A thriving company progresses with the consistent support of smart, dedicated employees that stay continually motivated. The problem is, however, that it may be fairly simple to find employees that are smart and dedicated to working hard, but it isn’t always easy to keep employees motivated. Promotional products are a great way to keep your employees vying for better solutions and better results for your business while promoting your company name. How do you start? This article outlines 10 ways that you can motivate your employees via a promotional based awards program.

Step #1: Make the Goal

Before you decide how your promotional rewards program will run, decide what it is that you want your employees to do. For example, some employers are looking for increased sales. These employers should choose promotional products that would appeal mostly to their sales team. Others want to increase their level of employee retention and should choose a general promotional item that will please the whole crowd. Regardless of what your goal is, decide what it is that you want to focus on. Then, decide which of your employees will be most likely to participate in your incentive program.

Step #2: Select Popular and Attractive Awards with a Promotions Expert

If you are not quite sure what promotional items would be best for your awards program, contact a promotional products professional. American Promotions provides free consultations and will be more than happy to share their promotions experience with you.

Step #3: Measure, measure, measure!

The process of measuring may not appeal to some people, but if you work in business you know that you enjoy measuring your company’s success! If you want to increase sales, for instance, make goals for your employees, begin the program and measure the amount of increased sales for the duration of the incentive program. After all, if you don’t measure your success, how will you be sure that your goals have been achieved?

Step #4: Create a Program Timeline

A timeline for your incentive program may seem somewhat unnecessary at first, but a timeline can help you more effectively sort through your thoughts and communicate your goals with your employees more effectively. Your timeline might look something like this:

1. Promotional Product Awards Program begins
2. Program will end on November 15th (six months from now)
3. Awards will be produced
4. Finalists will be reviewed
5. Winners will be selected
6. Awards ceremony will be coordinated
7. Winners will be announced
8. A follow-up letter or item will be sent to the clients after the awards ceremony

Step #5: Provide Objective Judgment

In general, the more objective your promotional product awards program is, the more successful it will be. If at all possible, ask colleagues who are involved in your industry—but not directly affiliated with your company--to make the deciding vote between finalists in the program.

Step #6: Budget, Budget, Budget

Like measuring, budgeting is an absolute necessity. For instance, for your promotional product program you could set aside 80% for the cost and delivery of your employee incentive items, 10-15% for promotions and 5-10% for training. For every incentive program, the costs will prove to be very different. However, a detailed budget will help you determine the value of your investment once you have measured the final results.

Step #7: Administration

Make sure that you communicate clearly and effectively with your employees. Let them know what the specified goals of the awards program are, what promotional items you will be offering as awards for successful completion of the program and perhaps most importantly, let them know how they can obtain the awards.

Step #8: Communication

Additional ideas for communicating the incentive program to your employees include sending an initial email, a direct mail follow-up letter and a special note or letter of communication to those who are finalists or winners.

Step #9: Coordinate the Incentive Program Ceremony

The perfect way to end any competition or important event is with an awards ceremony. Make sure to delegate the responsibilities to a capable events planner. Make sure that he or she officially invites the finalists of your program, that awards presenters have been selected, that a script has been written for the presenters, that the food and beverages have been carefully planned and ordered, that a photographer or company employee will take pictures at the event, that a follow-up letter has been written for the winners and that the finalists and winners are presented with a photograph or video of the awards ceremony event.

Step #10: What has Changed?

With a review committee, decide if the incentive program 1) helped your company to achieve its goal and 2) changed your company and employees for the better. Your review might reveal some interesting and positive results.

Remember that above all, you can’t go wrong with employee incentives--especially promotional products that will remind them of your company, your company’s logo and what your company stands for. Promotional items not only increase the productivity level of your employees, they also help to increase your employees’ retention rate and ‘at-work’ attitude. Keep striving for better employee incentives.