With more remote working these days it is more important than ever to plan events where staff and customers can get together in person.

You also want to ensure you get the most productivity from your staff. Incentives are a great way to keep staff happy and productive.

A happy workforce is a productive one. We all know that.

 

What is Incentive Travel

There are various ways to Incentivise staff. Cash bonuses, extra days off or awards for good work are common. These are great but are specific to one employee. Travel incentives can be used to reward several employees or a whole department. They are also great for bringing people together, to work towards a common goal and create a shared interest. You are incentivising your staff plus team building and creating a better work place at the same time.

here we take a look at incentive travel. What types there are and why they could help your business.

The types of incentives travel

• Staff incentive trips – It’s great to reward a whole department or team. Award a number of spots on a special trip for your best selling staff.
• Customer trips – reward your most important clients or maybe impress brand new ones.
• Unique adventures – make your company stand and and give clients an experience they will never forget, like hot air ballooning, husky rides, skidoo tours
• Skiing short breaks – these are very popular as a lot of professional people are keen skiers. It is also a great fun way to bond staff & clients with a shared interest
• Golf short breaks – The same goes with golf. A great way to bond over a shared interest. You can arrange mini tournaments with awards at the end.
• Sports events – Spanish football matches / Major football or Rugby tournaments / Formula 1 – not everyone plays a sport but everyone can watch.
• City breaks in Europe / USA – Paris or New York or more unusual cities like Ljubljana or Bordeaux. Many city hotels will provide meeting rooms if required.
• Short beach breaks – Marbella,  Vilamoura or Palma are some great examples of beach breaks that are popular for incentive trips
• Spa packages – if your group is more into relaxing, then why not take them to a fabulous Spa resort

Team building

• • Incentive trips build staff relationships within your company
  • They also build staff relationships outside of the work environment – shared interests like skiing and golf are great for this
  • Creates a better working practice and more efficient teams who work together better
  • It’s fairly obvious that people that don’t get on and have nothing in common don’t work as well together
  • It also helps gets people together who would otherwise not communicate at all

Incentivise staff

• • It is important to give staff something to work towards to keep them interested and invested
  • Rewarded staff are happy staff – and happy staff are far more productive
  • They feel rewarded and valued within the company
  • Creates a better work environment – in turn more staff retention. Unhappy staff won’t stay around long.
  • Blow off steam and stress – revitalise and energize staff for rest of year. Many people really look forward all year to the annual ski trip
  • Enhances your brand – somewhere people will want to work. So great for attracting new staff.

Impress Clients

• • A great way to impress your high value clients is to treat them to something special
  • Go somewhere different and do something amazing customer will never forget – e.g: skidoos in Iceland or husky sledding in Finland
  • Incentive trips are great for building staff to customer relations ships with major clients
  • Clients love putting faces to names / voices
  • They are in turn more likely to be loyal to your staff and your company
  • Why not combine an incentive trip with business – meet suppliers on their turf

Combine Work events & Network

Why not organise an incentive trip away, that also incorporates something else beneficial to your business..

• Use an incentive trips to network with prospective new clients
• Hold your annual staff meeting abroad on your trip
• Check out potential new business / ideas and leads
• Check out products and services you are offering and review them

So if you want to reward staff or keep them happy, build staff and client relationships and create a healthy and productive workplace then why not try an incentive trip. There are trips to suit all budgets, whether you are trying to impress high value clients on a luxury ski trip, or to a special sports event, or want to take your whole department away but need to keep costs down.

Paul at Worldtravelplanner has 15 years experience of organising successful company trips, for a wide variety of UK companies. From U.S & European city breaks, short beach and escorted tours, to golf and ski weekends and short breaks.

Paul was a huge help in organising this trip for 24 people to go skiing in Alpe D’huez. He is always very responsive and helpful throughout the planning process, and he was exceptionally helpful during the trip when a hiccup took place with a booking (through no fault of his) in resolving it quickly and efficiently. I have booked 2 work-related trips with Paul and will definitely be booking again next year for our group! – Anna Walker – Octopus Renewables PLC

Are you interested in incentive travel for your company? Contact Paul to discuss future trips and the best options to suit your company needs