Experiences: The New Form of Bonus

Australian Financial Review

Fancy a flight to a Canadian iceberg or a ride in a formula one car? These are the new alternatives to cash, says Jacqueline Lizzio.

From a weekend away with colleagues for a murder mystery dinner party to jumping out of a plane, experiential incentives are becoming an increasingly popular means of rewarding employees or impressing clients.

Experiential incentives have certainly moved from the less used end of the incentive scheme spectrum into the mainstream.

Brett Sheridan, director of marketing and business development at Corporate Adrenalin, says there has been a big uptake in this form of incentive.

"It was first seen as extreme. Corporate Australia wasn't picking up on it so we operated for about eight years as a very small business catering for the niche areas, but the last two or three years we've grown 250 per cent year-on-year.

"We have not changed what we're doing. It's just that corporate Australia realised that these things are safe," he says.

Similarly, Naomi Simson, chief experiences officer and founder of Red Balloon Days, says they have grown about 85 per cent since last year and sees this as a reaction to the positive impact of experiential incentives in organisations.

"We have found, especially in the professional services organisations, that they really want to acknowledge their people but they are often highly paid already so they don't want to give cash. Giving them an experience - and an experience that they may never have had before - is something that will generate a conversation," she says.

New is the constant mantra.

"We are inventing all the time. We are still publishing between 30 and 50 new experiences a month," says Simson.

"We literally sit down as a team and say: 'so now what?' For example we've got this whole new thing with circus and trapeze training. Then we go out and find somebody who can deliver it,"she says.

Along with the circus workshops, one of Red Balloon Days' latest ideas is to go back to the old days of customised clothing and have a handmade shirt designed and tailored specifically for your size.

Simson says it is important to have a wide variety of experiences: "Experience is not necessarily extreme sports and that is one thing that we are really passionate about. It might be art lessons or dinner on a tram. And the other power of experience is when they get to choose," she says.

And while Sheridan knows that one person's adrenalin is very different from another's, there are always new experiences coming.

"They are two-seater formula one cars. With formula one, you can put someone behind the wheel, but you can only do that in France and Spain. There's a couple of operations now about to hit Australia.

"It's a two-seater programme so you actually get into a formula one car with a professional race driver," he explains.

Sheridan also says they have seen a shift away from ordinary holidays as an incentive.

"There's a trend away from incentives as simply travelling to a destination. Every one travels for work and it doesn't seem to be an incentive, more of a disincentive, so we've seen companies coming to us for something a little bit different from a trip to Fiji," says Sheridan.

Ray Decru, Victorian operations manager at Sample & Partners, a financial services company, has used some of Red Balloon Days' experiential incentives and says they have many applications.

"We may [use them] to reward our consultants who might sign any amount of deals in a particular month but also to provide quality submissions to banks, so we segregate the areas a bit," he says.

Decru says they are now going to extend the incentives programme across all states.

"We predominantly gave a lot of cash rewards and we still do some, but my preference is not to give cash but to offer experiential incentives.

"We not only gave them an incentive but also a video of the experience or photos. We have them played at our Monday meetings," he says.

Whether it is swimming with dolphins, driving a Harley around the city whilst going on a shopping spree or flying to Canada for a dinner on top of a glacier, both Simson and Sheridan believe that providing a memorable experience is a key factor in this market.

Action stations

  • An experience is now being seen as an alternative to cash.
  • Companies offering new experiences report huge growth in the past few years.
  • Experiences are also seen as a new way of retaining employees.

Author: Jacqueline Lizzio

Date: 09/03/2006

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