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Businesses aiming to motivate their staff and increase productivity are dangling ever juicier carrots before them. Mindi Chahal explores the latest trends in internal reward schemes
Valentine's cards, dinners in marquees and talks from the founders of big business are all ways that brands are rewarding their staff, as well as more traditional gift vouchers.
Incentivising staff has never been more important than in today's tough economic climate, because although businesses need staff to be more productive, many have had to cut back on bonuses and pay rises.
William Rogers, chief executive of commercial radio broadcaster UKRD, says: "Recognising your staff and what they do can become a virtuous circle because the better your people, the more success you have."
In many ways, the economic climate has encouraged the development of smarter employee motivation schemes. Andy Woodbridge, management development coach at Ageas Insurance Solutions (AIS) says the company rewards its staff through a Love2Choose gift card. "It was initially introduced to provide one-off rewards, but it can now be topped up so card holders can save their balance and build it up over time," he explains.
The reasons why companies run motivation events affects the kinds of rewards given. TNT, which works with MotivAction on its events, tailors its schemes according to who they are aimed at. Sales teams take part in high-adrenaline events, whereas members of the operations department prefer longer-term schemes. These might include working on community projects and being part of the World Food Programme, which gives staff the opportunity to visit parts of Africa to help with building projects and spend time in the schools.
Previous events they have run include VIP evening events in London and sales incentive trips to Iceland, Dubrovnik and New York.
The Admiral Group runs similar schemes and also gives every staff member Pounds 1,500 of shares every six months and after 15, 20 and 25 years' service staff receive an allocation of free shares. It also has a discretionary share scheme, where shares are awarded once a year based on seniority and performance.
Ceri Assiratti, head of people services at Admiral Group, says: "Reward and recognition is one of the four cornerstones of our culture and an effective way to reward staff is through our...