Roll Up! Roll Up!

The corporate world has created a market unsurpassed by anything we have known before. It’s called by various names and it all amounts to the same thing. Events, Conferences, Expos, Retreats; all the rage in an effort to build esprit de corps. Some are successful, others not so but one thing cannot be denied – they have fostered an explosion of ideas – some very expensive!

From a ‘Play day’ at Sea World to a Cruise on the ‘Carnival Spirit’ there exists a mind blowing array of incredible ‘happenings’ for corporate organisations and their personnel. Sydney woes the big boys with what it calls ‘Luxperience’ while New Zealand offers just about everything. You can ‘Conquer Kozzie’ and escape the confines of the conference room, swim with humpbacks in Tonga – if the Japanese don’t get them first, or stay in an underwater suite at ‘Atlantis – The Palm’ in Dubai. It’s all part of the conference, incentivisation scene and it’s lavish.

With a special magazine dedicated to these events, ‘Spice’  delivers Corporates all the information and razzamatazz on what’s available. It’s a smorgasbord of fun, excitement, entertainment and all in the name of  building team spirit and bonding a side into meeting its goals.

There will be those who believe these perks are really tax breaks but they do fulfill a purpose. Marketers use them to brand release as campaign announcements or to develop sales incentives and they do work, but at the end of it all the ROI is usually slim.

Corporate Events today have become a Human Resource exercise and there’s nothing wrong with that. Personnel deserve a share of the joy of a winning organisation and that has to be true of smaller businesses to. What needs to be remembered is that not all organisations can afford to cruise or climb mountains and it’s the gesture that matters.

From a Human Resources aspect the maintenance of loyalty by personnel is a key. Research tells us that the following replacement recruitment costs can be expected at a variety of entry levels:

• For entry-level employees, it costs between 30% and 50% of their annual salary to replace them.
• For mid-level employees, it costs upwards of 150% of their annual salary to replace them.
• For high-level or highly specialised employees, you’re looking at 400% of their annual salary.

As you can see, keeping the teams happy is very cost effective as opposed to rehiring. Consequently you can have a great time, bring a lot of joy to your staff and best of all save yourself money.

Roll up! Roll up! It’s the travelling circus and it’s coming to a company near you very soon!