Incentives are good tricks to have up your sleeve to help motivate employees, but misuse of rewards and recognition can easily lead your engagement programme on a downward spiral.

It is important to understand that incentives should not be used as a mask to trick your audience into favouring your brand. Rather, they should be used tactically to drive engagement and encourage your audience to take ownership of the brand in order to become true brand advocates. Here are things to consider to ensure that your rewards are a real treat for employees, avoiding an incentive nightmare.

Poison bribery

To recognise hard work, employers may choose to show their appreciation through small gestures such as a simple thank you, or through larger, more tangible treats such as gift cards or trips. If these gestures do not encompass a wider objective of the brand to celebrate hard work and drive better engagement, then they run into the challenge of no longer being considered as true recognition. Instead, they become acts of trickery. As recognition is an acknowledgement of excellent work, without something having been accomplished, there is nothing to recognise. Therefore, recognition prior to achievement of great work can be seen as an act of favouritism and rewarding as an act of bribery; both are potions for disaster. In a game of apple-bobbing, if you give a child an apple before they’ve even dipped their head, what is the motivation for them to take part in the game? Giving out rewards or recognition prior to a job well-done can only hinder employee motivation in achieving something great. It is also important to acknowledge the ghostly hard-workers hidden behind their desks and not to be blinded by the more vocal devils in the office. Ensuring rewards are given to the right people at the right time will prevent employees from falling into the bad habit of looking for and falsely expecting treats, driving superficial engagement. As any Snow White fan will know, bribery is poisonous.

Prepare your broomsticks

Incentive travel can be a useful tool in motivating staff to take part in a specific programme or to generate more sales. It is often tempting to pick a destination because it sounds exciting, but the destination’s relevance to the brand message must be considered to ensure that it fully aligns with business objectives. Think creatively down to the skeleton of your brand, understanding how certain destinations and activities relate to the bare bones of it. Perhaps you want to demonstrate an energetic brand personality through a scream of a trip to Las Vegas; or portray brand heritage through spooky tours of ancient towns. Always make sure that the trip is relevant to your brand and that this is communicated to employees. If you do not, its impact on engagement could be frightfully underwhelming and simply be taken as a free vacation.

Sour sweets or thoughtful treats?

What starts as a simple treat for employees can quickly turn sour for your brand if it is not properly thought-out. Rewards should not just be seen as free gifts, but should reinforce your brand message and be relevant to your overall business. This will not only encourage employees to engage with your brand, but also enable them to build their own stories around it through a positive experience. A restaurant chain may reward their employees with vouchers for a meal to spend with friends or family, while a broadband service provider that prides itself on speed may reward theirs with a day out at a race track to reinforce their USP. This added relevance through integrating your brand message with your chosen reward ensures a success story over one of horror.

Something to sink your teeth into

For any incentive, brands want to see that rewards and recognition given to employees will help to drive true engagement. If managed correctly, these gestures will not only help to increase brand awareness and improve brand preference, but over time, your employees may even take ownership of the brand. In order for you to motivate your audience effectively, your focus of the incentive should either be on the achievement that has been made or the message that you want to communicate with them. Keep this in mind to prevent your incentives from being hollow prizes that are deadly to the brand. Make them engaging rewards full of brand spirit to achieve maximum return for your brand.