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Leveraging sales incentives

Change behavior and drive results.

Creating an effective sales incentive program is crucial for driving performance and achieving business goals. Here are some things to consider when designing a successful sales incentive strategy.

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Many organizations face common challenges with their sales incentive programs, such as:

1. Lack of a formal incentive strategy:

Without a clear plan, incentives can become confused with regular pay and fail to motivate employees. A formal strategy helps ensure that incentives are designed to drive specific behaviors and outcomes, rather than being seen as just another part of the compensation package.

2. Inadequate communication:

If salespeople don’t know about the incentives or don’t understand them, the program won’t work well. Clear and consistent communication is essential to ensure that all team members are aware of the incentives, understand how they can earn them, and are motivated to achieve the goals set out in the program.

3. Too many or too few incentives:

This can cause confusion, conflicting priorities, and a lack of focus. It’s important to strike the right balance by offering a variety of incentives that cater to different motivations and performance levels, without overwhelming employees with too many options.

4. Overly complex incentives:

Complicated programs are hard to explain and understand, leading to low participation. Simplifying the structure of the incentives can help ensure that everyone knows what they need to do to earn rewards and can easily track their progress.

5. No or limited measurement:

Without measuring how well the incentives work, it’s hard to see their impact. Regularly tracking and analyzing the results of the incentive program can help identify what’s working, what isn’t, and where adjustments may be needed to improve effectiveness.

To overcome these challenges, organizations need an effective strategy, such as:

1. Self-funded incentives:

These are paid for by the extra performance they generate, making the program sustainable. For example, if an incentive program leads to increased sales, the additional revenue can be used to fund the rewards, ensuring that the program pays for itself.

2. Differentiate incentives from compensation:

Incentives should add to, not replace, base pay. This distinction helps employees see incentives as a bonus for exceptional performance, rather than as part of their regular salary, which can enhance motivation.

3. Inclusive programs:

Aim to “move the middle” by encouraging better performance from all salespeople, not just the top performers. This approach can help create a more balanced and motivated team, as everyone has the opportunity to earn rewards and contribute to the organization’s success.

4. Leverage behavioral economics:

Engage participants emotionally to drive both short- and long-term behavior change. Understanding what motivates employees and using that knowledge to design incentives can lead to more effective and lasting performance improvements.

5. Inspire rather than compensate:

Use the right rewards at the right time to motivate and recognize top performers. This could include public recognition, special privileges, or unique experiences that go beyond monetary rewards and create a sense of achievement and pride.

Different types of incentives can be used to address various goals and timeframes:

1. Top performers:

Recognize top-tier performance with programs like the President’s Club. These programs often include exclusive rewards such as trips, special events, or significant bonuses that highlight the achievements of the best performers.

2. Short-term incentives:

Focus on immediate challenges and opportunities with specific, targeted programs. These might include contests, flash sales, or limited-time bonuses that encourage quick action and immediate results.

3. Gamification:

Drive enablement activities and behaviors through fun and engaging methods. Gamification can include leaderboards, badges, and other game-like elements that make achieving goals more enjoyable and competitive.

4. Long-term incentives:

Promote balanced performance and steady growth with programs like consistency bonuses. These rewards are designed to encourage sustained effort over time, rather than just short bursts of high performance.

5. Launches:

Support new product or service launches with incentives that drive awareness, knowledge, and adoption. This can include training programs, special promotions, and rewards for early adopters who help spread the word and generate initial sales.

6. Strategic initiatives:

Align all employees on key corporate initiatives with rewards based on achieving milestones. These incentives can help ensure that everyone is working towards the same goals and contributing to the organization’s overall strategy.

A proven methodology can help drive behaviors and activities that produce measurable results:

1. Develop strategy:

Assess key business issues, understand performance drivers, and plan desired outcomes. This involves identifying the specific challenges and opportunities that the incentive program will address, and setting clear, measurable goals.

2. Design and execute the initiative:

Use behavioral economics to motivate, communicate effectively, and educate participants. This step includes creating the incentive structure, communicating it to the team, and providing the necessary training and support to help employees succeed.

3. Measure and analyze results:

Track behaviors, gauge impact, and identify opportunities for improvement. Regular analysis of the program’s results can help identify what’s working well and where adjustments may be needed to enhance effectiveness.

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Personalizing channel loyalty

The path to AI

When it comes to loyalty programs, personalization is key. The more personalized, the greater the outcomes.

Both engagement and business results benefit at higher rates. Because of that, we start thinking about personalization right from the beginning, during program design.

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Winning the last four feet

For brands operating in retail, success is determined by the ability to “win the last four feet” – the critical interaction between the customer and the retail associate. Regardless of the advertising budget, it can all be rendered ineffective if a competitor excels in that final interaction. Conversely, outperforming competitors in those crucial moments can offset their advertising spend.

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Is cash king?

About 50 years of studies have shown if you ask a sales person how they would like to be rewarded for performance the answer is almost always “cash.”

But is cash the most effective sales performance incentive?

Learn what University of Minnesota researchers found when they pitted cash versus non-cash rewards in a $700 million business segment.

Do cash incentives work better than non-cash incentives?

On the surface it’s a relatively simple, straightforward question but in truth, it’s one of the great debates in the field of sales compensation programs — and one that requires a remarkably complex and nuanced answer.

