Work Incentives: Incentive Travel Trips Versus Performance Bonuses
Which would you rather receive: an employer-sponsored, free trip to a beautiful destination that includes a plethora of unique, entertaining events, or the money it would cost to send you on the trip in the form of a bonus check? If you aren’t accustomed to receiving big bonuses, you might be tempted choose the latter, but if sizeable performance bonuses have been a part of your employment history for several years, you might feel inclined to choose the unique trip instead.
This is one reason why thriving companies offer travel trips as work incentives to employees who perform at the top of their game. Often, these employees are considered “top talent” and have reaped the benefits of that status in the form of large, performance-based bonuses. “Money talks,” as the old saying goes, but for top talent, incentive travel trips often talk more convincingly, as it were, serving as ideal work incentives for the four reasons listed below.
- More Tangible Than Money
Receiving money is exciting, but only because receiving the things that money can buy is even more exciting. For most companies that offer them, incentive travel trips aren’t a way to economize on compensating top performers. Rather, they are a different way of compensating them — a reward that top performers might spend their generous bonuses on if they had the opportunity to do so. Due to the exceptional uniqueness of the trips, that chance seldom exists.
- Nearly Impossible to Recreate
The anatomy of an incentive travel trip is as follows: A company sends qualifying employees on an exciting journey that the company pays for. While on the trip, travelers experience unique forms of entertainment that are selected with the help of an incentive travel trip planner. Bonding with fellow employees while enjoying novel entertainment is a highly rewarding experience on a personal level, and is typically an experience that is almost impossible to create on one’s own.
- Improves Employee Relationships
For most companies, incentive travel trips are about more than rewarding top performers with unique travel experiences. The trips also serve to strengthen relationships between employees by having them share an unforgettable experience. When they return to the work after the trip, their strengthened relationships help foster a team environment that exhibits good morale. Simply rewarding employees with bonuses doesn’t promote these qualitative benefits.
- Doesn’t Replace Annual Bonuses
Companies that offer incentive travel trips seldom use them to replace annual bonuses. Due to budgetary considerations, bonuses may be smaller than they would be if the trips were not offered, but top performers aren’t left wishing that they had received bonuses instead of a trip to a special destination. Most companies offer incentive travel trips as rewards that extend beyond bonuses to further motivate a company’s most valuable performers to maintain top performance.
Start Planning Your Trip Today
Annual bonuses are great work incentives for rewarding employees for excellent performance, but incentive travel trips in the reward structure can deliver benefits that bonuses alone do not, particularly strong employee relationships that improve morale in the workplace. For assistance planning a trip that promotes these benefits, call us today at (704) 540-1482. We look forward to providing you and your dedicated employees with a work incentive like no other!
