Press and News

Incentive Travel Solutions Welcomes New Executive Vice-President, Sales and Operations

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Bill's Press ReleaseCharlotte North Carolina based, Incentive Travel Solutions is pleased to welcome one of its newest hires, Bill Callahan. Bill will take on the position of Executive Vice President, Sales and Operations. With 30 plus years of experience in the incentive travel industry, Bill brings extensive knowledge and experience that will benefit both our employees and our current clients. Within his role, Bill will be leading sales development with new corporate accounts as well as assisting in coordinating and facilitating client programs. Bill will bring a new dynamic to the team, with the perfect combination of fresh ideas and tried and true procedures.

“My mission: provide measured success in what I contribute today, to build for a better tomorrow,” is just one statement from Bill that accurately depicts the type of person and employee he is. Bill immersed himself in the travel industry when he started with Maritz travel company in 1981, where he was employed for over 25 years. He continued in the industry assisting in marketing and sales, accomplishing an impressive 0 million in revenue over the course of his career thus far. Aside from Bill’s overwhelming success in the corporate world, he was involved with Patriotic Postcards, which grew in to a program for the USO called ‘Postcards to Home,’ as well as joining Mission 22, assisting in the prevention of suicidal Veterans with PTSD and TBI.

Kevin Devanney, President and Founder, was happy to announce “I am beyond excited about welcoming Bill to Incentive Travel Solutions. Bill’s enthusiasm and experience will bring tremendous support to our internal operations as well as perfect execution to our client’s important incentive travel programs.”

For more information regarding Incentive Travel Solutions, please visit our Home page.

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3 Ways Incentive Trip Offers can Improve Morale

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We often associate low morale in the workplace with low paying jobs that don’t offer advancement, but we also find poor morale in places we’d least expect: among executives and managers that are well-compensated and seem to have an endless horizon of opportunities.

However, whether low morale strikes at entry-level or among executives, the result is often the same: high employee turnover, which can cause morale to plummet further.

According to Barrett, Rose & Lee Inc. — a Toronto-based recruiter for management positions — “A costly indicator of low morale is high turnover; when employees leave because they are not happy with their jobs and have few external reasons to stay. The negative impact of employee turnover is disconcerting because of its tremendous impact both financially and on productivity levels.”

Fair enough, but what medicine should you use to cure a bad case of low morale? There are plenty of choices, but one of the most effective ones is also one of the least considered: incentive trip offers.

Employee Morale and Incentive Travel

Unique incentive trip offers that promise the travel experience of a lifetime help sustain high morale in at least three ways. Let’s look at what they are and why they matter.

  1. Shows Employee Appreciation

Salary, bonuses, stock options, etc., are how high-level employees are compensated for hard work. These rewards are expected, not viewed as novelties that go above and beyond normal compensation to show employee appreciation.

Incentive trip offers, on the other hand, can be highly novel. More importantly, they are optional. They aren’t a part of normal compensation, and a company isn’t bound to offer them. Therefore, when a company makes incentive trip offers, it sends a direct message of appreciation.

  1. Provides Daily Motivation

Most executives and managers earn a salary and not a wage. If they put in an 80-hour workweek, they’re paid the same as if they put in 40 hours. What’s to keep a salaried employee motivated to put in long hours? Bonuses, for one. But even the monetary value of bonuses can become predictable after a few years.

What isn’t as predictable is how much relaxation and excitement can be enjoyed through qualifying for incentive trip offers, and then embarking on the trips. For many upper level employees, the promise of a unique travel experience provides motivation where direct financial compensation falls short.

  1. Brings Colleagues Closer Together

Working at the same company and pursuing the same professional goals are important things to have in common. But they don’t guarantee colleagues will feel highly comfortable or connected with each other beyond the pale of emulating professionalism.

One thing that does bring colleagues closer together is sharing a unique travel experience that’s unforgettable for all the right reasons. Shared experience makes us feel like we have something in common. When the experience is positive, a deep level of bonding can occur. Within the context of the workplace, this bonding can reduce nonconstructive criticism and improve morale.

About Our Company

Incentive Travel Solutions specializes in planning unique incentive travel trips to wonderful destinations around the globe. We facilitate the entire trip, from airline and hotel arrangements to event planning and travel itineraries. Many companies have used our services to promote high morale in the workplace, and your company can, too.

