Your incentive program needs clear communication to work. Otherwise, you’re just throwing all that money away! Most businesses have a hard time with this. They end up losing around $62.4 million each year because their staff members don’t know what’s in it for them.
You might think you’re excelling with your rewards program – but your employees probably see it differently. When you don’t explain the facts the right way, your team gets confused and loses interest fast. And you waste money on rewards that nobody gets excited about!
Real businesses have learned this lesson the hard way. Their programs flopped because nobody knew how to earn rewards or what they could get. But you can fix this. If you’re starting fresh or trying to breathe new life into an old program, you’ll want to learn how to communicate better.
Let’s jump in and find out how to make your incentive program work through better communication.
How It Affects Employee Motivation
Your employees will work much harder and stay way more involved when you explain what they can earn and how to earn it! The numbers back this up too. Your team’s performance can jump by 22% when you help connect their personal goals to your company’s bigger picture. They’ll feel like their work counts.
You need to tap into external and internal motivation to make this plan work. Money and rewards are good for pushing your team toward targets. But there’s also this whole other side where your people need to feel liked and respected – that’s what makes them care about their work and want your company to succeed!
When it comes to motivation, nothing beats public recognition for keeping your team fired up. The data shows it plain – if you give your employees public praise, they’re almost four times more likely to stay involved at work. Plus, they’re way less likely to jump ship – 55% less likely, to be exact. That’s why you should always make a big deal about wins in front of everyone.
Watch out, though – messy incentive communication can blow up in your face (and nobody wants that). Your team will end up stressed out and suspicious if they’re scratching their heads about how rewards actually work. Once that trust starts cracking between your people and management, everyone starts focusing on the wrong goals.
Looking to learn more about an incentive, rebate
or reward program for your business?
DemoCurious about costs?
Try our instant pricing calculator:
Businesses fail right from the start by thinking their incentive programs are crystal clear to everyone. They’ll stick some tricky rules on the company website and call it a day. Useful communication needs multiple touchpoints. That means team meetings, follow-up emails, and one-on-one conversations.
Your team’s motivation will stay sky-high when you keep them updated on their progress toward incentive goals. Regular feedback from managers and celebrating even small victories along the way keeps everyone excited and focused on their targets!
The momentum starts building when your incentive program creates this positive snowball effect. When your people know what’s in it for them, they naturally step up their game and perform better. Then comes more recognition which makes them want to push even harder. Just remember to make crystal clear what exceptional work looks like and how you’ll reward it.
Financial Costs Of Miscommunication
Poor communication about the incentives will hit your wallet harder than you might think! Your employees will exit when they don’t learn about their rewards programs. You’ll need to spend between 30% to 150% of their salary just to replace them. And this cost grows even bigger for higher positions.
The financial problems don’t end with the turnover costs. Your newer team members waste roughly seven and a half hours every week trying to figure out vague messages about their incentives. That’s time. For a common knowledge worker, you’re looking at $12,506 in wasted time each year. Just imagine the actual work that could get done during those lost hours instead.
Vague incentive programs can cause serious problems for your company! Wells Fargo learned this lesson the hard way. Their vague incentive system pushed their employees to create fake accounts. This ended up in a massive $3 billion settlement. Even if you run a smaller business, vague incentives can still create serious problems.
The challenges can pop up in ways you might not expect! One bakery found their quality inspectors were actually damaging products on the job. These workers wanted to catch problems and earn their rewards. The company now ended up spending money fixing deliberate damage instead of preventing real problems.
Your projects will stall when team members don’t get their incentives. Most businesses lose around $62.4 million each year because of poor communication. Delayed decisions can pile up, deadlines get missed, and projects fall apart. What starts as a small issue faster turns into a massive challenge for your company.
The payment delays and mixed messages about incentives only make everything worse. Your workers lose faith when their rewards don’t show up on time. They end up spending more time asking about their delayed incentives instead of focusing on their actual work. This cycle keeps going until your whole company’s profits take a hit.