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We recently hosted a webinar on this cash vs. non-cash topic featuring Professor George John from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. Over the course of his presentation, Dr. John walked through an academic study that compared the effectiveness of cash compensation versus non-cash incentives in a $700 million business segment. While we won’t go into too much statistical detail (it’s all in the webinar), here is a general overview.

Let’s start with the basics. There are three types of incentive rewards:

• Tangible – Cash in the form of commissions and bonuses, which are tied to some kind of formula based on measured performance.

• Non-cash tangible – Points redeemable for a curated catalog of merchandise or experiences.

• Intangible – Socially-visible recognition in the form of a plaque, photo, company-wide announcement, etc.

Types of incentive compensation

Tangible

Commissions and/or bonuses paid for measured performance.

Non-cash tangible

Merchandise, catalog “points” for measured performance.

Intangible

Recognition awards (no economic cost) for measured performance.

For the purpose of his study, Dr. John eliminated intangible rewards to focus solely on cash and points, or combinations of the two. The subject of the study was a Twin Cities-based sales force that sold a national brand of frozen food to grocery stores. Their annual sales were around $700M. The company had an existing merchandise incentive plan based on what they call Ovation Points. Each Ovation Point had a real delivery cost to the company of $3.75. (Keep that figure in mind because we’ll be coming back to it.)

The sales force was rewarded with a mix of Ovation Points and cash bonuses every time they hit a series of three escalating sales targets. According to Dr. John, about 50 years of studies have shown that if you ask a sales person how they would like to be rewarded for increased performance, they nearly always want cash. Here’s Dr. John’s theory:

“Cash rewards are supposed to trump non-cash tangible rewards. Why? Because number one, from an employee standpoint, I can use the cash to do whatever I want. With the non-cash rewards, I’m limited to the items I can get from the catalog. Sure, the catalogs get bigger and there are more items there, but it’s still not as good as cash and that’s where the expression ‘cash is king’ comes from.”

In this particular conjoint study, it was determined through a variety of calculations that the sales force attributed a cash value of 55 cents to each Ovation Point. But if the real cost of an Ovation Point was $3.75, and staff only valued it at 55 cents, what was the point of offering non-cash tangible rewards at all?

This is where mental accounting and mental “buckets” came into play. Again, we’ll let Dr. John explain:

“We don’t look at our benefits or the income we have as a global construct. We actually partition it out into buckets, hence the term, mental accounting. And then we value each bucket and think about our gains and losses, relative to each bucket, before we add it up. Let me give you an example. Right now, the stock market has melted down over the last couple of months so we are painfully aware that our retirement bucket, as distinct from our spending bucket, might be different. Our spending bucket might be driven more by our salary. And as long as I haven’t lost my job, my spending bucket is more or less constant, whereas my retirement bucket just took a hit. That’s an example of different buckets. So how does this apply to our incentive plans? If people see points, those Ovation Points, and cash as different buckets, they might react differently to them.”

And that’s precisely what the study proved by converting the cash + Ovation Points reward structure into a cash-only construct.

Over a period of time, two things happened:

1) Overall sales figures dropped by 4.5% (largely through a reduction in selling effort).

2) The sales force began to view Ovation Points very differently.

When Ovation Points were removed from the equation (without warning or consultation) their perceived value skyrocketed from 55 cents to $5.70! Why? Because they were placed into different mental buckets. Points don’t get placed into the family cash bucket for use on mundane, everyday expenses; they have high discretionary value to be redeemed for wants as opposed to needs.

A final word from Dr. John:

“What’s the takeaway? Tangible non-cash plans are worth the expense — they’re more than worth the expense. Why? Because it capitalizes on our human tendency to employ mental buckets. So how do you leverage this?

Number one, buckets are more likely to be formed when you make your point programs more distinctive. Number two, there is variability across salespeople so try and offer choices, if that’s a possibility. I know that’s complicated; I know it makes administrative life miserable but it is important if we can offer choices, perhaps as a menu of two choices. You can overweight points or you can overweight cash….Try and make them distinctive, try and engage these notions of mental accounting.”

Though many have supported the maxim that cash is king, Dr. George John’s study and webinar demonstrate that to drive business results, the reality is the opposite.

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Take a chance on changing your employee rewards strategy

When looking at behavior and results-based recognition in your organization, partial reinforcement and probabilistic rewards are some of the most effective tools available for cutting through the static.

Variable structures can be just the layer your reward strategy needs to recapture employees’ attention.

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Driving incremental sales results through employee engagement

In any organization, employees are the backbone of success. Their dedication, motivation and enthusiasm directly impact the company’s performance, especially in driving incremental sales results. However, inspiring employees to go above and beyond their job description requires more than just monetary incentives. It demands a culture of inspiration that fosters engagement, creativity and a sense of ownership.

In any organization, employees are the backbone of success. Their dedication, motivation and enthusiasm directly impact the company’s performance, especially in driving incremental sales results. However, inspiring employees to go above and beyond their job description requires more than just monetary incentives. It demands a culture of inspiration that fosters engagement, creativity and a sense of ownership.

Here’s how you can infuse this culture in your organization.

– 1 –

Communicate clear goals and expectations

Transparent communication regarding sales goals and expectations is crucial. When employees understand what is expected of them and how their efforts contribute to the organization’s success, they feel a sense of purpose. Clearly defined objectives provide them with direction and motivation to strive for excellence.

