In an interview in Incentive Weekly, Douglas R. Conant, the just-retired CEO of Campbell Soup Co., talks about leadership and motivating employees:
"You have to demonstrate an unmistakable philosophy of commitment to the well-being of the people in your company if you are to have any hope of inspiring them to an unmistakable commitment to your company. You also need to demonstrate that commitment in meaningful ways to get people deeply engaged.
When I started in 2001, we asked people what they needed in order to excel. We put together a plan that tangibly demonstrated that commitment, called “Campbell Valuing People, People Valuing Campbell.” And we followed through that plan. We did what we said we would do, we told people what we had done, and, finally, we asked them what we needed to do next.
"By developing a clear plan to revitalize employee culture, you create a better, higher-performing culture. You also have to get down to a granular level of culture-building that is clear and visible to all employees. Step one was getting out and listening to people and their issues. You have to confront brutal facts and feelings in the environment in which you are operating.
"You have to listen intently to what is said and not said, you have to frame the conversation, and you have to advance the agenda. This starts with adding a “How can I help?” mentality to the conversation and then a “How did it go?” mentality when the conversation is completed.
"We must be good stewards of our world, while we commit to being good stewards of our company. I have found that employees care deeply about our commitment to social responsibility. In my experience, the more we demonstrate our commitment in this space, the more engaged our employees become. We have been rated as one of the most socially responsible companies in the U.S. in each of the last four years by the Reputation Institute at the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College—in the top 20 every year and as high as number two.
"As we take initiative on this front, employees have increasing pride in our company and become more zealous as brand ambassadors. When we began supporting the AHA with its Red Dress initiative in February, our employees started several random acts of kindness for fund-raising around the AHA initiative. Over time, it has gone from being a product-based issue that the company needed to address to being a rallying point for the organization to move forward and help save lives. Employees have been wildly engaged, and the more engaged they have become, the more our profile as a health-minded company has improved, as has our business performance." Read the entire interview here: www.incentivemag.com/article.aspx
Incentive travel isn't exclusive to rewarding sales people.According to a new whitepaper from the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) incentive travel is great for recognizing the contributions of employees across the organization.
The whitepaper, titled "Critical Findings for Recognition Travel Programs," features a case study from a company with an established recognition travel program for employees who are not salespeople responsible for meeting quotas. Based on stakeholder interviews and survey responses, it presents findings in the areas of employee alignment, nominations, executive support, evaluations and measurement. "One of the most interesting discoveries was the power of the nomination process itself," said IRF Board of Trustees Chairman Jeff Broudy. "Even though the program was designed to reward only 2-3 percent of the employees, nearly half of the potential winners indicated that they were motivated by it."
According to Broudy, incentive travel success also is closely related to the degree of executive buy-in, demonstrated by executives' involvement in establishing award categories, reviewing nominations, selecting winners and viewing the activity as more than just another HR process. Based on its findings, IRF concluded that the best incentive travel programs are open to all employees, are aligned with the organization's mission and culture, and are only one piece in a larger employee recognition strategy.
Click this link to read "Critical Findings for Recognition Travel Programs" in its entirety http://theirf.org/.6068364.html