If a business or organization typically plans incentive meetings within the same city in which the business is located or only a few hours a way, employees will probably not be as motivated to earn a spot on these trips. Even meeting venues in cities that are on the opposite coast of the U.S. may not be the enticing motivator businesses hope they will be. While some employees will be intrigued by travel within the states, many ambitious, top-rated employees have their sights set beyond the U.S. The types of employees that will most likely be the top producers in a company typically have dreams of faraway destinations.

While traveling to distant lands can be expensive, there is a way that businesses can offer this travel without overburdening their budget. An incentive cruise is an excellent way to offer this international travel to deserving employees. While incentive cruising, businesses can hold productive and profitable meetings at sea while allowing employees the opportunity to travel the world. A ship charter is often less expensive than land venues, and an incentive cruise helps employees to network and build relationships. A ship charter to a distant land could be the thing a business needs to highly motivate capable, competent, and talented employees.

Don't let the competition take your top producers. A new research report from Deloitte reports, for the first time since initiating its longitudinal study of global talent trends and strategies in January, those executives surveyed are more inclined to believe the worst of the economic crisis has passed.

At the same time, there are many companies at risk for not implementing talent or innovation strategies required to seize the opportunities presented by a recovering economy. Here are highlights from the study:

• The worst may be behind us. For the first time since this study was launched in January 2009, more surveyed executives now believe the worst of the economic downturn is over, as opposed to impending, by a decisive 31 percent to 7 percent margin.

• Reducing headcount is secondary to training and retention as a top talent priority.

• Less than half (48 percent) of surveyed executives reported layoffs in the last quarter, down from 61 percent in May.
Surveyed executives are ramping up retention initiatives to keep key leaders and high-potential employees on board.

• Nearly one-in-three executives surveyed (31 percent) reported they are increasing career path opportunities—a jump of 11 percent from January (20 percent).
 

So what are you doing to keep your most talented producers in the game? 

The last blog about inspiring employees with incentive travel was a synopsis of Fay Beauchine’s philosophy on getting more out of the average producer by rewarding top producers. That is only part of the story, however–the rest of the story lies with you.

To illustrate your role fully, let’s assume your client is sold on incentive travel for her top producer, and after your research into his background and hobbies, you decide that he might like a trip to Cancun. This is great since travel to Cancun is cheap due to crime waves (which don’t even affect that area) and the long-gone h1n1 flu.

While this may inspire others who would like to go to Cancun, it may not inspire everyone. Remember that you are trying to get more out of many people, not just the one getting the reward. You need to work with your client along these lines to see what would light the proverbial fire under the greatest number of backsides.

You should seriously consider working with the client to create several different options. These are options that everyone will find out about. Although you probably know that your top producer is going to pick the week in Cancun over the trip to Paris or United Kingdom, you also know the woman who plays Irish fiddle for a hobby is watching, as is the man who collects World War II memorabilia.

Know all the people you’re trying to impress and you will help your client get much better results out of everyone on her staff next year.

While we usually think of incentive programs benefiting the top producers–and the incentive itself does–the real effect is on the average employee, according to Fay Beauchine. In May 2009’s Incentive Magazine, she made the point in Incentive House Roundtable that it’s the middle producers who move up.

“We all know top performers are usually top performers,” she said to interviewer Leo Jakobson. She claimed that it’s the middle that improve by trying to hit the target. Even though they will miss it, they will still improve, even if only a few percent, and that will increase the total sales by “huge numbers in some cases.”

This underscores the importance of the incentive travel programs currently in place in corporations today. You as the meeting planner need to understand that you are a key player in your client’s bottom line, and you have to produce sales in an indirect way. This can be more difficult than the motivation speaker who simply gives them all a good talking to.

Remember that when you plan incentive travel, you need to plan with the person in mind. Tailor it to fit a participant’s ideal needs and wants and she will talk about it for a long time–and she will say it to some of the middle producers in the company.