– 2 –

Provide ongoing training and development

Invest in your employees’ growth by offering continuous training and development opportunities. Equip them with the skills and knowledge necessary to excel in their roles and adapt to evolving market trends. When employees feel supported in their professional development, they’re more likely to take initiative and drive sales innovation.

– 3 –

Foster a collaborative environment

Encourage teamwork and collaboration among employees. Create an open and inclusive workplace culture where ideas are valued, and feedback is welcomed. Collaborative environments breed creativity and innovation, leading to new sales strategies and approaches that can drive incremental results.

– 4 –

Recognize and reward performance

Recognize and reward employees for their hard work and achievements. Whether through verbal praise, bonuses or other incentives, acknowledging their contributions boosts morale and reinforces positive behaviors. Celebrating successes, both big and small, encourages employees to continue striving for excellence.

– 5 –

Leverage the right award and align incentives with sales goals

Ensure that incentives and rewards align with sales goals and objectives. Create incentive programs that motivate employees to focus their efforts on driving incremental sales results. By tying the right rewards to specific metrics and achievements, you create a clear pathway for employees to track their progress, stay motivated and drive results.

Inspiring employees to drive incremental sales results requires a multifaceted approach that prioritizes communication, collaboration, recognition, empowerment and a positive work environment. By cultivating a culture of inspiration within your organization, you can unleash the full potential of your employees and achieve sustainable sales growth. Remember, motivated and engaged employees are not just assets, they’re the driving force behind your organization’s success.

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Elevate employee recognition with IBM watsonx

Employee recognition drives retention. Learn how BIW and IBM watsonx help managers strengthen teams and drive engagement.

Employee engagement is critical to any organization’s success, helping drive retention, productivity and performance. In fact, employees whose accomplishments are recognized are 2.5 times more likely to be committed to their organization.¹ To help organizations amplify effective, differentiated employee recognition and reward experiences, BI WORLDWIDE is bringing advanced AI capabilities to employees’ fingertips.

By collaborating with IBM to integrate IBM watsonx.ai, IBM watsonx Assistant and IBM watsonx Discovery into BIW’s recognition platform offering, we are helping managers strengthen their teams and drive engagement by providing meaningful and timely employee recognition, streamlining recognition tasks and enhancing recognition programs’ overall effectiveness.

How BI WORLDWIDE builds empowering work environments

Our solutions enable employees to prompt the Program Advisor (Digital Assistant) to seamlessly access a comprehensive knowledge base that is sourced using IBM watsonx Discovery, which is tailored to each client and their specific needs. This capability significantly reduces the need to parse through emails and internal client support documents for information, giving back time to deliver exceptional service to clients. Simultaneously, the Digital Assistant allows BIW employees and our clients to identify and rectify information gaps by prompting unasked questions, helping to develop more holistic understandings and drive more informed and engaged workforces.

Within Elevate^TM, BIW’s comprehensive employee recognition platform solution, the BIW Recognition Assistant solution, built with IBM watsonx.ai, allows employees to use an intuitive Wizard to craft robust, meaningful communications or effortlessly enhance existing recognition messages. Utilizing IBM watsonx.ai and IBM’s Granite AI foundation models built for business, users can generate impactful recognition content in an instant, all while preserving the essential human touch. Furthermore, with our platform’s natural language understanding abilities, clients can ensure that every message radiates positivity and encouragement.

We’re also helping clients identify the most suitable nominations for special recognition programs based on the customer’s assessment criteria. Using capabilities from IBM watsonx.ai, we’re enabling clients to use and summarize historical nomination data to provide managers a comprehensive view of which employees should be nominated, when they need to be nominated and how they prefer to be recognized. This is designed not only to streamline and accelerate the selection process—reducing administrative burdens for selection teams—but also to help clients optimize nomination submissions based on data and mitigate potential biases that can arise during nominations.

Transforming the future of organizations

IBM and BI WORLDWIDE will continue to further develop our AI strategy to empower managers with additional capabilities such as comprehensive recognition summaries, eCard image generation based on recognition text and natural language querying within reporting systems. This approach aims to streamline recognition processes and make appreciation more accessible and impactful across organizations.

To learn more about how this application can enhance your program, contact us at hello@biworldwide.com.

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The New Rules of Engagement^®

employee inspiration research report

Employees who believe their good work will be recognized are 12.4 times more likely to say they have a great company culture.

Download the full report.

You don’t need to predict the future. Just choose a good future – a useful future – that will alter human emotions and reactions in such a way that the future you predict will be brought about.

Foreword

When it comes to engaging and inspiring employees, BI WORLDWIDE believes in a good and useful future where companies make the right investments that bring about increased employee commitment, effort and inspiration.

Following Asimov’s line of thinking, BIW’s annual research study explored various trends in the workplace. We dove into the role of artificial intelligence and how it impacts the way employees feel about their work experience and business outcomes. We looked at how more effective learning can help employees gain additional skills, increasing their confidence in their job performance. This tailored learning can be especially helpful for salespeople who represent their companies in the market.

With the introduction of more high-tech enablement tools, companies will have more opportunities for human interaction that is meaningful. With the help of AI tools, managers can effectively coach, recognize and reward employees. Employees can reduce mundane tasks and recognize their coworkers, heightening their sense of gratitude. And survey results can be analyzed more quickly, allowing for employees to have their voices heard.

