Power of Incentives: How Marketers Are Building Loyalty and their Bottom Line
Whether you’re a rocket scientist or a housekeeper, employee recognition programs that use incentives to reward staff members for doing good work can boost a company’s bottom line.
And if you do happen to be a rocket scientist at Orbital Sciences, an industry leader in small space and rocket systems, you may just be headed off for a bi-plane ride or to a cigar sampling if your manager nominates you to receive a reward.
Kristi Winstead-Bobbett, senior manager, human resources, for Orbital, initiated the program in 2007. It rewards employees with experiences from Excitations, which provides unique gift experiences ranging from hot-air-balloon rides to a picnic at a vineyard.
Companies choose from three options: the Circle Choice, a variety package that includes a dozen or so experiences: a gift card whose dollar value can be applied to any experience on the Web site, or a specific experience, like a zero gravity flight or a drag car lesson. Prices range from a $50 gift card to five-figure experiences like the Luxury Wine & Culinary Tour in Napa Valley, CA, for four people for $19,645.
“We employ rocket scientists so we need something that’s a little more interesting than a pen and a clock,” Winstead-Bobbett says. “They work a lot of hours and they need something that’s fun and unique — something they would never do for themselves, like rent a Harley for a day.”
At Orbital, employees are judged on four criteria: a recommendation that results in cost or risk avoidance or benefit to the company; productivity improvement; preventing harm to hardware or personnel; and exhibiting exceptional teamwork, innovation and creativity in the course of completing daily work.
Currently, the company offers the program only at its headquarters in Dulles, VA. It hands out about 40 rewards per year, typically valued between $200 and $500. Employees select a reward from Excitations Circle Choice packages, which include a romantic spa revival, dinner cruise, Hyatt Chesapeake Bay Summer Getaway, Lighthouse Tour Cruise and Massage and other experiences. Orbital has plans to expand the program to some of its other three offices located in Arizona and Maryland. It has 3,600 employees.
“As an incentive, experiences provide elements of surprise and anticipation, and create a long lasting memory for the recipients, first when then receive an experience and then months later when they go on the experience,” says Nancy Lamberton, a founder of Excitations. “They come back and talk about it and share the experience, and that gets other employees excited about the incentive program. The lasting power of experiences as incentives and rewards is very unique.”
Managers can nominate any employee at any time. Once an employee is approved for the reward, he or she is called to a team meeting and recognized before the group. The employee is then called to an executive meeting where the nomination is read aloud, followed by a standing ovation and the reward selection.
“It shows that we are a company that cares, not just a company that wants you to get your job done,” Winstead-Bobbett says. “It’s not like we can walk out on the street and find a lightening rod engineer — there are only 10 of them in the country. That’s why we want to make sure that we reward our employees.”
