You did be hard-pressed to find any company that wasn’t interested in increasing their employees’ motivation and engagement. Consider what engaged, motivated employees look like: they understand clearly what’s expected of them; they’re interested in their tasks; they derive a personal sense of satisfaction from their professional success; they want to learn how to rise above their current performance. What organization wouldn’t want employees like that?
When it comes to incentive programs designed to engage and incentivize employees, the issue many companies face is making the decision to invest funds into such a program. Many incentives companies use outside technology in order to build sprawling, complex programs tailored specifically for each individual client from the ground up. Other incentive companies have found, however, that the key to saving clients money is preparation.
Loyaltyworks, an incentives management company based in Atlanta, utilizes an online reward program technology comprised of modules. In other words, all of their program’s features can be added to or removed from the basic package at any time. Rather than spending the time and money building a sky-high, custom-made treehouse, Loyaltyworks hands you the sturdy, pre-cut logs and lets you build the cozy cabin you want. Mark Herbert, President and Chief Operating Officer at Loyaltyworks, says, “Roughly 90% of our system is already built and ready to go. Not only does this minimize installment time and cost, it allows us to upgrade the entire system, for all of our clients, whenever we make improvements to the technology.”
Each of Loyaltyworks’ program modules are designed to bring a new, fully-realized dimension to your reward program so that you achieve the highest possible return-on-investment. Loyaltyworks modules were created with business leaders’ needs as their foundation. “Our modules,” Herbert says, “were all built based on customer input.” All modules will improve your incentive program by boosting employee engagement, increasing sales, and enhancing data capture.
Engagement
Integrated Services
Naturally, an incentive program only works when employees visit and use it regularly. When you’re initiating an online incentive program, it can be difficult reminding participating employees and business partners to visit a new website. For this very reason, Loyaltyworks offers an Integrated Services module, so you can incorporate an incentive program directly into your existing website’s structure or intranet. Program participants can log into the program from your website, reinforcing that the program is an organizational activity. Whenever they browse the reward catalog or look up the program points they’ve accumulated, they associate their positive experiences with your company.
Total Recognition Suite
Studies have shown that, in the social media sphere, positivity begets positivity. This is the basic principle on which Loyaltyworks’ Total Recognition Suite is founded. The Recognition Suite is essentially a social media wall on which reward program participants can post about each other’s achievements and take pride in their co-workers’ successes. The social media exchange promotes a company culture that thrives on positivity.
Quick Points
One of the greatest ways to reinforce desired behavior is to offer a reward for that behavior on the spot. Psychological studies have found that people directly connect their behavior to a sense of accomplishment when they instantly receive accolades for that behavior. For this reason, Loyaltyworks includes Quick Points as one of their engagement-focused modules. Managers receive a supply of Quick Points paper certificates, which they can sign and designate to any employee, at any time, for helpful attitudes, soaring performance, or any other exemplary actions. This way, they attach immediate gratification to all kinds of positive behaviors, not just the specific goals outlined in their reward program.
Mobile App
Mobile phones are rapidly becoming one of society’s default mediums of communication. Not only do two-thirds of the population own smartphones, but the time they spend on those phones is increasing. Americans put aside over 30 hours a month to interact with their mobile screens (Nielsen, 2014). Reaching people through mobile apps and alerts is one of the best ways to become part of their daily communication routine. Loyaltyworks released their new Mobile App module in 2015 to encourage those registered in reward programs to check in on the program regularly, while making their mobile communication rounds. The Mobile App also makes it possible for sales team members to input sales claims directly from the field, speeding up their reward process.
Data Capture
Performance Tracking
If your goal is to increase revenue and energize a sales team, the Performance Tracking module is the backbone of a sales incentive program. By tracking salespeople’s performances and sales claim data, a wealth of data becomes yours to analyze. Not only can you study the individual and overall performance of your team, but you can gather valuable information about your consumers’ habits. This is especially worthwhile to parties involved in channel sales, where manufacturers, dealers, and contractors work together but aren’t in contact regularly.
Open Enrollment
What if you’re part of a channel sale, and the people who push your product out to the world are distributors or contractors outside your company? With an online reward program, the rewards you distribute don’t have to stay department-internal; they don’t even have to stay within your organization. Loyaltyworks’ Open Enrollment module takes that concept one step further. With this feature, anyone can join your incentive program. A contractor in Nevada can register with a Massachusetts manufacturer’s incentive program, then reap the rewards of promoting that manufacturer’s product. Marketing to sales channel members you weren’t even aware of becomes a possibility with Open Enrollment.
Organizational Structure & Advanced Reporting
If you want to execute an incentive program that rewards multiple sales teams, departments, or business partners, sophisticated program structure and reporting will serve you best. With the Organizational Structure & Advanced Reporting module, administrators can divide their programs into units restricted to particular groups. With this capability, you can delegate program authority to managers and team leaders. You can share or restrict whichever information you’d like, while maintaining the ability to pull reports from each aspect of the program.
Setting up an incentive program doesn’t have to be a long, toilsome process with exorbitant set-up costs. Loyaltyworks has found that à la carte, modular selection is the best strategy for saving clients time and expense. Loyaltyworks uses readily adaptable online technology, with fully functional features capable of plugging into any incentive program at any time, saving clients from hours of IT involvement. With foresight and industry experience, Loyaltyworks is able to offer online reward program features that anticipate the needs of business leaders.
steve
Steve Damerow
CEO of The ISI Group
sdamerow@isicorporate.com
Direct Contact: 678-514-0203
Google+
Loyaltyworks
2299 Perimeter Park Drive
Suite 150
Atlanta, GA 30341
Loyaltyworks
References
Guillory, J.E., Hancock, J.T., Kramer, A.D.I. 2014. Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks. Retrieved from http://www.pnas.org/content/111/24/8788.full.pdf
How smartphones are changing consumers’ daily routines around the globe. 2014. Retrieved from http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2014/how-smartphones-are-chan...
Kibet, L.K., Maina, R.N., Njagi, K., Njanja, W. L. 2013. Effect of reward on employee performance: a case http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijbm/article/viewFile/21179/18282 and http://www.ccsenet.org/j