To begin, we recommend these general guidelines

• Determine what general "success" will be upfront.  Be as specific as possible. Is it a pure increase in overall sales? Shorter sales cycle? Lower employee turnover?

• Decide if there are other initiatives in place that could affect the outcome of your program. For example, is there a new advertising campaign that is starting at the same time as your incentive program? The goal is to isolate the results of this program.

• Obtain agreement on definitions and timeframe. Do you want to look at the program from a net profit perspective or a gross revenue standpoint? Are you measuring turnover on an annual basis?

• Take into account the costs of running the program; consider whether you do it yourself or utilize an outside firm. If you do it yourself, what is an accurate assessment of the value of employee time needed to run and manage the program (% of salary allocated to this versus another project)?

What will the program cost?

Augeo Incent can work with you to help estimate the costs and benefits associated with your incentive program.  Costs can typically include the following fixed and variable cost categories.

Fixed (Setup/Management):

• Initial set up costs
• Monthly management fee
• Optional toolkits purchased

Variable (Program Award Fees):

• Non-monetary awards: award value + transaction fee
  (fee for the selection of each reward)
• Monetary awards: plus transaction fee
  (fee for the management of each monetary award to payroll)