At the heart of all this research is The New Rules of Engagement^®, BIW’s proprietary model that identifies what companies can offer their employees to encourage them to stay, work hard and feel inspired at work. We update these benchmarks every year, test concepts by listening to what our clients are experiencing and adjust our research accordingly.

The New Rules of Engagement^®

This year, our survey respondents spoke to many trends including recognition, artificial intelligence, communication with their leaders and employer, ESG, deskless employees, remote work, managers, survey feedback and more. All this data wouldn’t fit into one report, so we’re focusing on six keys trends this year:

1. Survey feedback
2. Recognition’s impact on culture
3. Recognition’s impact on business results
4. Gratitude
5. Artificial intelligence
6. Sales enablement

The research around these key topics can help build concrete strategies for your business. These strategies are grounded in real-world data and experiences and can help create a brighter, more engaged workplace.

Surveys

Conducting employee surveys won’t change company culture – but here’s what does.

Psychologist Dr. Donald O. Clifton believed that one of the most important things you can do as a leader is “help people feel heard – genuinely heard.” When it comes to conducting employee engagement surveys, how do you do that? It’s not just about handing out the survey but making sure employees feel their voices matter. BI WORLDWIDE found that most companies survey their employees annually or even quarterly. Technology has made it easier and more cost effective to do surveys more often and companies are doing so with greater frequency, including using focus groups or town hall meetings.

This year, BIW asked participants about the surveys they received from their companies. Ninety-two percent of those who remembered being asked to complete a survey said they provided feedback.

But some companies still worry about “survey fatigue” and lack of participation.

BIW’s research shows this isn’t an issue. Applying common sense when initiating surveys – like not starting more than two at a time – helps to ease those concerns. However the reasons as to why employees didn’t participate in company surveys varied, including:

When employees don’t see their feedback making a difference, they might feel less inclined to participate in surveys. Less than half of employees feel that meaningful changes happen as a result of the surveys.

Companies need to understand that when they conduct surveys and ask for feedback, they’re setting an expectation that something is going to happen.

Most employees realize they don’t get everything they asked for, but they do expect action. Failure to act may lead to demoralized employees.

But it’s not all bad news. When companies have meaningful conversations with employees, those employees show higher levels of commitment, effort and inspiration.

Sharing survey results helps the team go from insights to actions. BIW’s research shows that:

The key is to not delay action on survey results. Employees said the biggest barrier to taking meaningful action is the time between completing the survey and sharing the results.

If too much time passes, you risk losing momentum.

What can you do to make sure you’re making the most of your survey results?

• Ensure surveys measure important, actionable outcomes.
  In one case, BI WORLDWIDE was able to help a health services client establish a strong relationship between their survey results and employee retention and patient satisfaction, gaining the attention of leadership.
  
• Offer confidential feedback opportunities about their results and how they can grow.
  There are several tools available for employees to receive confidential feedback that can help them take greater ownership of their engagement. To be sure, creating an engaged culture must be driven by leaders and managers. Providing resources to individual contributors can also help.
  
• Let employees know they’ve been heard.
  Create an action plan that includes communications from senior leaders to inform employees of the results. Even if some of the results are less than desirable, sharing the results and what you plan to do with them should be an ongoing approach.
  
• Act on what counts.
  Using The New Rules of Engagement^® model, BIW conducts an analysis to decide which areas of investment can bring the most return. For some companies, compensation is not the most important area to employees, but rather a sense of belonging and seeing their future are areas to focus on.
  

• Train managers to take the right actions.
  Changing culture can take time, and managers play an important role in engaging their team members. But managers aren’t often equipped to follow up on survey results. Companies need to provide their managers and leaders with ongoing training and guidance to avoid the belief that they aren’t following up and taking these surveys seriously.
  
• Celebrate and communicate early wins to build momentum.
  Make sure early wins are shared widely to help build momentum and show employees you’re listening to them.

Hear from our expert: Mark Hirschfeld, Vice President, Consulting Services and Strategic Partnerships

Recognition’s impact on culture

Boost your company culture with evidence-based tactics.

When we think about companies with outstanding cultures, we often imagine trendy office spaces with exposed brick walls, open layouts, free drinks and foosball tables. Similarly, when AI thinks of a great workplace culture, it shows images of young, overly cheerful employees around a reclaimed wood table, surrounded by colorful Post-it^® notes.

But employees in large companies know these pictures aren’t reality. Even in offices with regular desks and plain walls, great cultures can thrive. So what makes a great company culture if it’s not espresso machines and other trendy stuff?

Recognition is a key pillar that can influence the other pillars of wellbeing, purpose, leadership and belonging. When done strategically, recognition can make employees feel more valued, healthy, connected, purposeful and trustful of leadership.

Employees receiving recognition and rewards had the biggest gains in terms of feeling valued by their companies, but they also were more likely to feel a sense of wellbeing, belonging, purpose and a trust in leadership.

Recognition can also explicitly support your values. What gets recognized gets repeated, so it’s important to tie recognition to behaviors that reflect your company values. Analyzing recognition data can show which values might be misunderstood or underrepresented. For example, a large life sciences client found that one of their core values was only recognized 10% of the time. They launched a communications campaign to educate employees on this value and incentivized its recognition, doubling the recognition of the value and helping to embed it into the company culture.

