The importance of incentives and a short-term solution

During these extraordinary times, it’s hugely important to keep employees not only motivated and focused on their objectives, but also to engage them with company culture and values.

Many people work in jobs they love, for companies they’re proud of, with people they admire and respect. These important connections may be lost with the amount of time people have spent away from work during quarantine and furlough as well as future working patterns that will almost certainly mean people will be working from home more and therefore being away from their colleagues and the beating heart of their companies.

On the face of it, incentives are a reward for work done and goals achieved; but they’re so much more than that. They build connections with other members of the business – with senior management, with owners, people that employees may not always get the time to interact with. They build bonds with company values and help nurture culture in a focused way. They create a success mentality and help develop an atmosphere of positivity and teamwork in a workplace.

Aside from the benefits to the company itself, they also have huge personal benefits to the winners. They get the chance to visit destinations that they potentially wouldn’t be able to, or wouldn’t think to visit of their own accord. They may get access to locations and experiences that are only made possible due to the connections of the agency or DMC that they’re travelling with.

There can also be huge benefits to the destinations that are visited. Many incentives now create real, tangible legacy from their trips with CSR elements and charity days becoming more and more popular – at a personal level, this also creates a positive legacy to the trip when the group return back to the business with it being seen as an even more aspirational achievement.

This is why it’s vital during this period of uncertainty in travel created by the pandemic, to continue to find ways to motivate, engage and incentivise employees.

With global travel being difficult to negotiate right now with closed borders, returning quarantines and reduced services across the airline, hotel and restaurant industries, it’s a good time to look closer to home for incentive offerings.

The UK has an amazing array of hotel options – from large scale, to boutique, city properties to countryside retreats, there’s something for everyone. In terms of experiences, there’s a lot of activities that would form the backbone of an international trip – boat trips, track days, city tours, culinary schools as well as more British experiences such as distillery tours, country pursuits and polo lessons. There’s incredible dining options and lots of unique venues that can be used to not only impress your winners but also to help adhere to new safety and cleanliness protocols as they can be privatised for your group.

This leaves just the problem of travelling in large numbers. This is where we at BLACK BOOK have come up with a plan for you – check out our blog post from last week with our UK Incentive programme idea for a clever way to create a successful group incentive atmosphere through a flexible and dynamic campaign.