It is by now a given fact, that people are happier and more productive at work when they feel they are maximising their time effectively, and when they are in dynamic, inspiring, and exotic environments.

Now to reiterate, you do not need to have the most glamorous job in the world to feel this way, nor do you need to have the best-paid job. I’ve met Island boat-workers in Croatia who earn a fraction of an office-worker in London’s annual salary but, are twice as content. I’ve met city financiers who have jacked in six-figure salaries to go run bars in ski resorts in France. I have one friend who straight out of University, got a job in one of the top PR firms in London, and quit after one month to continue writing her blog and working freelance out of a hostel in Sydney. For two years.

What I’m getting at here should be obvious. People will do insane things for money, yes, but they will do a lot more to feel happy and work in an environment that punctuates their happiness even more. Now, this does not mean for you, the HR guru or head of R n D, or even the C.E.O of the whole business needs to up and move your whole office to the Canary Islands or the Croatian coast, or the Emirates. You don’t even have to take on new business in a more exotic location. What you can do is far simpler and that is exactly where Incentive Travel comes in.

We are familiar with the age-old sales team prizes, we have seen the Range Rover Sports go to the top sellers in departments each week, we have heard about the quarterly, all-expenses-paid trip away to the Mediterranean, and I am sure there are many people we all know who have enacted all manners of subterfuge in order to secure an invite to the bosses annual yacht/golf trip. All of these methods and carrot-dangling tactics are tried, tested, and proven to work, yet they are just one-side of the Incentive Travel equation. How often have you thought about rather than leaving the office to get away, go away, and take the office with you?

Say you have some new clients that are due to arrive in town for a pitch. Rather than bringing them into the familiar environment of your workplace, why not take them, and the whole of the creative team to the neutral ground. Put them at ease, but also build their anticipation, whilst giving your pro’s in the boardroom a little more room to flex their muscles without all the usual pressures of the home office. Creating incentives doesn’t just have to apply to your people, but travelling with them and the people you’re pitching too is an entirely new way of doing business.

It’s approaching the end of the financial year. Accounting is crunching their way through the books and gradually sagging into their chairs with each passing day. Pack them off for a week working where they can actually see the sun and sea out of their window, give them the freedom to enjoy it, and suddenly the books won’t feel so heavy. It’s mid-winter. Your team are starting to flag, the usual coughs, colds, and other forms of influenza are doing the rounds of the office. Rather than putting the whole floor on quarantine, why not find a wellness spa somewhere relaxing, and move them to work there instead of seeing them deteriorate at the home office? You don’t have to travel far to increase productivity, but sometimes any change of environment is a welcome change indeed.

Now it is obvious that Incentive travel comes with a nasty word that everyone has to always think about; budget. It is an intimidating and very real, word to contend with when it comes to ordering the cake and flowers for Carol’s birthday, never-mind trying to justify a work trip of any kind outside of the office zip-code, let alone country. But when the number-crunchers are hard at work telling you all the reasons the company can’t afford this kind of expense, imagine their reaction when they find out they are the ones who could stand to benefit from this. When someone mentions “earnings” or “net profit” next, show them HR’s reports on employee welfare and motivation (if your HR department is not doing this then fire them or make sure they are), or hire an independent researcher to do the numbers on how much your company or business is losing each year due to “lack of productivity”, especially in today’s world where we are gradually starting to pay proper attention to individual mental health.

Most importantly, however, employee welfare should not something which is settled by digits and decimals, because there should not be a number that quantifies their value to a business. Incentive travel should be exactly that, an incentive to work harder, to work better, and to be rewarded for the fruits of said labours. It doesn’t matter in which manner it is presented or the reasoning behind it, as long as the right motivation is present and accounted for, people will respond to it, and it will only help to make your business more successful.

If you’re looking to arrange an incentive travel, get in touch with our team now and discover how our services could help you achieve your environmental and business goals.