To get started on planning a trip for top performers, call us today at (704) 540-1482, or send us an email through our contact form. We look forward to helping you plan the journey of a lifetime!

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Setting Goals That Motivate Workers: Money Vs. What It Can Buy

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For centuries, setting goals that motivate workers has been a top priority for successful companies. Over the years, opportunities to motivate workers have changed along with technology. But one thing has stayed the same: Money is a highly sought after motivator.

There are two reasons why: Money helps ensure that our needs are met, and it gives us the power to get material things we want. This is why profitable companies often reward workers with both cash incentives and non-monetary incentives that have an obvious cash value.

Ideas for Non-Monetary Incentives

For most companies, monetary incentives comprise a fairly straightforward range of options, such as performance bonuses, annual salary raises, and stock options. Non-monetary incentives, on the other hand, are a bit like the Wild West: Practically anything people value can be used, which creates the challenge of setting the right motivational goals.

If your company is facing this challenge, below are ideas for setting goals that motivate workers not with dollars, but with what money can buy.

  1. Luxury Personal Items

Luxury personal items range from private jets to gem studded jewelry. The luxuriousness of the products often supplies them with novelty, But items that tend to generate the most motivation are those that don’t cost much to maintain and essentially last a lifetime.

A watch from Rolex or Cartier is an example of this type of reward. The piece costs a few thousand dollars, which is ostensibly less than the amount of company revenue the recipient generated to receive the eye catching piece. High-end luxury items may not be a good fit with your company’s culture, but if they are, they’re a surefire way to commend success.

  1. Incentive Travel Trips

As we’ve seen through our experience in the incentive travel business, incentive travel trips to unique destinations are a great option for setting goals that motivate employees. The intent is to perform well enough to qualify for the trip — and you, as the employer, set the qualifications.

Exactly what types of trips are we talking about? This blog on traveling California’s Napa Valley region provides an example of an incentivized goal that involves world class travel.

  1. Business Award Plaques

Almost everyone wants to be recognized for his or her achievements in the workplace. Enter award plaques, which come in a various styles and feature engraved messages that commemorate the recipient’s achievement. Most business award plaques are highly affordable, but their value is primarily psychological. They’re one of the few types of awards that are inexpensive to buy, yet mean a great deal to the recipient.

  1. Waiting Job Promotions

Some companies find that promoting employees to higher positions in the company generates a lower employee turnover rate than companies that sift through resumes, looking for the best “talent” behind the applications. Taking the promoting from within approach is a great way to make workers feel allegiant to your company. The key is to establish a program that provides employees with clear guidance on how to achieve goals that trigger promotions.

Who We Are

Incentive Travel Solutions helps companies plan unforgettable incentive travel trips to unique destinations across the globe. In addition to handling the travel and lodging arrangements for a trip, we send a retinue of trained travel attendants with you attend to your wants and needs, and resolve any unforeseen issues with the travel itinerary.

To learn more about how incentive travel trips can assist with setting goals that motivate employees, call us today at (704) 540-1482, or fill out our contact form. We look forward to helping you explore the opportunity of motivating your workers with incentive travel trips.

 

 

 

 

 

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4 Signs That Employee Productivity is on the Skids

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If human resources are a company’s most valuable resources, as a famous business perspective claims, then employee productivity is the lifeblood of company. Has employee productivity at your company taken a dive? If so, it’s important to recognize the signs and consider whether they have more to do with factors in the work environment than employees’ personal integrity.

With this in mind, let’s look at four common signs that indicate a lack of productivity due to a lack of motivation, and explain how incentive-based travel trips can help address the phenomenon.

  1. Company Meetings are Used to “Catch Up”

Sometimes, company meetings need to be held to apprise employees of unexpected contingencies in a business project, or to brainstorm solutions for a sudden obstacle. But meetings are ideally used to move everyone forward regarding the work in question. This only happens when employees maintain good inter-communication between meetings.

Workers who don’t maintain good communication and only seem “in it for themselves” often express a dissatisfaction with their work or the workplace, such as a low level of compensation that is incongruous with the high level of effort they put forth in order to succeed.

