2011 Award Recipient

“IGH Rewards Program”

Employee Incentive Program

Client: Tony Hanson, HR Manager
Travel Tags, Inc.

Incentive Professional: Louise Anderson, CPIM
Anderson Performance Improvement Company

Travel Tags, Inc., a leader in developing unique, innovative solutions for specialty and dimensional printing, had a vision and passion for creating and nurturing a culture of recognition within their organization. With a multi-cultural workforce representing six different languages, management wanted to avoid any division between employees.  The state of the economy, layoffs, and possible salary freezes made it a perfect time to introduce a rewards and recognition system.

Program Objectives:

• Define and communicate the organization’s core values and corporate vision and mission.

• Increase employee engagement.

• Increase number of managers giving recognition.

• Achieve high recognition rate and employee participation.

• Increase the number of “Perfect Days” at the manufacturing location.

Travel Tags, Inc. (formally IGH Solutions) desired a recognition system that was simple, yet powerful and aligned with their newly updated core values, vision, and mission. An online platform was chosen to simplify recognition notification, award tracking, and reporting. “IGH Rewards” was selected as the program name because of the simplicity – the name of the program is easy to remember and participants can make an automatic association. Travel Tags’ diverse staff was able to choose from over 4,500 rewards online, including travel arranged by a full-service travel agency. The program launched in April 2010, and since the program inception it has been very successful.

A multi-page, full-color booklet articulating Travel Tags’ corporate values, vision, and mission, printed in six languages, was distributed to all associates mid-program. This powerful piece directly linked the recognition program to these core principles:

• Consistent superior quality of work
• Exceptional teamwork
• Innovative ideas
• Commitment to a safe work environment
• Passion for the customer

The “IGH Rewards” program offered employees a variety of ways to be recognized and rewarded for their contributions to the organization. Both employees and management were given the tools to successfully recognize the right behaviors, right when they occur. Such an example is On-the-Spot Cards – these cards can be given at the discretion of each employee or manager to recognize others for exhibiting key behaviors, corporate values, assisting the organization to better serve their customers, and innovation.  Once the cards are received, they are redeemed through the online rewards platform. To encourage ongoing peer recognition, employees and managers were given an allocation of On-the-Spot Cards.

All employees also have the opportunity to award E-Cards at their discretion via the online platform.  E-Card is an online recognition tool that’s easy to use, efficient, and highly effective in building a strong, positive culture. Once an employee observes the desired behavior and/or corporate value, they search for the participant through the online tool, select the desired images for the card, and enter the appropriate message.

Learn-and-Earn knowledge quizzes and surveys are also available through the IGH Rewards website. The online quizzes are an easy way to harness the power of knowledge and accelerate success. The completion of these quizzes and surveys result in Points being awarded automatically or through a random drawing.

Employees also receive Points for their Years of Service milestones at Travel Tags, Inc. Points are deposited into participants’ online awards accounts on the anniversary date every five years starting at Year Five.

The “Perfect Day” Team Award recognized teams who met pre-determined productivity goals on-time and on-target with no accident incidences.  This innovative recognition award focuses on what a team must deliver – the corporate customer focus, impacting everyone daily. Once the Perfect Day has been achieved, the manager awards the team with Points via the discretionary tools.

Management buy-in was key to the success of this program. Corporate-wide management training was introduced to discuss how recognition would make an impact across the organization. Managers announced the details of the program to their staff at launch meetings, discussing the program rules. Each month, the leadership team reviewed the reports generated from the platform to identify those managers that effectively were using the system and those that needed a refresher on how and why to utilize the program.

Program Results

• Eighty-eight per cent of eligible participants participated in the program.

• The organization experienced a 70 percent reduction in safety incidents compared to the previous year.

• On-time delivery increased to more than 99 percent.

The Incentive Marketing Association leads incentive professionals and the corporate community as the premier educator and authority
in the incentive marketplace. By promoting the utilization of performance management and measurement tools, results-oriented solutions, the exchange of information and ideas, and high standards of professionalism, IMA advances the effective use of incentives and recognition in  employee and customer programs to improve business.

1601 North Bond Street • Suite 303 • Naperville, IL 60563
Phone: 630.369.7780
www.incentivemarketing.org

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