planning company American Meetings. “You want to give participants a destination that is not saturated with tourism.”
McNeill recently took a group of 20 winners and their significant others to the Hotel Arenal Springs in Costa Rica, a destination few of the participants had even heard of, and gave them unique access.
“Try to find those things that set a trip apart,” says Tanya Feldman, manager of group operations for ITA Group. “Anybody can go to Rome, but they can’t have a private dinner in the Vatican after-hours.”
Step 4: Make it Personal
Just as a sense of exclusivity helps to set an incentive trip apart from a typical vacation, planners should invest in ways both large and small that give participants a more personal experience while on the trip.
“We try to provide that personalized touch by sometimes having other celebrations happening while they’re on the program,” Feldman says. “For example, you can collect the dates of births in case there’s a birthday on the trip, or maybe it’s someone’s anniversary.”
Planners can also gather information about attendees’ hobbies and outside interests, incorporating those into the room gifts or activities.
Step 5: Keep it Flexible
Include periods of free time each day to explore the destination, and alternative options for as many of the activities and meals as possible.
“You want everyone to have a perfect trip,” McNeill says. “Give them flexibility so if they want to take a side trip they can.”
It is often during these periods that participants have time to strengthen their relationships with colleagues. The recent Participant Viewpoint Survey from the Site International Foundation and the Incentive Travel Counsil found that camaraderie with other participants left a “positive” or “very positive” emotional impact on 63.8 percent of incentive travel attendees, while 53.2 percent said the same of connecting with senior management.PageBreak
Step 6: Make it Easy
This is a reward, so the last thing that should stand out in a participant’s mind is jet lag or the long line at the airport. Planners should think of every point of the trip and ask, “Could this be any simpler?”
For example, gifts should be small and packable. Feldman has seen a rise in catalogs with gifts participants can choose and have shipped.
The local destination management company can help keep logistical complications as invisible as possible.
Step 7: Make it Last
The impact of an incentive trip should continue to be felt months or even years after everyone has returned home.
“There’s a halo effect for about 60 days post-trip,” Broudy says.
The experiences can be made to last by sharing photos or moments from the trip through e-mail messages or in-person conversations. Mailing the in-room gifts a week after the event, or a postcard with a group photo a month or two later, can reinvigorate fond memories.
Post-trip evaluations can be enormously helpful.
“The opportunity there is to reinforce the behavior that was successful,” Broudy says, “and get something under way immediately while they are still feeling that afterglow.”
Alex Palmer, a freelance writer, considers a trip to Starbucks after a few hours of writing a successful incentive trip.
