The employee can be a strange beast when it comes to motivation. When you ask employees what they want, they inevitably respond with ‘more money.’ However, any practicing human resources professional will tell you that money as an incentive doesn’t seem to have a lasting effect. While we all want more money, the reality of the matter is that money given out to employees as a reward program seldom seems to work; the employees take the cash for granted, equate it as a regular part of their compensation and spend it on mundane things. What they do remember is an exciting reward like a trip.

Here’s the rub on giving out vacations and trips to employees: unless you are an experienced travel agent, an accountant and a bunch of other things rolled into one, trying to administer one of these programs is going to drive you crazy. Most HR departments simply are not equipped for this and I’ve been through the experience of launching an employee travel rewards program on two occasions myself. The first was bad enough, but after the second, I swore never again.

What sorts of things can happen? For starters, you can never make everyone happy, so the year I bought Super Bowl tickets for the top ten performers in the company I worked for, only three of the employees knew what football was. The others complained. I’ve had to deal with booking flights, ordering special dietary needs meals, booking hotels, arranging for rental cars, buying insurance, you name it. Cancellations, substitutions, and staff that was late for departure, staff that was ill on the trip, staff that lost their luggage, staff who wanted to extend their stays. All while watching the bottom line. It takes time and if it’s not done right, the reward trip becomes memorable for all the wrong reasons.

That’s why I turned to a company that specializes in administering employee incentive programs. My staff is freed up from dealing with the never ending details and companies like this have the whole experience down to an art; employees are happy and that makes life in the HR department much happier. Done properly, an incentive program can make a world of difference in motivating employees. Some studies suggest as much as a twenty percent increase in productivity and a memorable trip increases employee loyalty as well. It’s a win-win situation, as long as it’s handled properly.