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26 Oct 2016
by Debra Corey

How to give your reward programmes The X Factor

It’s that time of year when my kids and I are glued to the television watching the live shows for X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing (listed in no particular order as they say as I don’t want you to think that I like one better than the other). We love the excitement and drama of watching to see who’s going to do well enough to return week after week, and ultimately win the competition. 

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After years of watching these programmes, I’ve come to the conclusion that although they are predominantly talent competitions, there is definitely some element which is based on being popular, getting viewers to vote for them to avoid the dreaded ‘bottom two’ sing or dance off. So like it or not, participants need to work just as hard to improve their performance skills as much as their overall ‘likeability’.

This made me think, is this something we should be doing with our reward programmes?  Besides designing them to be the best performers, should we also be spending time and effort in making them likeable or popular? So I did research on top tips for being popular, adapted them to relate to reward programmes, and am sharing four of them with you to help you get the most votes from your employees.

1) Be human

I’ve often heard the judges on X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing say to contestants that they need to show the audience their human side - who they are and what makes them special. This will help the audience understand and engage with them, making them more likeable and getting them the votes they need. 

In a study conducted at UCLA, participants rated over 500 descriptions of people based on their perceived significance to likeability. The top rated descriptors related to being human, having to do with being sincere and transparent and capable of understanding. 

Doesn’t this apply to our reward programmes as well? If we were more sincere, transparent and understanding in how we design and deliver them wouldn’t they be more likeable? If we showed our employees exactly what makes them so special, wouldn’t they be more popular with them?

For example, if you’re putting in place a new discount benefit, show your employees that you selected a provider that had discounts on providers that were important to them, that this special benefit will help them save money because you care about helping them make their money go further.

2)  Be yourself

Just as important as showing your human side is to be yourself, doing things that are right for your company and your employees. I’ve been a rewards professional for over 20 years, so I do know the pressure to conform to what others are doing and feeling like you need to give in to market norms and practices, but does this really make them popular with your employees?  Sometimes yes, but often no. 

Why, because often they come across as a tick in the box exercise, e.g. you’re putting them in place because you know you have to, not because as a company you want to. This results in little engagement and appreciation with your employees, which equates to wasted money and time on a reward programme not delivering the ‘goods’. 

Instead find ways to be yourself in your programmes. For example, I recently put in place a wellbeing benefit which gave employees complete choice as to what wellbeing activity was right for them. This was different to what others were doing in the market, but right for my employees. 

This often involves little to no more more effort and/or money, and take it from me, can definitely get you popularity points.

3)  Have your rewards ‘smile’

Smiling has a positive impact on likeability, with studies showing that smiling makes us appear more friendly and approachable. So what does this have to do with reward programmes, and how in the world can you make a reward smile? 

Well before you think I’m mad, I do know that a reward cannot smile, but it can achieve the same outcomes as a smile, being more friendly and approachable. You can do this by designing and delivering programmes that are easy to understand and easy to use, removing blockers from the employee’s overall user experience. 

Ask yourself, is what I’m designing into the programme necessary? Will it be a blocker or an enabler? For example, is manager approval necessary or is it just making the process more complex? Do employees really need to click from one link to another to enrol or can I bring it all together into one portal? Put yourself in the shoes of your employees, and find ways for your reward programmes to smile.

4)  Stay focused

One tip I came across on a website talking about how to win X Factor said that you need to treat it as a marathon and not a sprint.  No one performance is going to win the show, so in order to win you need to stay focused, learning from the mistakes and feedback given each week, working hard to improve your game.

The same is true with our reward programmes, as we need to stay focused both during and after the design and delivery. This includes gaining as much feedback from our leaders and employees throughout the design process, ending up with programmes that achieve the previous tips, and then listen to them again as they are rolled out to ensure that they continue to meet these objectives and if not, adapting them so that they do. By doing this you have a better chance of achieving ongoing popularity and you’re not a one show wonder, being eliminated the next week.

So keep these tips in mind when you develop and deliver your next reward programme and it will get the popularity and likeability your company needs and your employees deserve. 

Debra Corey is group reward director at Reward Gateway.

This article was provided by Reward Gateway.

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