If you’ve been thinking about how to reward your employees, now’s the time to consider implementing an incentive travel program. I know; of course, I’d say that – but did you know that incentive travel isn’t just a reward for your people? It rewards your business, too.

Don’t believe me? Here are just four ways an incentive travel program works for your company – not just your employees.

1. A team that plays together, builds together.

If your employees are at work, they’re supposed to be working, right? Right. That doesn’t give them very much time to get to know each other, does it? -And isn’t it harder to work well with strangers?

The fact is that traveling together forms bonds. Teams aren’t built by pushing people into a brainstorming room and telling them to come out with something spectacular. They’re built by positive experiences. Incentive travel programs help build better teams, which, in turn, helps make your teams more productive. Your company wins.

2. Happy employees are productive employees.

The University of Warwick recently published a study entitled, “Happiness and Productivity,” in which they found that happiness really does make people more productive. 12% more productive, in fact.

Dr. Proto, one of the researchers, states, “We have shown that happier subjects are more productive, the same pattern appears in four different experiments. This research will provide some guidance for management in all kinds of organizations, they should strive to make their workplaces emotionally healthy for their workforce.”

What could your company do with a 12% higher productivity level?

3. Incentive travel has better returns than cash rewards.

Cash for a job well down sounds great and all, but it doesn’t work too well for most people. You give your star employee some cash, they put it in the bank, pay a bill, and the joy is gone.

Traveling to some far-off place, however (like Italy 😉 ), brings additional benefits beyond the reward. For example, the employees get a brief break, which means they come back rejuvenated. They have fond memories of the excursion that they can lean on when work gets a little stressful. They can turn to those that went with them and say, “You remember when we went to Rome for that seminar and teambuilding exercise, and had that cooking contest? My wife wants me to make our noodles from scratch now…”

An employee that feels amply rewarded is an employee that’s much more willing to work hard. More productivity for your company.

4. Raises the interest of potential elite employees.

There are employees and then there are elite employees. You know, those workers that do everything top of the line with hardly a look back. No sweat is broken, no attitude is given, and they know their stuff. Whole industries have been built on attracting those key employees that everybody dreams of, and a strong incentive travel program can be the straw that pulls them in.

Think of websites like GlassDoor, which was created for the purpose of ranking potential employer companies. They ask questions like, “what kind of compensation package does this company have?” and “how happy are the employees?” and “what’s it like to work for this company?”

Give your employees something to rave about!

So what’s in it for your company? In short, an incentive travel program brings big returns in productivity and employee happiness. With points like that, how can you not consider rewarding your employees with incentive trips?