The Site International Foundation and the Incentive Travel Council (ITC) released part one of its in-depth study, Incentive Travel: The Participant Viewpoint.
Believing that business performance can be positively impacted through the utilization of incentive travel reward and recognition programs, the two organizations developed a study that would deliver a deeper understanding of what makes a program meaningful, motivational and memorable to the participant who is working to earn the award.
In this first installment, the study focused on what the 1,003 program participants found to be meaningful.
For the purposes of this study, meaningful represents an incentive travel program that has clearly defined rules, fair and attainable goals, effective communications, and on-going feedback.
Site International Foundation President, Steve O'Malley stated, "Attitudes and attention of today’s workforce is rapidly evolving. Understanding what people perceive as worth their added time and effort and playing into those values is key to unleashing the maximum potential of people powered businesses."
"As we considered shifts in program models it is certainly better to base any adjustments on gathered data than on assumptions. We are pleased that the collaborative efforts of the Site International Foundation and the Incentive Travel Council could draw upon data that was derived from such a large group of incentive program participants.”
This study was unique in that it surveyed both the perspectives of the award earners and the non-earners. Results from this first installment chart participant feelings toward comparative award types, attitudes toward the companies running the programs and the degree of motivation to earn the award.
Jim Ruszala, Past President of the ITC and co-chair of this project commented, "Study outcomes overwhelmingly indicated that when it comes to motivational travel strategy design there is a simple yet important factor to consider - the participant’s choice for engagement."
"Participants not only make a conscious choice during the launch of an incentive travel program as to what is meaningful but throughout the entire experience: before, during and after. At any point, they can choose to engage or disengage. This study offers some key insight into what is relevant to the participants that we all should take notice of.”
The results of part one are available for download here.
