PPB December 2015

Maslow suggests that our basic need for

physical comfort must be met before we can

address other needs. Translated to the busi-

ness environment, once we are receiving a

living wage, have a roof over our head and

reasonable economic security, we look for

social interaction in a family/friends/work

team environment—

then

our position and

status (personal esteem) becomes a factor.

Only after all of these other needs have been

met do we focus on challenge or reaching

our full potential (self-actualization), accord-

ing to Maslow.

While it would be great if all employees

were self-motivated and responded to intrin-

sic rewards (such as the satisfaction of doing

a job well, challenge or rewards that are self-

administered), a certain percentage of the

workforce is not intrinsically motivated and

will respond to extrinsic rewards administered

by others, such as award merchandise, trips,

plaques or other recognition. Well-designed

employee programs provide a mix of both

intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. (The 10 steps

to designing effective incentive programs and

links to incentive professionals can be found

www.incentivemarketing.org.

)

The Way You Make Me Feel

Study after study has shown that tangible

incentives (non-cash awards) are more effective

in improving performance than cash, and that

the way in which the employee is recognized

for the achievement is a critical component.

Poet Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned

that people will forget what you said, people

will forget what you did, but people will

never forget how you made them feel.” The

same can be applied to employee recognition.

Online programs have streamlined the

program process such that it’s tempting to

manage the entire program online, from e-

mail announcements and promotion of the

program to point banks for online ordering,

to the award delivery that arrives at the recip-

ient’s home.

Even in an online world, you can make

the award presentation meaningful, memo-

rable and personal. Although the merchan-

dise award may be shipping directly to the

recipient, the accomplishments can still be

called out in a personal presentation. For

example:

• Arrange for a personal presentation of a

point certificate/plaque or acknowledge-

ment with a photo and a handshake from

the department head, company president

or chair of the board.

• Recognize achievers at an annual meeting

or sales meeting in the presence of their

peers.

• Announce and recognize achievement via

satellite or Skype for employees in virtual

offices.

Choose The Right Tangible Rewards

It’s clear that tangible rewards offer a

number of benefits to both the recipient and

the sponsoring company, but how do you

choose the right rewards for your audience?

• Involve your participant audience in the

selection. Participants are likely to be more

invested in the program when they’ve had

input as to award choices and other aspects

of the program or project.

• Set your personal preferences aside. The

buyer of the awards is typically not the

same demographic as the participant audi-

ence. If you can’t get input from your audi-

ence, at the very least put yourself in their

shoes when making the selections.

• Think

upgrade

. Include categories of mer-

chandise that might offer a feature or style

upgrade to the recipient. Everyone proba-

bly has a coffeemaker or other small

kitchen appliance, but do they have the

model with the latest features in the hot

colors for this season?

• Think

brands

. The awards you choose

should be a good match to your own com-

pany’s brand attributes. If you are a high-

end, quality brand, you will want the mer-

chandise awards you choose to be consistent

with or superior to your brand and image.

Lasting Impact

Tangible rewards offer the best residual

value for the sponsoring company because

they are memorable and recipients are likely

to share news of their accomplishments.

Suggest that your clients save the cash com-

ponent for their 401k program or year-end

bonuses based on company profitability. To

ensure that budget dollars allocated to

employee recognition, sales incentives or per-

formance improvement have the most lasting

impact, choose targeted merchandise rewards

that are appropriate to the audience and rec-

ognize achievement in a respectful, public

way that honors the recipient.

DECEMBER 2015 •

PPB

• 45

Barb Hendrickson is president

of Visible Communication, a

firm that helps companies

become more visible in their

marketplace through effective

communication strategies

such as content creation,

inbound marketing, social

media strategy, reputation

management and more. She

has spent more than 30 years

as a manufacturer’s representa-

tive for brand-name incentive

merchandise and promotional

products, and she is past presi-

dent of the Incentive Marketing

Association. Hendrickson is

author of

It’s NOT About the

Money: 10 steps to designing

effective non-cash incentive

programs that retain employ-

ees, engage customers and

improve business

Get Hands-On In

January

At next month’s PPAI Expo in Las

Vegas, you can learn more about

how to plan, execute and measure

incentive programs. On Monday,

January 11, from 8 am to 2:05 pm,

PPAI is running five sessions within

its incentives and recognition track.

Most of the sessions are free to

PPAI members and to nonmembers

with a ticket, and all earn certifica-

tion points. Find the full list of ses-

sions and descriptions at

www.expo.ppai.org/education

and