Case Studies On Failed Incentives
Clear communication about incentives can save your business from expensive mistakes that harm you and your employees. One manufacturing company learned this lesson when they launched their bonus program without any real explanation. You probably won’t be shocked to hear that their workers missed their targets because they had no clue what to shoot for.
You might remember the Wells Fargo scandal, too. The bank pushed some pretty aggressive sales targets but didn’t give their employees any input about doing activities the right way. What happened next was pretty predictable. Employees started creating fake accounts just to hit their numbers. The whole situation ended up costing billions in fines. Lots of talented people either lost their jobs or just couldn’t take the pressure anymore.
A tech company’s customer service team also shows what can go wrong with vague incentives. The company decided to reward their reps based on how many support tickets they could close. Soon enough, the reps started rushing through customer problems without actually fixing anything. Their customer satisfaction ratings took a nosedive – no surprise!
Siemens learned a tough lesson about being crystal clear with sales targets. Their salespeople started paying bribes to win contracts because nobody told them the right way to meet their goals. The company ended up paying massive fines. They damaged their reputation across multiple countries.
One retail chain messed up when they changed their reward system without telling anyone. Their workers were counting on the same big bonuses they’d received before. When smaller bonuses showed up out of nowhere, their most useful employees headed for the door. The company lost years of experience and had to spend way more money on hiring new people.
Mixed messages about incentives created total chaos at one software company. While the sales team thought they would get rewards for bringing in new clients, the finance team had completely different rules in mind. You can imagine how that turned out. Lots of arguments and missed targets all around.
One bank’s Employee of the Month program backfired spectacularly because they didn’t explain it the right way. Most team members felt left out and lost their motivation. Instead of working together, people started competing against each other. Productivity actually went down.
Poor communication about bonus changes caused walkouts at one manufacturing plant. The workers found out about bonus cuts through the office grapevine instead of their managers. Once that happened, any trust between workers and leadership completely fell apart. Their production numbers stayed low for months.
Strategies To Improve Communication
Useful incentive communication starts with simplicity and straightforwardness. You need crystal-clear information about the rewards and the exact steps to get them. Any tricky words or industry language will just make your eyes glaze over. It can kill your drive to succeed.
Your team needs steady updates to stay up-to-date and fired up. A quick weekly email or team huddle gets people excited about the rewards they can earn. You’re always in tune with your progress and potential rewards, too.
Mix up how you spread the word about incentives. While some coworkers love emails, others might like a quick talk or text message. Different communication methods make sure everyone gets the message loud and clear.
The honest feedback from you and your coworkers shapes these incentive programs. Quick online surveys or a suggestion box lets you share what actually gets you motivated. You know better than anyone what drives you and your teammates to succeed.
Your managers and team leaders play a big part in keeping everyone excited about incentives. They should bring up rewards during team meetings and one-on-one conversations. They also need easy-to-follow guidelines for celebrating wins and explaining how everything works.
Modern tech makes sharing info about incentives very easy. Your company’s internal website or apps let you check progress whenever you want. Using items like leaderboards and achievement alerts gets people excited about hitting their goals.
The details about incentives should be right at your fingertips. A clear roadmap that shows how everything works makes life easier for everyone. Having these facts in an easy-to-find place means you won’t waste time hunting them down.
Open and honest communication builds a strong foundation for successful incentive programs. You should feel comfortable sharing your thoughts about the reward system. When your voice matters, you’ll naturally feel more connected to the program and more driven to crush those goals.
Communication Effectiveness
Your metrics for incentive communication success are sitting right in front of you! Just take a look at how your team interacts with your messages through email open rates and meeting attendance. You’ll also want to track which communication methods get your employees most excited and involved.
Your employees will show you what’s actually working. Quick pulse surveys can give you real-time feedback on how well you’re getting your message across. Small group conversations let your team speak their mind freely about what they’re hearing. You can also put together an employee advisory group to address challenges as they come up.
The data paints a clear and complete picture of your communication effectiveness! You should look at how people actively participate in surveys and programs you’re running. When your messages hit home, then you’ll see your team get more done. New tools and processes catch on faster when you explain them, too.
