Summer’s here, it’s time to think about Christmas rewards
There are still a few months to go and nobody really wants to think about it yet, but there are things that need looking at now if the run up to the festive season is going to be as smooth as possible. That’s right, with summer now kicking-off in earnest, this is the right time to put on some flip-flops, fire up the BBQ and start thinking about… Christmas.
The purpose of this article is not to validate the people who complain that the run-in to Christmas starts earlier every year. Nor are we here to make you feel guilty about not starting your leadership Christmas message yet, we would recommend starting that process in October or composing your Christmas card list. You can view the blog on writing your Christmas leadership message here.
We want to help firms get the best out of their staff loyalty schemes and unfortunately, to do that, it’s probably worth having a brief discussion about Christmas at the height of the summer.
Benefits of a staff loyalty scheme
As we’ve discussed many times in this blog, there are some very real benefits for having an effective staff loyalty scheme, particularly if it’s branded and people subconsciously associate your company with the good times that they are having, because of company rewards.
Staff loyalty schemes are a great way to attract and retain talent and they can help spark innovation that can help companies move forward. When they are implemented deftly, they are also a fabulous strategy for engaging teams, potentially reducing silos between departments and, where appropriate, build healthy competition between either departments or individuals.
If you have a staff loyalty scheme in place that offers discounts and savings to team members, it can be used to help them have a fantastic festive season.
Realistic timescales
If you are going to manage a Christmas bonus through the company bonus and rewards scheme, you need to have the structure in place soon for your teams to acclimatise to it, manage any competitive elements and work out the what, how and when of your strategy.
This means that realistically, September is a great time to start drawing attention to your rewards scheme. Following this time-scale, you realistically need to be making decisions over the next few weeks to ensure a smooth implementation, particularly if you assume that decision-making is going to slow down during August when many decision-makers may have headed to the beach.
No better time to act
If you don’t have a staff loyalty scheme in place, then the good news is that the current generation of rewards platforms are relatively simple and quick to set-up. In most cases, a fully-branded platform can be implemented and fully integrated with your intranet relatively quickly, so if you act now, you can get your teams up and running and, importantly, have the system fully assimilated into business as usual with plenty of time to spare before the leaves start to turn golden.
The benefits of an effective company-wide loyalty and rewards scheme are visible throughout an organisation throughout the year. A little extra focus on the system at this point in the year will mean that you are ready to promote it as soon as everyone’s back at their desks after their summer break. This will help you make the most of your investment and reap the benefits of a happier, more loyal, more innovative workforce.
Now that we have raised this, we promise not to mention Christmas again. At least not until August.
If you would like to download a complimentary copy of our Guide to Christmas Rewards (sorry), please follow this link click here
