A “Pulse Survey at the end of 2020 by Incentive Research Foundation found that only 34% of incentive and recognition programs continue to operate with minimal change. As the pandemic lessens, that figure has grown, but it is important to look into some of the reasons why this happened.
Essentially, in these uncertain times, executives will always look to reduce or delete budget items that are not considered essential to the growth of the business. Unfortunately, some incentives and recognition programs are always in that group. The 34% of the programs that have remained are those that have are more likely to be considered critical to the organization. About 12% of respondents say their programs are viewed as even more important because of the pandemic.
Frankly this has been a flaw in incentive and recognition planning for years. The vast majority of programs implemented did not do a good job of developing, implementing and then measuring and researching the program objectives. That is still very much the case within generic employee recognition programs where it is a given that these programs produced results. Some respondents even noted that program growth goals were reduced in order to maintain a “employee motivations.”
We
cannot emphasize enough that proper goal setting accompanied by using a program
design with the focus on the goals and then the measurement and reporting of
the results is what will keep your program in place. Not tying your program to overall corporate
success can easily put it on the “cancellation list.”