Complete measurement shows you where to put your energy. You’ll see your team responding faster to updates. Your employees will start passing along company news to their coworkers. After launching something new, you’ll see real changes in how people work.
Salary conversations and vague communication hits the bottom line hard. Businesses lose millions every year when messages get mixed up! Your team works better when they know how their incentives work. Clear communication can improve your team’s output by up to 25%, too.
Your message strategy needs some non-stop adjustment since what resonates with your team might fall flat tomorrow. Different employee groups respond to different approaches. Some love emails while others learn better in team meetings.
You’ll know your message is landing when your team starts asking thoughtful questions and giving ideas. They’ll even help to spread updates to their colleagues without being asked.
Vague communication can give you problems in your business. You lose customers and useful team members when messages get confused. More than half of workers feel stressed out from vague communication. When you keep your incentive messages clear and steady, you stay away from these challenges completely.
Common Communication Mistakes
Businesses can sometimes make their employee incentive programs harder to understand than needed through tricky language and confusing messages. You might feel lost trying to find out what you need to earn the rewards. When this happens, you’ll probably lose interest and stop participating altogether.
Your workplace needs to share information in different ways because everyone processes knowledge differently. You might like reading updates in emails while your coworker learns better in person-to-person meetings. Regular updates about the program will keep you involved and excited, too. Without steady reminders, you’re more likely to forget about the available rewards or lose interest completely.
Cultural differences affect how you and your coworkers process and respond to incentive messages. Something that gets you excited might not motivate your colleague from a different background at all. Successful businesses take time to understand their diverse workforce. They adjust their communication style so everyone feels like they’re part of the team and knows what’s going on.
An information center makes everything easier to track – whether that’s a company website or a shared folder. You’ll always know where to look when questions come up. You won’t have to manage conflicting information from different locations. One place to check facts means you’re less likely to miss reward opportunities because of miscommunication.
Quick replies to your questions show that your company actually cares about keeping you informed. You should feel comfortable asking for clarification whenever something doesn’t make sense. This back-and-forth creates trust and ensures that everyone understands the program goals the same way.
Even useful incentive programs can fall apart when communication breaks down. You’ll probably tune out messages that sound like corporate jargon or technical babble. Being bombarded with too much information at once is overwhelming, too. Simple explanations in clear language will keep you interested and informed about the program.
Level Up Your Incentives and Rewards
Your incentive programs can create real change when you communicate them effectively to your team! Clear messages about rewards get your employees excited and improve their productivity. They also help them stay around longer. You’ll also see your team feeling more connected to their work and your company’s mission. But watch out – vague or confusing messages about incentives can damage your team’s trust and motivation, too.
Just think back to a time when you weren’t sure how to earn that bonus or recognition at work. Maybe you have watched your coworkers get frustrated because nobody explained the reward criteria well. That’s why crystal-clear communication matters! You can avoid these problems with simple language. Share regular updates and make program information easy to find.
Improving your incentive communication is actually quite easy. Start by asking your team members what would make the programs easier to learn about. Their feedback will help you create messages that connect with everyone. Some people love emails, and others like person-to-person updates. It helps to find what works best with your team.
Level 6 knows how to create incentive programs that take your business to new heights! Whether you want to supercharge your sales team’s performance or improve employee happiness, we can help you out. Our lineup features branded debit cards and employee recognition programs. These include sales incentives – all customized to fit your company perfectly. We start by building programs that deliver measurable results for your business.
Check out our free demo and see how we help businesses like yours improve their ROI and sales performance.
Claudine is the Chief Relationship Officer at Level 6. She holds a master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology. Her experience includes working as a certified conflict mediator for the United States Postal Service, a human performance analyst for Accenture, an Academic Dean, and a College Director. She is currently an adjunct Professor of Psychology at Southern New Hampshire University. With over 20 years of experience, she joined Level 6 to guide clients seeking effective ways to change behavior and, ultimately, their bottom line.
