New workplace practices open up new horizons
PÁDRAIC GILLIGAN , CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER SITE & SITE FOUNDATION , SAYS INCENTIVE TRAVEL CAN BE THE ANTIDOTE TO # WFH
A t IMEX America an expert panel discussed the outcomes from the Incentive Travel Index , an annual study conducted by Oxford Economics under the aegis of SITE Foundation , Incentive Research Foundation and Financial and Insurance Conference Professionals .
All panellists agreed that they knew companies using travel experiences inclusively , engaging their entire workforce , not just qualifiers who managed to reach pre-determined targets . It remined me of an article I had read in the Wall Street Journal .
Just over a year ago , while still in the grips of the pandemic , the US media source published an article linking new workplace practices with incentive travel , clearly opening up new horizons of opportunity for our industry .
Headlined , ‘ Tech start-ups ditich the office for far-flung bonding trips ’, Heather Somerville ’ s article ( 16 June 2021 ) laid out its stall unambiguously : Tech start-ups have a new pitch for employees : write code from home , and join colleagues a few times a year on a beach in Panama or ranch in Montana .
Somerville shared how a business-software company , People . ai Inc ., surrendered the lease on its headquarters in San Francisco , closed most of its satellite offices and abandoned plans for an office in London to go permanently remote during the pandemic . The owner took most of his 2019 real-estate lease budget and invested it in employee benefits , including one trip for the full staff of more than 200 , and four trips that employees took in smaller teams . The company owner , Oleg Rogynskyy , a
Dean ’ s list graduate of Boston University , took this action so as to retain his team , boost employee morale and foster connections .
Now doesn ’ t that have a familiar ring to it ?
Somerville ’ s WSJ article also references Phil Libin , CEO of All Turtles Corp ., a start-up incubator that launches new tech products . Lubin brought 150 people to Memphis last year for ‘ Bourbon , BBQ and Graceland ’. Having closed offices in Paris , Tokyo and SFO , Lubin now plans to bring his team together – real people , real places , real time – twice a year .
Ian White , CEO of ChartHop Inc , a human-resources software provider , organised “ an adult version of summer camp ” in the Poconos for his 70-strong team . “ I would rather take the money that we could have spent on a bunch of puffy chairs and a ping-pong table and spend that on an experience that people will remember ,” he said .
Now doesn ’ t that have a familiar ring to it , too ?
Above : Pádraic Gilligan
The WSJ article highlighted some of the predictable downsides of such company activities – overindulgent imbibing , over-enthusiastic socialising and the fact that such trips can be family unfriendly . But , as professional organisers of incentive travel experiences , we know that all such downsides can be eliminated by great programme design , meticulous planning and diligent execution .
Seems to me that these start-ups have spontaneously happened upon something that we , as an industry , have been banging on about for decades : shared travel experiences can be transformative for workplaces .
ISSUE 121 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / 27