Merchandise Tuesday: Giving Back

In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, often we forget to slow down, take a step back and pay attention to some of the issues that seem to slip through the cracks. Many companies are becoming more and more aware of their impact on the environment, and as a result, trying to adopt a more green way of doing business. Other corporations are concerned with social issues, and asking what they can do to contribute to their communities. Then there are the places out there that are focused on the global scale, doing whatever they can to enrich the lives of those less fortunate. These issues are just some of the problems we all tend to put on the back burner until we have more time or resources to take action. The good news is many companies are starting to tie their corporate social responsibility plans into their incentives programs.

At Hinda, our awards assortment features all kinds of products brought to us by Helping Hand Rewards, or HHR. HHR connects you with established social enterprises and fair trade organizations that manufacture unique, high-quality good with the sole mission of helping people earn a living and feed their families. From jewelry to bath products, housewares to gourmet food, these products are attractive and well made. Here are just a few samples of items created by some of HHR’s partners:

• Bath and Spa products feature items from Pure Eden™ and Bright Endeavors. Both of these organizations help women learn employment skills and provide job training so they can get ahead in life. Pure Eden’s products include fair trade and green soaps, lotions and travel spa kits for both women and men. Bright Endeavors creates its signature Dreambean soy candle tins in a variety of scents and sizes.
• Jewelry and Accessories products feature handmade bracelets from Mary Fisher and Moda Esperanza. Mary Fisher works to provide employment opportunities to HIV-positive women in Africa. Fisher designs the bracelets, which are intricately stitched and beaded by the women, who receive all profits from sales. Moda Esperanza helps women and single mothers in Honduras to earn a fair wage. These women create unique bracelets out of recycled pop tabs.
• Gourmet Food from Lambs Farm includes tins of cookies, toffee, chocolate and jars of jams produced by the longstanding organization, which focuses on empowering adults with developmental disabilities to lead enriched lives as independently as possible. Not only does the baking help the participants learn new skills, it also helps them cultivate their talent, which is a focus area for Lambs Farm.

This is just a small sampling of the socially responsible items Hinda has in its assortment. These products are not only great for employee recognition and corporate holiday gifts, but by redeeming these items, you are helping to enrich the lives of people around the globe who are struggling to put food on the table, working toward gaining important job skills or emotionally isolated from the rest of society due to unplanned pregnancy or developmental disabilities. When you choose a socially responsible gift, you are not just rewarding your employees or yourself, you are giving the gift of empowerment to the loving and motivated hands that stitched, baked and crafted these fine products.

An Incentive to Re-Vamp Your Incentive Program

How well is your incentive program working? Is it working? How can you tell? These are questions that are addressed in Rick Dandes’ article “Problem-Solving: What to Do When Your Incentive Program Isn’t Working” in the January/February issue of Premium Incentive Products. In the article, Dandes talks to Hinda relationship manager Kate Henehan about what to do when your incentive program doesn’t work and the importance of keeping track of your program to make sure it’s on target and doing what it’s supposed to, essentially.

When talking about problems within a given program, Henehan says, “One of the most important [things] is lack of management support. Executives need to be promoting and reminding their participant base about the importance of the program, how it aligns to the company goals and, ultimately, to individual rewards and recognition.” She adds that these programs lend themselves to excitement and promotion at the outset, and then gradually start to lose steam. If the program is truly aligned with company goals, it’s up to management to keep employees engaged and reminded of the importance of these programs.

The article points to a few warning signs to look for within a program that isn’t doing what it’s supposed to. First, if few people participate, that’s an indication that the program isn’t working. Also, if the awards being offered don’t motivate people, there’s another clue that something is amiss. Third, if you’re having trouble discerning whether or not your program is even successful, you’ve got your answer right there: it’s not. Luckily, the article outlines several strategies for designing effective incentive programs and for winning back the employees whose engagement might have gotten lost along the way.

“Programs can fail for a lot of reasons, but a well-designed program tied to a company’s goals and objectives, with ways to measure results, can deliver excellent results and ROI,” Henehan says. “Ongoing measurement, modifying the program to meet changing corporate goals and strategies, tracking performance, measuring results and keeping all channels of communication open are key. It’s important to stay fluid today – things change much more rapidly than in the past, and you have to be able to change with them.”

Get the whole scoop here.

How "Daily Deals for Businesses" Can Boost Engagement

Tweet

As consumers, we're well aware of the massive eruption of daily deal sites on the Internet. Companies like Groupon, Living Social and Scoutmob offer discounts on everything from food, merchandise, services and activities. Now, daily deal sites are emerging that cater to a new crowd. Instead of offering deals to consumers, these new sites search for deals that cater to business markets.

Market Share was recently featured in a Fast Company article. As a new type of daily deal site, they offer things like team-building activities, flower delivery and even in-office massages. While it's only available in New York right now, they have plans to open in more cities by the end of the year.

This new type of spontaneous reward offering allows employers a convenient, hassle-free way to reward, engage and motivate employees. Without having to research, employers are able to purchase great experiences, products and merchandise for their employees.

While these type of rewards shouldn't replace an incentive program, they can be beneficial as a spontaneous addition. What do you all think? Are they a good idea? Will they rise in popularity?

The Many Benefits of Employee Incentives

Tweet

Yes, there are several benefits to an employee incentive program. Incentives are in place to reward, recognize and motivate employees. And, they do a good job at all three.

It's been a tough couple of years and it's no secret that several employees are feeling burnt out, stressed, under appreciated and strapped for cash. There appears to be light at the end of the tunnel and the economy is slowly coming back to life. But, what happens when we've fully recovered from the events of the past few years?

With high competition for skilled and talented employees, rewarding your employees is essential and makes business sense. Employee incentive programs are crucial to a business’ success and they enable better relationships between employees and managers.

Don’t lose your employees to competitors. Invest in them today through incentive programs and reap the benefits of those investments for years to come. What benefits, you ask? Here are a few.

• Motivated employees
• Happy employees
• Stronger relationships between employees and managers
• Employee recognition
• Employee loyalty
• Valued employees
• Positive employee attitudes and behaviors
• Employee retention
• Improved communication

Can you think of any others? Leave a comment and let us know.

Why It Pays to Care

Tweet

Our readers out there know that we like to talk about treating your employees right. How employee engagement is crucial for business success. Sure treating people right is something most anyone should try and practice no matter what. However, is how your company treats its employees crucial to your corporate branding and overall sales? 

Let's take a look at some notes from a recent Brand Conference. We weren't attendees but did have some good takeaways from the event hashtag on Twitter. Of all the bits of branding knowledge shared through that stream, this one really jumped off the screen at us:

@kufarms (or more formally Keith McIlvaine) is a social media consultant out of Pennsylvania and hit a crucial point. Consumers are interested in how you as a company treat your employees. We've seen this from rapidly rising companies such as Zappos or Southwest Airlines. They've received a ton of attention from their individual company cultures. As a result of that attention, they've seen increased brand exposure, positive PR and most likely increased revenues as a direct result of how they treat their employees. 

Why are consumers so interest in company cultures? Customers see how companies treat their front-line staff as a correlation of how they will be treated as customers. If I'm considering making a purchasing decision with one company but know that they treat their employees poorly, what makes me think that I will receive any better treatment? How many companies have you heard of that have a poor employee culture but amazing customer service?

Employees have the potential to be your company's most influential brand advocates. How you treat them will influence how they verbally treat your brand.

What do you think? Does employee treatment directly reflect customer treatment?