While every company’s culture is unique, great cultures share common traits: trust in leadership, support for employee wellbeing, a sense of purpose and belonging and effective recognition. Remember, a great culture isn’t about having exposed brick walls – it’s about creating an environment that reinforces these pillars and your specific company values.

Hear from our expert: Amy Stern, Vice President, Employee Performance Group

Recognition’s impact on business results

How does recognition help you reach your big goals?

At BI WORLDWIDE, we help our clients deliver real, tangible results through our recognition programs. When we ask program owners about their big goals, we often hear things like “improve culture” or “create a sense of purpose.” These are great goals, and we can certainly help with them. But that’s not what we’re asking.

We want to know your big goals. Are you trying to launch a new product while phasing out an old one? Do you need to increase your market share or double your revenue over the next five years? Maybe you want to boost your Net Promoter Score by at least 20 points.

Big goals are labeled as such for a reason – they’re challenging to achieve. They require the full attention, focus and commitment of every single employee. In large companies with tens of thousands of employees worldwide, all engaged in different tasks, this can seem daunting. At BI WORLDWIDE, we have a proven framework to help you achieve these big goals.

First, let’s acknowledge that recognition impacts culture.

Recognition also boosts employee engagement. Employees who receive recognition and awards are more likely to feel committed, work harder and feel inspired. A good culture and engaged employees lead to positive business results.

For example, Irrational Capital partnered with Harbor Capital to create a Large Cap ETF based on companies’ culture and engagement scores. This fund has, on average, outperformed the S&P 500 since its inception.

Our data at BIW supports this pattern, showing that companies with better culture, engagement and employee experience also report more financial growth.

However, these are correlations. We can flip the chart and see that companies with higher financial projections also have better cultures and engagement. So does culture drive results or do results drive culture? Our research and client work suggest it’s both. Good culture drives good results, and good results make for a better culture. But even great cultures can have problems. One of our clients with high culture scores experienced a failed project launch, leading to lower scores for the teams involved.

The reality is that culture and business results influence each other. If you’re only focusing on improving culture, you won’t unlock your program’s full potential. Think of building a great basketball team: to win, you need both talented players and team cohesion. A team that focuses on individual skills OR teamwork will perform better than one that focuses on neither. But a team that focuses on both will have far greater success. The same goes for recognition. By fueling this cycle from all sides, we achieve stronger and faster results than by influencing culture alone.

At BI WORLDWIDE, we help our clients by recognizing achievements and supporting culture while driving business results. We use our business improvement process and principles of behavioral economics to understand your strategic goals, key stakeholders and challenges. We then design a program that communicates, educates, motivates and updates employees as they work towards these big goals.

Using this model, we have driven big goals like improving free cash flow, increasing quarterly and annual sales and reducing turnover.

The next time you think about goals for your recognition program, think big. What are your executive team’s priorities? What do you need your employees to do to reach these goals? Then put the model to work: educate, communicate, motivate and update your teams to achieve something great while reinforcing your culture. You’ll create a great workplace and drive significant impact.

Hear from our expert: Erin Ekstrand, Managing Director, Client Services

Gratitude

Gratitude benefits more than just the receiver.

We’re all familiar with receiving recognition and how we feel when we’re recognized. But what’s not talked about as much is how showing gratitude benefits the giver. Giving serves a far greater function than just enabling someone else to receive.

Here are the six benefits of showing gratitude at work:

1. Expressing gratitude has physical and mental health benefits.
   For some, recognition feels like just one more thing to add to a stressful plate. But it’s helpful to know that expressing gratitude has benefits on physical and mental health. An article from the Mayo Clinic stated that expressing gratitude can improve sleep, decrease depression and anxiety and decrease difficulties with chronic pain. It also helps improve immunity and connections with others.¹
   
2. Expressing gratitude can improve physiological stress responses in work tasks.
   Gratitude has been related to improved stress responses. A study placed university students who had been acquainted for a few months into groups and asked them to individually complete a task typically found in a work environment. They were asked to collaborate on the product design, the marketing plan development and a product pitch. Each team member was required to deliver part of the product pitch to a panel of judges. To raise the stakes the winning team would receive $200.
   
   Before the tasks began, the groups were split into two conditions. Half of the groups included a teammate who was expressing gratitude to the other. The other half of the groups just talked about their days. The study found that the teams who experienced the gratitude condition had superior physiological responses in both the collaborative task and the individual task compared to the control group.²
   
3. Gratitude promotes culture.
   We also see gratitude’s impact in real life, not just in university studies. The New Rules of Engagement^® annual research asked questions around gratitude, and we found that those who reported feeling a strong sense of gratitude at work are ten times more likely to say they belong at their company, have a great company culture and would recommend their company as a great place to work.
   
4. Giving recognition is one way to express gratitude – and it feels great too.
   Those who gave recognition in the past month scored 11 percentage points higher on the item “I have so much to be grateful for.” And those who give and receive recognition experience positive emotions after the event, including greater happiness, pride and connection.
   

5. Recognition is contagious.
   More giving creates a domino effect. Those receiving recognition in the past month are three times more likely to have given recognition in the past month as well. In fact, whether someone received recognition in the past month was the best predictor of whether they gave recognition, an even stronger predictor than how often they report typically recognizing colleagues.
   
