Virgin Holidays Staff Just 'Love2shop'

Reward and recognition is high on the agenda at Virgin Holidays."In fact I'd go so far as to say that we're passionate about it," says Reward Manager, Janet Larby."The 800-strong team at Virgin Holidays is committed to customer service and strives to deliver over and above expectation. That was clearly demonstrated when the whole industry suffered from the disruption caused by the volcanic ash cloud earlier in the year. We had people traveling abroad at short notice to our destinations to help our overseas teams deal with customers unable to get back to the UK, and some worked through the weekends and evenings to ensure that we were giving the very best support and service during this time, thereby limiting the impact of this natural disaster. Whilst there was no expectation of reward for 'going above and beyond' we made it a priority to recognize the contribution our people made to the business. On that occasion we awarded all concerned with Love2shop - The high street gift voucher."

In addition to ad hoc rewards, Virgin Holidays has three long standing schemes, designed to both encourage and embed behaviours, and recognize outstanding achievement."The Annual Platinum Recognition Awards are for our highest performers; the V-Recognition scheme is for non-sales and non-management staff; and the Value awards are nomination-based and made quarterly to those people who have 'lived our corporate values'," Janet continues. "The awards on offer include cash, gift vouchers, travel credits, and additional annual leave but, by far the greatest demand is for Love2shop vouchers, which regularly out-perform the other rewards by 70%. And we're very pleased with that outcome as we have established that cash, in particular, just gets lost in the normal household expenditure, and staff simply don't remember the award. However, if they've received a Love2shop gift voucher and bought say, a television, then the individual concerned appreciates the reward for a much longer period of time, and that reward 'recall' is essential to an effective incentive and reward programme."

Ongoing research and evaluation is also important to the continued success of Virgin Holidays' strategy."From our research we have proven the effectiveness of our reward and recognition programme in reducing attrition rates, and improving commitment to customer service levels. We also know from feedback that our reward-mix is ideal. There are more than 75 different retailers on the Love2shop gift voucher, including Debenhams, which means that everyone can choose and buy exactly what they aspire to. We did undertake a review of the gift voucher market earlier this year, just as a matter of interest, but found nothing to improve upon Love2shop," Janet concludes.

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