WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new survey of companies in the United Kingdom reveals that a majority offers non-cash rewards and recognition to employees (81 per cent), salespeople (72 per cent), distributors/channel partners (57 per cent), and customers (63 cent).
The online study, jointly sponsored by the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) and the Intellective Group, examined the rewards & recognition practices of 100 U.K.-based organizations. It considered employee and sales programs, influence, spend, rewards, anticipated changes and other key indicators. Results were weighted to reflect the actual proportion of U.K. companies by annual revenue size.
Overall, the survey found that U.K. companies leverage non-cash employee and sales reward and recognition programs to promote desired behaviors — and reported growth and increased investments relative to these programs. The majority currently offers group and individual incentive travel, while half offer merchandise and many offer prepaid and digital rewards. Most companies work with incentive industry suppliers in some capacity; however, many respondents are unaware of industry associations that provide thought leadership.
The survey revealed that 49 per cent of U.K. companies integrate their incentive campaigns with customer management systems (CMS), as well as employ social media (39 per cent), corporate social responsibility (CSR) (33 per cent), and gaming (21 per cent) as enhancements.
“The good news is that corporate stakeholders in the U.K. believe in rewards and recognition as effective engagement, retention and recruitment tools,” said IRF president Melissa Van Dyke.
A more detailed statistical look at some of the findings:
The most popular objectives of rewards and recognition campaigns in the U.K. are improving productivity (49 per cent), improving morale (39 per cent) and promoting innovation (35 per cent).
Nearly 60 per cent of U.K. companies offer incentive travel awards, and 52 per cent offer merchandise awards.
In the coming year, the vast majority (79 per cent) of U.K. companies will choose European destinations for their incentive travel programs. North America ranked second with 31 per cent, and the Middle East and Asia were tied for third at 17 per cent.
Just over 50 per cent of U.K. companies offer merchandise awards, and 48 per cent have per-person budgets of £999 or less.
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