6. Witnessing gratitude spurs prosocial behaviors.
   Academic research also suggests that those viewing recognition are more likely to build connections and exhibit helpful behaviors with givers and receivers, creating the culture we want to see at work and opportunities for them to be recognized.³
   
   So what can you do to help drive gratitude at work? Reflect on what you’re grateful for at work – both the little things and the big things – and recognize your teammates. Celebrating gratitude as a team and setting a goal to express gratitude can spur others to do the same.

Hear from our expert: Stephanie Hanlon, Senior Account Director, Life Sciences and Healthcare

Artificial intelligence

To bot or not to bot – embracing the hope (and the concerns) of AI.

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are already influencing our world, especially at work. At the 2024 HR Tech Conference, industry analyst Josh Bersin said that with fewer people being born, companies will be operating with fewer employees and may need to rely on AI more often. He also said AI will be incredibly important for the labor market, employee experience and employee reskilling, pointing out that AI tools today are much more advanced than before.⁴

With these changes, how do employees feel about AI? What’s the best way to teach them about it?

BI WORLDWIDE asked employees about AI tools like ChatGPT at work. About half of the respondents have been using AI regularly. This acceptance pattern is similar to previous digital transformations like the Internet and social media.

Participants see opportunities in AI coming into the workplace AND voice concerns.

While AI can make work more efficient and innovative, there is concern about job loss and unethical use.

More experienced users view AI in the workplace differently than infrequent users.

Hands-on experience with AI changes people’s view. Frequent users see more benefits in AI improving performance and innovation, while less frequent users don’t see as many.

When employees worry about AI taking their jobs, they are half as likely to feel committed at work. Companies need to address these fears to keep their employees.

How do we address concerns and take advantage of opportunities with such new technology? Artificial intelligence is a new tool that needs a thoughtful plan, but companies can learn from decades of digital transformation knowledge. A recent study funded by Workday identified four key elements to support using this generation of digital tools.⁵

1. Be transparent:
   Be open about issues like data security, bias, and job loss.
   
2. Increase training:
   Employees using AI feel more positive and are more likely to help with innovations.
   
3. Target communications:
   Create different messages for frequent versus new users of AI. Managers who have not readily embraced AI will need different messaging than individual contributors.
   
4. Listen to feedback:
   Use a two-way feedback loop to understand and address employee concerns that may arise.

Examples of success with AI

Along with these best practices, there are many companies using these principles and achieving important business results. For example, a large firm with a dedicated call center to address HR issues created an AI chatbot to answer common questions, freeing up employees to handle more complex issues. This has led to quicker HR response times, higher job satisfaction from the call center employees and overall satisfaction with HR responses. With the overall call center volume reduced, qualified representatives are being retrained to support important roles that weren’t being adequately staffed, easing concerns about job loss.

Another example comes from a national retail chain that saw a significant increase in how customers were being helped when calling a store. The company used a firm to monitor calls and provide performance feedback to store managers and employees. This approach had some benefits, but the solution was expensive, and some participants expressed concerns about the fairness of the coaching. Instead, the company implemented an AI tool to assess calls and provide more immediate feedback that employees felt was less biased. It also freed up managers to coach and support employees. The AI tool identified high call volume windows and routed calls to a call center to handle scheduling services, reducing costs and improving customer service.

IBM uses its own AI platform, watsonx, for productivity improvements. Steve Moss, Director of watsonx Americas for IBM, noted that 80% of their top IT issues are being addressed by AI, and over 10 million yearly interactions with HR are fully resolved by AI. IBM also saved $165 million in annualized operational savings and 26,000 hours across procurement processes using AI.⁶

BI WORLDWIDE used an AI tool to analyze comments for The New Rules of Engagement^® survey, which is an analysis of unstructured data. The methods for analyzing unstructured data have been in place for over 80 years and are highly reliable, but the process is incredibly time consuming. BIW tested the tools against our proven methods and found them to be accurate in generating a solid draft of results to which our analysts can add their insights. Additionally BIW uses AI to support our customers in their programs, including data protection, bias elimination, program administration reduction and learning program enhancement.

AI tools are here to stay and will continue changing the workplace. Using them well and addressing concerns will create a more engaging, productive work environment. “To bot or not to bot” really isn’t the question; we’re going to use AI, so let’s do it right.

Hear from our expert: Beth Sundberg, Vice President, Technology Solutions Group

Engaging the sales audience

Genuine sales enablement – making the impossible actually possible.

There are over twelve million sales employees in the United States, making it one of the biggest job categories we study. But selling is tough, even for the best salespeople. Companies need to create a good environment for their sales reps in the market. They need their reps to build strong relationships and turn customers into advocates.

Financially successful companies have more engaged sellers.

As a part of The New Rules of Engagement^® survey this year, BIWORLDWIDE asked sales representatives about their engagement levels based on the four outcomes of commitment, effort, inspiration and overall engagement. They were also asked how their companies were doing financially: better, worse or the same as the prior year.

Three in every four sales reps who said their companies are doing much better financially reported higher levels of commitment, effort, inspiration and overall engagement. Those who said their companies are doing worse than the previous year have much lower levels of commitment and engagement.

