Crystal Zawilinski is the sales director of meetings and incentives for Fox World Travel, a premier travel company in the United States. Zawilinski has more than two decades of experience in the event planning industry. She is certified in Meeting Management (CMM), Meeting Professional (CMP) and Exhibition Management (CEM). For more information on how your company can book an incentivized trip with Fox World Travel, visit foxworldtravel.com.

It’s that time again to begin planning for the new year. Can you believe it? For companies, this is prime time to think about adding an incentivized travel program to your budget or revamping your current plan.

An incentivized travel plan is a corporate program that offers employees and customers rewards in the form of travel as an incentive to reach a goal. These plans can be very beneficial for companies as they can motivate people to work harder and achieve more. In addition, travel can be a great team-building experience and can help strengthen relationships within the company. In today’s post-COVID-19 world, after the pandemic forced everyone to slow down and reflect, values have changed for many people. There is a renewed sense of self-care and family commitment, and many people are open to incentives that share this commitment. Companies who embrace this cultural shift with their employees will be leaps and bounds ahead of those who fight it.

Companies with an incentivized travel plan can see an increase in employee performance. According to The Incentive Research Foundation, academic researchers reviewed 45 high-quality studies to conclude that companies can actually see a 22% increase in employee performance when providing an incentivizing reward program such as a travel package. That level of an increase in performance can make a big difference for a company when all of its employees are putting in a renewed effort toward the same goal. Once you consider how a travel plan also helps with addressing the pandemic-initiated workplace culture shift and with creating team experiences to build organizational culture, a comprehensive travel plan becomes pretty hard to debate.

Why does offering travel instead of monetary rewards work so well? The answer is straightforward — while money is great in the short term to get people to work toward a goal, it is purely transactional and is often easily forgotten once spent. Something like an all-expenses paid trip for an employee or customer who would not otherwise be able to afford it on their own is a tangible gift that becomes an unforgettable memory. Simply put, it holds more weight than monetary rewards.

Traveling is one of life’s most enriching experiences, and it also allows for unique networking opportunities. If your employees earn a trip to a resort, think about the other vacationers on that same trip that they’ll forge connections with. A simple ice-breaker conversation, such as why they are at that resort, can turn into what their career is, what your company culture is like, why they value their employer and much more. This networking could result in added business connections or even act as a recruitment tool. Having a travel incentive also allows employees to build a stronger sense of loyalty to your company and strengthens the relationship between your company, its leadership team and the individual.

That said, if you’re looking to implement an incentive travel program, it’s important to include it early in your fiscal planning year. Why? Because finding a destination is half the battle. With a current pilot shortage expected to last into 2024 and many common destinations booking up quickly, thinking outside the box is best. For instance, if you typically set your company trips to occur during the winter or early spring, let’s say March, you might want to consider changing that timeline. March is a very popular travel time for people in cold climates looking to find a warm getaway in more tropical destinations.

If you want to stick with that timeline, consider a different location. Go to Europe instead of Mexico, for example. Changing up the location keeps the trip exciting for employees and can increase the amount of effort they put into earning that trip.

If it is possible to adjust when the trip takes place, you could move that Mexico trip that has always happened in March to a couple of months later. Employees understand needing to wait a little longer for a trip, so moving the timeline slightly does not impact company participation.

Setting up an incentivized travel plan is a very profitable solution for a company, but it must be well thought out. This is why putting a plan like this in place now makes so much sense. The first step is having a thorough understanding of how your company makes money. You must sit down and really look at how your business generates revenue. Maybe you want to target your sales team with an incentivized trip. If this is your goal, the trip could be awarded to someone who hits the target sales goal or for your top-selling item. By doing this, your company could generate more revenue because there is a renewed effort from your sales team to sell more of your most profitable item or service. And in turn, the top-selling employee or employees get a trip. You can see why it is critical that companies understand how they make money so they can make sure the trip is paid for and there is also profit involved.

Additionally, a trip for your employees will only be incentivizing if the trip itself is worth the work you are asking of them. Don’t be cheap. Work with a travel adviser and set up a memorable and exciting experience for the person who is going. This will allow them to feel rewarded for their efforts. Also, they will return and naturally provide a testimonial for the experience. Other employees in your company will want to have an amazing experience too, and that means the next trip will only get that much more participation. You want these experiences to be well received and talked about amongst your employees in a positive way.

Another way to increase incentivized travel participation is by getting your employees’ families involved. An option to consider is sending a postcard in the mail to all eligible employees. Outline where the trip will be and what they can expect. Fox World Travel worked with a company that did this, and there was an employee whose wife kept a heat thermometer on their fridge to track the different goals her husband needed to achieve to receive the incentive. She would color in this thermometer in anticipation of it getting closer and closer to the top as he approached his sales goal to win the trip. There is nothing quite like family support to motivate an employee to earn a destination vacation.

Travel incentives are utilized in the sales industry, but they can be just as rewarding in other fields. For instance, a company in the service industry wanted to reward its delivery drivers, servers, etc. These people served as the backbone of their workforce, and the company could not function without them. The company worked with Fox World Travel to organize a vacation and set up an incentive program where employees were encouraged to nominate their co-workers for the trip. After all was said and done, the company realized they had never seen a group of people more thankful to have received recognition at this level.

This may leave you wondering, how did the company make money with an incentivized program that did not produce added profit? The employees felt so valued and appreciated, they ultimately went above and beyond in their day-to-day efforts for the company going forward. It created a sense of loyalty between the company and its employees and, yes, brought on increased performance.

The final point to consider when setting up an incentivized travel program is to make sure you do this with a licensed travel adviser. This is critical, especially for a company trip. A travel adviser can ensure the trip is memorable, runs smoothly and address any hiccups that may arise in the planning process. Additionally, a travel adviser knows the intricacies of the travel industry, such as which hotels work well for group trips versus individual trips. It’s best to allow a travel expert to coordinate everything, allowing you the freedom to focus on growing your company and your relationship with your employees.  I&FMM.