5 tips for planning a travel incentive

If you’re planning on motivating and incentivising your teams this year, you could be hard pressed to find something more motivating tha a holiday! The idea of tropical shores, a cocktail and a dip in the ocean all looks especially tempting as we trudge on in grey skies. We took a look at United Kingdom Non-Cash Reward & Recognition: A Survey of Organisations to see what the stats say and what you can glean from many experienced top organisations who run travel schemes.

Stay close by
A study showed that the vast majority (79%) of U.K. companies will choose European destinations for their incentive travel programs.You may decide that further afield has the ‘lust value’- but consider inclusivism. Shorter breaks, less travel time and reduced costs overall could make the programme much more appealing for a greater volume of people.

Consider the change to group trips

Many U.K. companies in 2016 changed their group versus individual incentive travel mix

44% increased group trips, whilst 23% increased individual packages. Group travel is the double whammy – motivational for many, whilst also creating strong ‘family ties’ to the business and greater relationships.

Reward best practice

Whilst companies reward their employees for a variety of behaviours/activities; when it comes to travel incentives, it seems that the majority rewards employees for best practices. 66% of businesses surveyed suggested that this was the case, vs just 41% who would focus on sales goals. If you’re planning your scheme work out exactly what this means and how you measure it against your current activity.

Focus on improved productivity – not culture
49% of companies said they used travel schemes to help increase productivity, with just 23% doing so to change culture. The key to a programmes success is it’s measurability. Productivity can be tracked and ROI can be shown. The culture changes are born out of the work of implementing the incentives. Don’t get buy-in for the spend using culture as the key – focus on increase output and activity.

Layer the wins
Whilst you could just offer a gift card or pay the balance of a holiday, you could also look at other experiences. Perhaps you could add on extra bonus incentives – spending money, trips, experiences? Think about how you can squeeze extra value out of your scheme!

What are your tips when it comes to travel?