A Thomsons Global Employee Benefits Watch 2016/17 report shows only 15% of employers strongly agree that they have accurate data on global total benefits costs. 15% is a very small number of organizations who know precisely where their benefits spend is going!

Meanwhile, budgets for benefits are not being cut – how can this be sustainable?

It’s key that ROI is on the radar of anyone looking for long term buy in for motivational incentives.

Here are some metrics that you can start to track today.

Speed and efficiency against target

If you are tying a reward to an incentive, for example, you want to incentivise a sales team, then a really quick calculation could be made on how many people are stretching against their targets. You’ll be logging things like calls, quality of interaction, speed of returning calls or sending out marketing material – and ideally, you’ll be seeing an increase against your baseline.

Net Promoter Score
Never underestimate getting some feedback. Send a survey out through your business, asking questions such as:
• Would you recommend this as a place to work?
• How would you rate the rewards we offer?
• Do you feel we reward you fairly and competitively?
• Do you feel valued at work?
Mark each of these with a weighted score. Perhaps being seen as a place to recommend is a top priority for your business. Mark this and create a deck of an overall score based on the employees who have answered (some won’t!) create a media and regularly survey to check that this isn’t dropping, or is increasing.

Employee Turnover
This is easy to spot, but it can feel higher that it actually is if you take on temporary workers or work on projects that ‘run their course’. Mark down the average % of employee retention across the last few years. You might have a target in mind, or you might want to take into account a change in the job market, your competitors or other variables. Your target will be unique to you, but if employees have been crying out for recognition, chances are you can drive up your retention rate.

There are other factors too – anecdotal evidence, increased awareness of the company ethos, increased hours spent at work, more candidates reaching you direct, decreased sick days or increased requests for training/ career advancement.Whatever you do, start with a baseline and ensure you track as much as possible – and remember to give your reward programme time to ‘bed in’.