Hurry Up – We NEED To Launch the Incentive Program January 1st!

No you don’t.

As an incentive and reward program planner this time of year is plenty busy.  Not the good busy where you’re working on something very cool and you want to keep busy to see the project come to fruition quickly… but the bad kind of busy where everything is an emergency and it’s an emergency because someone else didn't decide earlier in the year.

If you’re in the industry you know the pressure of last minute proposals for clients who need to get their program designed, quoted and presented to top management in order to get it in the final round of budget approvals.  You also know about the programs that NEED to launch January 1 (or whichever Monday in the new year that falls closest to the first) because if they don’t the client will have a disaster of Mayan proportions.  If you’re a client – you know you don’t want to tell the SVP of Mahogany Row that you’re 63 hours late launching a program with 364 days of qualifying period.

It’s the same every year.

The budget issue I get – especially in this economy.  Everyone is waiting to see what the next week’s numbers look like and hoping the forecast (however badly constructed and irrelevant) for the next quarter shows some promise so we can ask for more money to do something.  That I’m afraid isn't going to change.  We’ve reached a point where time is a constant – and that time is immediate.  

But program launch dates… that is a very different issue.

It Just Doesn't Matter

Program launch dates are different.  They are not subject to the same timeline that the decisions to launch them are.  And if you’re planning a recognition program – or an incentive program – you don’t need to launch on January 1.  

You don’t.  

Take a breath and realize…No one cares if you launch on time.

Why It Just Doesn’t Matter…

1. They already know about the program.  If January 1 is your normal, annual program launch date – chances are the program isn't any different than last year’s program.  Maybe the destination is different – or you’ve added iTunes downloads to the catalog (woot!) – but other than that I’m guessing the rules are pretty much the same.  Fact is – everyone in the program already knows what the program is and how it works.  They’ve already sandbagged their sales from the end of the year and are holding them in abeyance until you launch the “new” program.  Depending on when the sales people hit their goal they've been holding those sales for 30 days or more – a couple more days won’t kill them.
       …..
2. You can always make the rewards retroactive.  I’ve seen this done so much I believe you could launch a program on December 1 and make 11 months performance retroactive and it wouldn’t change a thing.  Any program that runs year-to-year with similar structure but varying award destinations (grand travel recognition folks this is you…) or a new “theme” – Set Sales for the Caribbean! – is already so engrained in the population they wouldn't have done anything different if you had launched it in January, or June or at all.
      
   Sorry folks.  Annual programs with a lot of history are pretty much a waste of time and money as an incentive – great for recognition – lousy for an incentive (see this post if you don’t get this.)

   If you only get one piece of info from this post make it this – NEVER RUN A PROGRAM WITH RETROACTIVE CREDIT FOR AWARDS!  
       
   Just don’t do it – it’s stupid, wrong and frankly… did I already say stupid?  It does nothing but cost you money.  Period.
        …..

3. No one pays any attention to anything for at least a few weeks after the first of the year anyway.  Why do you think your program is so special?  Really – it’s not that big a deal.  Annual programs are, well, annual.  Participants have 12 months to figure it out.  They know this and (as you can attest to) they typically use all 12 months to figure out how they got screwed out of the award (‘cuz it always goes to top 10% right?)  Most of your participants won’t open the announcement email until March (some later ‘cuz it’s still stuck in their spam folder and they don’t know what a spam folder is.)  

Your program isn't that important.  

It is to you – but not to them.  

Annual programs are too often 3-month programs with 9 months of reporting leading up to them.  

Check your results month by month… where does the push come in?  Near the end of the 3rd quarter and the beginning of the 4th quarter?  Yep.  No one cares until they need to care.

Stop The Insanity and Continue to Act Insane

Kick back.  Launch when you’re ready.  

The date you launch isn’t nearly as important as the structure, the communications, the behaviors you’re targeting with the incentives and the feedback.

Wait – Oh – you didn’t worry about that stuff – just the launch date?

Good luck with that.  See you next year.  Doing the same thing.  Getting the same results.