Terrorist attacks and a faltering economy have caused planners to review their incentive travel programs. This article describes alternatives to traditional travel and provides links to potential suppliers.

OVERVIEW

Organizations need all the motivation they can get right now, which poses special challenges for incentive travel planners. Some companies planning group incentive travel programs have shifted their destinations closer to home. Others have added security measures they hope will restore enthusiasm for long-distance travel. In a few cases, companies have moved ahead with trips only to find that a small percentage of people preferred to stay home this time around.

For companies that feel compelled to cancel or postpone their programs or to accommodate people who want to opt out, the goal is to do it in a way that maintains motivation with the people who matter most: the top performers.

How you handle the situation could be as important as the trip itself. After all, it is during adversity that a company can shine, as the management team at McNeil PPC Inc. demonstrated over a decade ago when Tylenol became the target of homegrown terrorists in a notorious product-tampering case.

Whether your company decides it has to move the program closer to home, cancel it, postpone it, or let people opt out, the decision presents management and planners with formidable challenges.

The best way to handle that decision depends on your program's objectives, your target audience, the budget, program positioning, and the reasons for the program change. This article details the many ways you can use to keep the excitement going, including alternatives such as gift certificates, debit cards, or branded merchandise, but first you have to determine the solution that's right for your situation.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

Start by assessing the nature of your program. Is it a formal structure with clear rules and set performance levels, or is it based loosely on management's perception of who deserves to go? Is the program a company tradition or part of its strategic performance improvement efforts? The closer your travel award is linked to performance, the more you have to tread carefully in making changes. Key point: The people who are scared to travel may be gung-ho about the change, while others in your audience may not care as much.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Are these your own employees or resellers? Obviously, employees understand that travel program changes can occur following terrorism, major layoffs, or financial losses. Employees can even be motivated by the challenge of tough times if the situation is properly handled. Reseller audiences represent a different sort of challenge, however. They may not want to travel right now and they may understand your company's situation, but you can't count on this view being universal. Key point: The way your organization handles the news can have a major impact on resellers' near-term purchasing behavior.

BUDGET

Changes in travel programs have arisen from budget concerns as well as from fears of terrorist attacks. That's why any strategy for keeping things positive will almost certainly have to cost much less than the original travel program. Ideally, whatever you do to maintain enthusiasm should increase excitement and buy-in for the tough times ahead. Key point: The people most affected by this decision are your top producers and they are your best opportunity for maximizing the company's performance.

PROGRAM POSITIONING

How is this program perceived by the people in your organization? Do salespeople or other winners perceive this as a part of their compensation, or is it positioned as special recognition for exceptional performance that cannot be expected every year?

Do your resellers perceive the trip as part of their pricing package, or is it part of a relationship-building strategy that is offered as added value to top performers? (Unfortunately, many companies fail to distinguish between reward systems and compensation and pricing issues.)

Programs positioned as rewards are easier to present to your audience because they're understood to provide something special from year to year.

Programs positioned either as compensation for employees or as pricing for resellers will be equated with a pay cut, making it more difficult to soften the blow of a major program change. Key point: Under these circumstances, people might appear to accept your decision, then simply work with less energy.

THE WHAT AND THE WHY

In your planning equation, first consider what you're doing: canceling, moving, postponing, or letting someone opt out of the trip. Second, consider why you're doing it: Is it purely because of concerns about long-distance travel or are you weighing other factors, such as your budget or the economy?

POSITIVE SOLUTIONS

Now you're ready to create a plan for maintaining motivation while making changes in your travel plan. The following sections of this article provide a step-by-step guide to making it all happen.

The key to keeping things positive is honest communication and a genuine expression of gratitude for performance. The challenge is to keep up the excitement and enthusiasm during these times and not reinforce any negativity that creeps into the workplace.

Communication consists of providing the honest reason for the decision, substantiated by as many facts as possible. The more personalized this communication, the better. Voice or face-to-face communication is always best, along with personal written notification, if possible.

Whatever your need for change, the announcement should include a sincere expression of gratitude for performance. In presenting the plan, bear in mind the extent to which the program is viewed as compensation or pricing, as opposed to recognition. The more the program is viewed as part of compensation or pricing, the more you should do to maintain positive relationships by demonstrating your appreciation for people's performance.

In the case of people who want to opt out of an ongoing program, special consideration comes into play since they are passing up a reward that others will receive. These people are likely to feel entitled to an expression of gratitude for their performance, especially because they feel justified in their concerns about long-distance travel.

TANGIBLE VERSUS CASH AWARDS

Many companies attempt to maintain motivation by offering an alternative reward. That makes sense if you want to distinguish this award from your compensation and pricing issues.

Cash, of course, is the currency of compensation. If you choose to compensate your erstwhile travelers with a special cash payment, you are stating in no uncertain terms that this is part of their compensation package. Noncash incentive awards fall outside of compensation and pricing issues. They make sense for special programs that may not be repeated in any predictable fashion.

People who have opted out of a trip are your most likely candidates for a noncash alternative, since the last thing you want to do is equate the trip with a specific dollar value.

AWARD OPTIONS

Some $28 billion is spent on noncash awards in the U.S. annually. Despite the huge expenditures, however, many executives know little about incentive award options and how to get the most for their money. For example, they often buy awards at retail when other methods of purchasing would be more cost effective.

In addition, many planners fail to take into account the co-branding potential offered by noncash awards. You can boost the perceived value of your awards simply by partnering with some of the best names in American business and offering their products as awards.

Here's a list of the incentive award options and how to find them.

• Individual travel enables you to offer your winners a taste of travel on their own terms. Many top incentive companies, hotel chains, and airlines have a variety of individual incentive award products. Once again, it makes sense to place bulk orders for individual travel with leading hospitality and travel companies or with incentive companies that have developed specialized products for this market.
  
  
• Branded merchandise from leading manufacturers is sold through local incentive representatives and promotional products distributors. If you want to buy larger volumes of a single brand, you'll generally get better pricing and convenience by dealing direct, because most manufacturers have special markets departments that are set up to handle bulk orders. If you are buying just a few gifts, though, it may pay to go to your local retailer.
  
  
• Corporate gift certificates are offered by almost every major retailer. To get the best service and bulk pricing, however, make sure that you buy from the special markets department or from one of the retailer's reseller agents. Most certificate programs come from the nation's leading retailers and specialty food purveyors, but there are some available from major travel suppliers and branded products companies.
  
  
• Debit cards offer your target audience the benefits of wide choice built into a card that gets extended life in the recipient's wallet. The cards can be customized, set up for use at virtually any outlet, or restricted to select stores or catalogs (an option that clearly distinguishes the program from compensation). Cards come precharged with a set amount of dollars; some can be added to over time.

Motivation, of course, goes beyond rewards and recognition. It's a prime ingredient, for example, in communications, training, measurement, and technology. To find full-service performance improvement solutions, start with the companies listed at incentivecentral.org/.

For a listing of some of the leading names in branded incentive awards and solutions, click here.

For a complete list of companies in the incentive field, go to motivationshow.com, the Web site of The Motivation Show, or to incentivesatwork.com.

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For information related to this article, go to 4020, A Step-by-Step Guide to a Successful Incentive Travel Program.