In order for business incentives to be effective they need to meet certain criteria and avoid certain pitfalls. Here are the dos and don’ts of planning successful business incentives:

• Do offer the incentives as a competition or drawing in order to get as much benefit from as many people as possible with as little money as possible.
• Don’t consider giving substantial incentives away without a reason.
• Do consider giving smaller incentives away periodically as well as in lieu of winning larger incentives. Coffee mugs with corporate logos are a great incentive for just about everyone!
• Don’t consider giving minor gifts as rewards for great actions. If Bob from the help desk saved the company $8,000 a month by helping set up a new VoIP calling system then giving him a mug as a reward is insulting.
• Do consider offering incentives to employees that find new ways to save money. Some companies do with the best incentive of all: a percentage of the savings for a set period of time.
• Don’t consider altering deals later just because of the bottom line. Trust is an important factor in any business relationship and it is nearly impossible to rebuild once seriously abused.
• Do consider different types of rewards for different types of employees, partners, suppliers, and so on. Incentives that work for employees probably won’t work well for suppliers.

Meetings have the capacity to be soul-crushing events or very lively, team-building exercises if they are properly planned. Meetings that are about creative problem solving can be broken up into two stages with a break in the middle.

The first stage is one where all ideas are accepted and negativity is simply not allowed. This promotes better idea sharing and creates a more open atmosphere that allows others to build off of ideas that may or may not be practical. The second meeting is one where negativity and even constructive criticism still need to take a back seat to the priority of choosing the most reasonable plan. Emotional investment in ideas should be distributed due to the very nature of the first meeting, and thus nobody should be championing a cause to further their own ends.

Another idea would be to give people special seats on corners when they are ‘idea’ people. The seats are honorary positions that change whenever a new idea comes up that is useful. Some meeting planners have special incentives ready for whoever spends the most time in one of these chairs, such as a covered parking spot for a period of time.

By following the aforementioned ideas and/or being a little creative, it is possible to create strong incentives without having to actually spend any money. Furthermore, productivity gains from smart meeting planning can be phenomenal and almost impossible to put a price tag on.