Creating a more engaging work environment can boost business success, including sales. While more engaged employees produce better business results, the relationship goes both ways. It’s more fun to sell for the winning team, so better business results also lead to more engaged employees.

The right tools help our sales representatives get the job done.

Sales reps need the right tools to sell more. With the right tools, they are fifteen times more likely to be engaged at work and ten times more likely to be committed to their job. For example, a publicly traded pharmaceutical client’s compensation plans performed well through most of the quarter, but the SPIFF wasn’t generating end-of-quarter activity. BIW reimagined the SPIFF program with inspiring non-cash rewards which gained the attention of the salespeople and produced significantly better end-of-quarter results. In the medical device and pharmaceutical fields, sales compensation programs can be complicated. There’s a good business case for more complicated plans, but they often create confusion with sales reps and sales managers regarding what to do, when to do it and why.

Artificial intelligence is an emerging trend in sales enablement. In The New Rules of Engagement^® study, salespeople had less experience with AI tools on average than other groups. Half of all study participants were using AI tools monthly compared to only one third of salespeople. There are consequences for salespeople who don’t use AI tools. They are less likely to see how it can streamline their work and more likely to worry about it affecting their jobs.

Salespeople who feel a great sense of belonging are generally more engaged.

Of all the factors in The New Rules of Engagement^® model, Foster Belonging has the strongest correlation to sales. Sales reps who feel they belong are far more likely to say they are committed to, inspired by and working hard for their employer.

One client launched a program to increase belonging among their salespeople. The program had received little interest or engagement because it was optional, and most employees chose the “not interested” option. One principle of behavioral sciences is to provide activities in a way where the audiences feel an idiosyncratic fit – the feeling they have a chance of being successful. Using this principle, BIW’s Research & Strategy and Communications teams developed a program that offered awareness and learning activities to address the lack of program participation.

BIW conducted pre- and post-program surveys over the yearlong duration. All engagement metrics increased by a statistically significant extent, including attitude and behavior indicators. The results also showed that when a manager was involved in the program, their direct reports were far more likely to be involved.

Salespeople who are thriving are more likely to stay.

Sales is a challenging job, and stress comes naturally with that job. But too much stress can take a toll and cause sellers to make a “happiness decision” where they leave the company. When companies are committed to helping their salespeople thrive, the salespeople are 7.9 times more likely to be committed to staying with the company.

Many times, companies create unnecessary stress. Salespeople are often inundated with communications from various parts of the company who want the attention of the sales force. The reps are often confused where to find information, who can help them and how they can access other sources of data to do their jobs.

In the previous belonging case study, BIW also studied if communications were being seen and responded to, as that would provide an early indicator of the results achieved. The belonging campaign broke through the clutter and drove participation among salespeople. The right communications plan led to increased understanding and engagement.

Salespeople who are learning produce results.

Learning and development are also tools to enable sales reps to do their jobs well.

Data from a transportation industry client shows how important learning and development is to achieving results. Over three years, the company tracked sales performance against learning completion. Sales reps that took advantage of ALL learning opportunities significantly outperformed those who took some or none of the courses. Completing learning courses dramatically increases sales success. Investing in the development of sales reps can have a huge impact on the bottom line.

Store associates of a retail client needed to learn how to introduce customers to their branded loyalty program. When customers sign up for the program, their loyalty to the brand increases, so this was an important effort for the retailer.

BIW created a learning program using proprietary gamification tools of leaderboards and missions where retail associates were educated on how to speak with customers about loyalty benefits. These missions allowed associates to earn points redeemable for non-cash rewards. When associates engaged with the website ten or more times, their loyalty enrollment rate was double those who didn’t. Those who earned and redeemed points were so inspired by the process that they were more likely to achieve their goal more quickly the second time. Associates whose managers participated were more likely to also participate, and new employees who engaged in the program were able to catch up quickly to more tenured associates. The results were the same across the retailer’s different brands, showing the power of the program regardless of the store concept.

Providing opportunities for salespeople to learn – based on what they believe to be of value – can have a significant impact on them staying and producing in the market.

What salespeople value in rewards.

BIW’s research over many years has found that redeemable rewards points are a great motivator for salespeople. One example is a direct sales organization that offered a voluntary certification program. Reps who completed the certification and received points for doing so experienced much higher sales.

Companies rely on their salespeople to present their goods and services to the market in a way that creates raving fans. They need to provide the right infrastructure and tools to support a salesperson’s efforts. It’s about creating a culture where salespeople feel they belong. It’s about cutting through the clutter and getting them the right information at the right time. And it’s about developing a learning culture where they can speak confidently to customers. Following these practices can increase the chances of making the impossible actually possible for your salespeople.

Hear from our expert: Molly Anderson, Senior Account Manager, Employee Performance Group

Conclusion

In discussing the future, Isaac Asimov concluded, “Better to make a good future than a bad one.”

BI WORLDWIDE’s insights lead us to challenge each other to create that good future, one where employees:

• Know how to use AI tools to be more productive and see them as trusted sources
  
• Believe they are heard and that meaningful progress will be made based on their feedback
  
• Can experience meaningful recognition that leads to increased business results
  
• Will feel a genuine sense of gratitude in their workplace

Building a positive workplace culture is a continuous journey that requires commitment and collaboration from everyone in the organization to foster a culture of trust, respect and innovation. These efforts not only improve employee satisfaction and retention but also drive better business outcomes. As you implement these practices, you’ll see how small changes can lead to big improvements.

