First
of all, congratulations, on your approach. I always suggest a
tiered approach when rewarding good performance by a
company:
- Customers
- Employees
- Shareholders
- Anyone else
When you
appreciate the work that your employees are doing, it is not
an "expense". It is an
"investment". Good employees, particularly
good salespeople, are always in high demand. So if you
do not treat them well and reward them adequately for their
performance, they will feel under-appreciated and likely to
bolt when the chance comes. Cash bonuses are always
appreciated by American workers but most of the time, the
money goes into the bank, and they do not think much about
it after a week or two. Thus, non-cash compensation is
critical, even if small. You must have noticed that employees
talk for weeks about the holiday parties or a company
outing. In case of GE, there are numerous stories of
Jack Welch sending flowers and champagne bottles to the
homes of best performers. (Related article: How
to attract and retain great employees?)
The current trend
is to treat your employees to a spa vacation for a weekend.
You must also pay for their spouses (or one guest) and it is not a
good idea to combine business with the vacation though I have seen
that a motivational speaker is sometimes invited. Some
businesses might organize a training session but not for learning
the latest programming tools of .NET or nano-technology. If
you must, you could organize a short training session on a soft
skill, e.g., leadership or time management or team-building. Spa
resorts offer several vacation packages for business people.
You must pay for some spa treatments as well along with lodging
and meals, so that one does not need to spend
any money of their own to have a true spa experience. A spa vacation
is different and both men and women enjoy them. Despite the
high standard of living in the United States, and very rapid
growth in the number of spa resorts, it is still not common for
most people to visit a spa or visit regularly. Therefore,
not only will a vacation like this relax/recharge your
sales-force, they are
also more likely to remember and talk about it for a long time.
Related article:
Medical
spa growth opportunities
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