Successful reward and recognition programs aren’t an out-of-the-box solution. Instead, you must create a reward and recognition program that is specifically built around your organization needs, your distinct audience, and your organizations’ objectives.
Here’s how you get started creating a reward and recognition program.
Determine your goals:
What do you want your reward and recognition program to accomplish? The answer is different for each organization, and your answer may vary year over year. Do you want to increase sales? Launch a new product? Increase the number of sales channels? Determining your program goals is an essential first step in the creation of a successful reward and recognition program.
When creating your reward and recognition program, think beyond your sales team. There are many others in your organization who help influence sales. Do you have a sales support team? A service team? How about channel partners? All of these groups should be part of your reward and recognition program.
See what a rewards platform can do for your team.
Engage your team:
Clearly defining and communicating your reward and recognition program rules is important. Your program participants should clearly understand what goals they are working toward, how they can achieve success within the program, and what rewards they will receive when they meet these goals.
The technology you choose to use as part of your reward and recognition program is important. If your program participants are frustrated because they technology platform is hard to access on any device or confusing to navigate, you will lose interest among your participants and this will impact just how quickly you reach your overall organization goals. Look for programs that are built around the user experience and offer a mobile-first design.
Rewarding your top performers:
The rewards you offer your top performers shouldn’t be a one-size fits all approach. Instead, offer a flexible rewards mix with a variety of rewards that will appeal to the variety of personalities on your team.
Believe it or not, cash isn’t a good solution for your reward and recognition program. Multiple studies show that cash isn’t as enticing as you’d think, and it doesn’t lead to long-term motivation and behavior change.
Evaluate your program:
You don’t have to wait until the end of your reward and recognition program to determine if you are accomplishing the goals you created at the beginning of the process. Throughout the program, look at your reward redemption levels to determine just how engaged your team really is. At the end of the reward and recognition program, evaluate the overall success by determining if you met your original goals.
Read our recent blog posts on common incentive and recognition program mistakes and how you can avoid them here.
