SITE
‘IT’ no longer a dirty word
DIDIER SCAILLET, CEO, SITE ON THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF INCENTIVE TRAVEL
perfect storm of global
recession and negative
perception tossed the Good
Ship ‘Incentive’ repeatedly
onto the rocks between 2009 and 2014.
Many big users of incentive travel
simply abandoned ship and, for a few
years, avoided all mention of ‘IT’ as if it
was a dirty little secret never to be
mentioned again.
Of course, the clouds gradually
cleared, the sun emerged again and
those same companies realised how
disengaged they’d become from their
people, the very crew they needed in
order to put out to high sea again.
Gradually Incentive Travel was back on
the radar and there was a deeper
appreciation of its effectiveness.
In ways, the most effective way to
measure the impact of anything you do
is to simply stop doing it and evaluate
the outcome. That’s what happened with
incentive travel. The companies which
cancelled their programmes due to
recession, or perception, or both, saw
clearly and unambivalently the
devastating impact that that had on
their bottom lines.
Once normal service was resumed
from 2014 onwards the clear connection
between incentive travel programmes
and corporate revenues was proven –
not that there should have been any
doubt in the first place – and companies
re-committed.
But the temporary lacuna for
incentive travel also threw up some
unexpected discoveries, borne out by
recent research conducted by SITE, the
Incentive Research Foundation (IRF)
and Finance & Insurance Conference
Professionals (FICP).
Order of importance associated with incentive
travel programmes (1 - the most important,
10 - the least important).
Increased sales and/or profitability
for the overall company 2.82
Better relationship building between
employees and management 4.69
Increased individual productivity 4.76
Improved employee engagement/morale 4.97
Better relationship building between employees 5.02
Improved employee retention 5.70
Enhanced customer satisfaction 5.71
Enhanced brand compliance or mind share 6.93
Enhanced training or knowledge 7.14
Enhancing the ability to recruit new employees 7.26
Companies are realising now that incentive travel
programmes have an effectiveness BEYOND sales. They’re
seeing that the upswing in annual revenues that can be
attributed to a well-executed incentive travel programme is
only the tip of the iceberg in terms of real and lasting impact.
The Incentive Travel Industry Index (ITII) conducted
jointly by SITE and partners reveals a very significant jump
in the secondary, ‘soft’ objectives for having an incentive
travel programme in the first place.
While financial outcomes are still dominant (‘increase in
sales and/or profitability for the overall company’), soft
outcomes such as ‘Better relationships between employees and
management’ are rising considerably. Overall, objectives
supporting positive workplace culture are becoming
increasingly important with incentive travel seen as an
ISSUE 99
effective way to deliver upon them.
If, for example, we take the Top 5
objectives as highlighted by the 1,000+
global incentive travel professionals
who contributed to the ITII survey,
60% are related to workplace culture:
• Better relationship building between
employees and management - 2
• Improved employee engagement /
morale - 4
• Better relationship building between
employees with each other – 5
while only 40% have a purely financial
metric.
This is particularly significant in
terms of the previous old chestnut that
beset organisers of incentives – can you
demonstrate and quantify ROI. By
stopping incentive travel – however
involuntarily – during the global
economic downturn we proved its ROI.
However, we’ve also uncovered a
deeper, richer and more enduring
effectiveness to incentive travel that
naturally builds positive workplace
culture, probably the biggest challenge
that will face corporations over the next
10 years.
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