  1. Near Maximum Number of Sick Days Taken

Management doesn’t blink when an employee takes all of his annual vacation days, but when he uses all of his sick days, too — especially in the absence of a doctor’s letter — his work behavior can look lazy and disengaged. However, before managers write him off as a barnacle on the corporate ship, they should consider whether the unproductive behavior is tied to unproductive practices in the workplace, such as offering more criticism than praise.

  1. Heavy Internet Use That Isn’t Work Related

At most companies, it’s acceptable to read an online fashion blog or sports column during lunch hour, but when leisurely web surfing occurs throughout the rest of the day, it takes employees away from their tasks, or at least slows them down. In many cases, though, the root of indiscriminate internet use in the workplace isn’t due to simple laziness. Rather, it’s often tied to a lack of satisfaction with work due to a lackluster employee reward structure.

  1. Vacations Sought at the Busiest Time of Year

After your employees work in your industry for a while, they learn which times of the year are busiest and most stressful for your company. Those are the times when you need your employees most, but if they don’t like the work environment, the dissatisfaction is likely to be magnified during periods of heavy business.

Playing hooky with vacation days is an easy way to de-stress for a few weeks, but when workers return to their jobs, they often find that vacation leave makes work pile up, which creates more dissatisfaction and a desire for more vacation. To help end the vicious cycle, consider whether employees truly have a fair work situation. If they don’t, make it right.

How We Can Help

It’s tempting to write off non-productive employees off as lazy, selfish, entitled, etc. But when employees seem to exhibit these qualities, it can be symptomatic of a larger problem: a lack of meaningful compensation that leads to a lack of morale, which compromises productivity.

At Incentive Travel Solutions, we find that highly enjoyable, incentive-based travel trips can increase employee productivity in two corollary ways: By providing meaningful compensation for great performance, and by motivating employees to qualify for the compensation. To learn about our services, give us a call today at 704) 540-1482, or inquire by using our contact form.

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3 Reasons Skipping a Vacation is a Bad Idea

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You would think that most people don’t need much encouragement to plan a nice vacation and embark on journey that spirits them away from commonplace surroundings and daily stress. Yet, according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, “In total, Americans left 658 million vacation days unused [in 2015].”

The article goes on to mention that “222 million [of the 658 million unused vacation days] were forfeited because they couldn’t be rolled over or paid out in any way.” However, having a rollover policy for vacation days instead of a “use it or lose it” policy is no guarantee that more vacation days will be taken. It it isn’t uncommon for workers to retire holding tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid vacation days — and sometimes more.

Reasons to Take a Vacation

There are plenty of need-based reasons that understandably stand in the way of taking a vacation, such as a temporary lack of disposable income or being the sole caregiver for an ill relative. But if a person refrains from vacationing to appease the tycoon-ish ways of his or her employer, that’s not an acceptable reason. The vacation days should be taken; below are three reasons why.

  1. Supports Physical Health

According to a report in The New York Times, based on a 2000 study that observed 12,000 men for nine years who had a high risk for coronary heart disease, “Those who failed to take annual vacations had a 21 percent higher risk of death from all causes and were 32 percent more likely to die of a heart attack.” When we have health issues, we often try to implement healthier habits. Vacationing should be one of those habits.

  1. Supports Mental Health

In our capitalistic, work-driven culture, we like to think of ourselves as workers who can withstand lots of stress to capture the light at the end of the tunnel: a nice paycheck. However, unless the stress is released, it can lead to mental fatigue, anxiety, and a general sense of malaise, regardless of how much money we stuff in our pockets.

According to a 2009 study, Canadian researchers Joudrey and Wallace report that “Active leisure pursuits and taking vacations helped to buffer or ameliorate the job stress among a sample of almost 900 lawyers.” Whether you’re a lawyer who has a big caseload or a legal secretary who could use a second set of hands to multitask, vacation helps you de-stress.

  1. Boosts Job Performance

Can something that takes you away from your job improve your job performance when you return? According to Live in the Now — a web-based organization that promotes a holistic approach to good health — every additional 10 hours of vacation time employees took, their performance ratings from supervisors increased 8 percent. The rejuvenation received from vacations leads to greater productivity and creativity once people return to their job.”

Who We Are

Incentive Travel Solutions is a planner and facilitator of incentive-based travel trips that reward top performers with world class travel destinations and activities that create lasting memories. To give your hardworking employees the break they need, please call us today at (704) 540-1482 to start the planning process, or use our contact form. We look forward to helping you travel in style!