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Incentives are EVILDan Kelly, Sales and Marketing Director, Corporate Rewards

• Dan Kelly, Sales and Marketing Director at award-winning incentive recognition and reward, motivation and events agency Corporate Rewards, presents the changing perceptions of incentive programmes

• “Incentives are EVIL”. This may sound like an extreme view, but you may be surprised...

Incentives are EVIL

• Incentive schemes can be divisive, provoking opposing views:– Those who view them positively and believe in the benefits– Those who are ambivalent, perhaps even disinterested– Those who consider incentives to be an unnecessary, time-

consuming, admin-generating evil

• Those in the latter category generally believe that employees shouldn’t be rewarded for simply doing their jobs; what are they paid for? Why give them more? What’s wrong with commission?

• And so on...

Opposing views

• Research proves that incentives and rewards increase productivity more than commission. Why?

– Commission is perceived as a salary extension– Incentives are viewed as a bonus - recognition for going the

extra mile

• The frequent inclusion of commission in job ads presents it as a part of a standard package

• Incentives exist to reward over-achievement and therefore drive over-achievement!

Driving productivity

• Poorly executed incentive schemes can create negative feedback

• Getting it right can positively impact your bottom line

• Successful incentive schemes are strategically embraced and driven from the top

• Love them or loathe them, incentives now play a huge role in today’s competitive business culture

• Used well, they will:– promote business growth– attract and retain the best employees

Good & bad

• Commission is basically cold, hard cash

• ‘Incentive’ and ‘recognition’ are emotive words, triggering:– Passion– Accomplishment– Satisfaction– Motivation

Why incentives?

• Historic poor use of incentive schemes has generated negativity

• Most negative feelings date back to early, experimental initiatives

• Drivers of this ‘evil’ image were:– increased admin– high costs– complex arrangements

• These are no longer a part of the incentives world

• In the past three or four years online schemes have facilitated a shift into genuine business benefits

The history

• The next business generation will be the internet generation

• The internet is your quickest and most direct route to your staff

• 10 years ago social media hardly featured. Now:– Facebook has 995million users– Twitter sees over one billion tweets every three days– Four million YouTube views take place every day– Amazon has 75million unique visitors every month.

• It’s why businesses are embracing online culture in every way they can

The next generation

• ‘Switched-on’ businesses are turning to online incentive platforms for:– Ease of use– Affordability– Quick impact– Taking the ‘evil’ out of incentives

• We recognise this is how the world communicates now

• It’s the driving force behind our own bespoke, easy-to-manage online platform

Why online?

• Managing incentive schemes online reduces admin through:– integrated reporting tools– dashboard reporting– putting management information at your fingertips

• Performance is easily tracked and rewards are facilitated quickly by:– online catalogue– e-vouchers– prepaid cards

• The upshot is:– reduction in costs– no drain on resource

• Only an online system could deliver these benefits quickly and efficiently, without complex processes

Online benefits

• Going online is the ‘good’ approach, negating the ‘evil’ of old

• However sometimes there’s no harm in evil, as long as you know what it really means...

• Incentives and rewards should – be Engaging– add Value– Increase revenue– provide Longevity in relationships

• Used correctly, incentives are a necessary evil that deliver £££ to your

bottom line!

EVIL can be good!

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