By now we can all agree, the pandemic is a marathon, not a sprint. And like all marathons, athletes (think ‘your employees’) need all the support they can get to reach the finish line, enjoy the experience and achieve a personal best.



When the social aspect of work has been absent for so long, when so few of us could meet, travel and connect, how do we bring back a real bond and sense of camaraderie?

The Ultimate Incentive: Incentive Travel

Historically, incentive travel has always sat at the top of the reward and recognition pyramid and it treated the most consistent performers, the most improved performers, the most progressive contributors to business growth and innovation to a ‘money can’t buy’ experience.

This led to the establishment of annual or bi-annual incentive travel trips carrying names such as President’s Club, Elite Club, Top Guns Club etc to signify exclusivity, highlight the achievement and ensure there is a beacon for all employees to aim high, work hard, be loyal, engage with the business goals, deliver on KPIs and … be rewarded with the ultimate peer to peer recognition: a place on the company’s exclusive incentive travel programme.

The pandemic has increased the pressure to perform, the risk of job loss and the need to take on extra work due to colleagues being ill, absent or made redundant, while removing the incentive travel beacon (and often the other tiers of a company’s incentive scheme).

Why the Battle for Loyalty Will Intensify

The pandemic has also removed the walls of collocation and opened up all work opportunities to global talent regardless of location. With geographical limitations removed, the best employees will naturally have a huge choice of employment and flexibility will be in the driving seat.

The nature of specialist work where skills are developed over time and knowledge of organisational processes, people and product is intimately linked to performance edge, needs and deserves loyalty to be maintained, rewarded and incentivised. Make your company attractive to your employees and to the top talent in the marketplace. Loyalty matters and incentive travel is proven to improve it.

How to Counteract the Productivity Dip

Burnout and productivity sit at opposite ends of the same concept: work efficiency. Productivity is the throughput and burnout is increasingly the side effect. There are plenty of ways to counteract this:

• offering time off
• encouraging employees to sign up to community volunteering programmes (giving back is proven to increase a sense of well being and improve mental health);
• introducing ‘bring the buzz back /energy days’ in the office where the whole team comes together not to work but to converse, eat, drink and socialise can also bring a much needed boost and change of pace.
• And finally, introducing a fresh, company-wide incentive scheme fit for the pandemic era stands to benefit you long term.

Design Your 2022 Incentive Travel Now

Bespoke will always be the key word for true ‘once in a lifetime’ incentive travel and we have dozens of examples of how we deliver this, from vintage rallies in Rome to participating in African dancing and drumming or enjoying a Berber picnic in the Atlas Mountains…these are just some touches within a myriad of possibilities we select and convert into reality for our clients.

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However, when engaging with you, we would like to discuss your approach to employee engagement and motivation holistically by looking to motivate the many, not the few, by looking to communicate in a manner that lights up the dream across the entire team and by designing an achievable tiered programme which rewards performance when it happens, in some cases little and often. This will send the right signal to your team and will mean that by 2022 when incentive travel is expected to return en force, you would have secured THE BEST for your team and for your buck.

We are here, ready to discuss options with you.

Contact Ken@activateevents.com to explore our ideas and how we will deliver a Covid-secure programme.

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