With dedication and the right tools, you can create an environment where employees are excited to come to work every day, feel valued for their contributions and are motivated to achieve their full potential.

Appendix

BI WORLDWIDE partnered with a panel company in the United States to target employees of companies with 1,000 employees or more. After completing data quality procedures, a total of 1,056 surveys were included. Employees came from over 20 different industries, including healthcare, retail, technology, transportation and finance.

The data were balanced to reflect the age, gender and ethnicity of full-time U.S. employees as outlined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Forty-eight percent of respondents were female while 52% were male. The average respondent age was 43.3 years with a standard deviation of 13.9 years.

Additional Sources

1. Logan, A. (2022). Feeling grateful improves health. Mayo Clinic.
2. Gu, Y., Ocampo, J. M., Algoe, S. B., & Oveis, C. (2022). Gratitude expressions improve teammates’ cardiovascular stress responses. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 151, 3281–3291.
3. Algoe, S. B., Dwyer, P. C., Younge, A., Oveis, C. (2020). A new perspective on the social functions of emotions: Gratitude and the witnessing effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119, 40-74.
4. Colletta, J. (2024). Josh Bersin’s top AI headline for 2025? It’s all about the agents. HR Executive.
5. Kircher, A. (2023). How do employees feel about AI at work, and what can you do? Workday.
6. Moss, S. (2024). A Month in IBM Sales: Becoming Client Zero. LinkedIn.

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20 fast and easy ways

to recognize employees

A recognition-rich culture allows organizations to develop, engaged, and create loyal employees.

Making employee appreciation integral to your workplace culture can be achieved through meaningful and intentional practices.

We know that when employees are recognized, they are more committed, put more effort into their work and are inspired to achieve great things both for the company and your customers.

Review and this list of ideas you can quickly incorporate into daily practice.

Enjoy and have fun inspiring your employees!

1. Welcome every new hire via text a few days before their start date.
   
2. Greet each of your new employees by name the first time you encounter them on any given day. Have a conversation and show you are interested and engaged in their personal and/or professional well-being.
   
3. Get to know at least one thing about each employee on a personal level like hobbies, volunteer activities, pets, children or leisure pursuits. Once again, this shows you are interested in them as a person.
   
4. At the end of the day, ask at least one employee what went well for them that day and reinforce their success.
   
5. Use an employee complaint as an opportunity to get feedback on how things could be done differently in that specific situation and on a wider scale moving forward.
   
6. Recognize an individual or team’s small successes as well as larger, more prominent ones.
   
7. Ask employees for feedback. Sometimes the best recognition you can give is to simply listen. Listening tells an employee you value their opinions and are willing to take the time to hear them out.
   
8. Hold a light-hearted “humbling” session. Ask each employee to brag about one positive contribution they make to the team or the company. It can be as simple as “I support client mailings” or “I prepare recaps to keep us organized.”
   
9. Show employees how much you respect them by sharing key organizational statistics and milestones with them on a regular basis. Employees should see the connection between their work and how it impacts overall company success.
   
10. Have fun and allow people to represent their true personality. Reinforce the notion that an enjoyable work environment does not have to be at the expense of an efficient work environment.
    
11. Acknowledge employee work anniversaries every year. Make sure they know you value their loyalty.
    
12. Don’t be afraid to smile and laugh at things that genuinely make you smile and laugh. It creates a bond with your team members. Attitude is contagious – both positive and negative.
    
13. Ask your employees what they need from you to do their best. Listen carefully. Reinforce that you will do your best to support their needs, but only promise what you know you can deliver.
    
14. Share messages of praise from customers, suppliers, managers and other employees. Show the message to the mentioned employee first and ask permission to post it publically inside the organization or read it at a group meeting. Never do so without their knowledge.
    
15. Tell your superiors about your special employees. This helps them get to know who may be ready for career advancement. It is also a testimony to your great management skills.
    
16. Create a short, non-intrusive survey for new employees to fill out on their first day. Include things like preferred name, previous employer, alma mater, family, hobbies, etc. Pass this information on to colleagues so everyone has some quick conversation starters when meeting the person.
    
17. When you implement a suggestion made by an employee, make sure to let their colleagues and your managers know where the idea came from. Doing this generates respect for the employee and gives you credibility throughout the company.
    
18. Help a good employee develop professionally if it’s something they’re interested in. Suggest specific company training classes, additional education, books to read or seminars they might attend to build their skills.
    
19. Ask employees about current work in a way that starts a conversation: “Tell me about what you are working on right now.” Listen carefully. End the conversation with a “Thank you.”
    
20. Be honest. When you make a mistake or can’t follow through on a promise, make sure to communicate quickly and clearly with the affected employees. Although they may be disappointed, they will appreciate that you are treating them with respect.

For more information on how BI WORLDWIDE can help your organization focus on employee recognition, visit www.biworldwide.com or contact us at hello@biworldwide.com.

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5 ways to inspire sales motivation

Motivation is sometimes defined as the general desire or willingness of someone to do something. For some people, motivation comes naturally; it’s intrinsic. For others, it’s extrinsic; they need a little help.

Here are five keys to driving motivation in your organization.

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