Growing up, I always enjoyed playing and watching basketball – it was my favorite sport. However, I didn’t attend an NBA game until a few weeks ago, at the start of the new season.  I readily admit that as a result, I have become a proud and loud Memphis Grizzlies fan (and everyone in the office knows it). I have made an effort to attend almost every home game thus far and I somehow find a way to bring the team up in conversation at least once a day. As much as I’d like to say I just go to watch the game, that’d be only partially true.  I go to watch “Grizz” – the Memphis mascot, to catch a free t-shirt, a lottery ball for a free buffet, Rendezvous’ BBQ Nachos, the list goes on. Needless to say, the Grizzlies are doing something right in keeping their audience (and me) engaged during the game.

Like the Memphis Grizzlies, your employee recognition, safety incentive, or sales incentive programs should be designed to drive employee engagement.  There are hundreds of studies that show why driving employee engagement in the workplace is important — reduced turnover, reduced safety incidents, improved customer loyalty, and increased sales.

Now, you won’t need a t-shirt launching cannon or a company mascot, but something as simple as program communication could help with participant engagement in the program. For example: hang posters about the program up around the office or warehouse to serve as a reminder, send out monthly email communication to all of your participants, make sure everyone understands the program and how it will work.  Communicated correctly, your sales incentive/employee recognition/safety incentive program will help keep your employees engaged in your program and in the workplace. Having an incentive program can be great; keeping your employees engaged in the program will make it even better.

Contact us to find out more about designing incentive and recognition programs that drive employee and participant engagement.