Corporate incentive travel is nothing new. Many companies leverage these vacation rewards as a popular spin on the more tangible, traditional corporate incentives like extra paid time off (PTO) or tuition reimbursement. Some 46% of U.S. businesses already include corporate incentive travel in their employee rewards programs. These organizations may be ahead of the curve. Today, corporate incentive travel is proving to be a more relevant, effective and impactful employee reward than ever. Why? Simple – because people like to travel.

Oft-mentioned Millennials are surging into the workplace, bringing with them new values and motivators – like travelling. Topdeck Travel has found that a whopping 94% of 18-to-30-year-olds travel overseas at least once a year. The travel bug isn’t just biting young up-and-comers, either. Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers both report increasing their leisure trips over the past year.

In addition to their booming travel habits, today’s workforce is approaching corporate benefit and total rewards programs with less value on monetary compensation. According to The Balance, many employees and job-seekers place more importance on elements like health and wellness, career development and, you guessed it, travel perks.

Savings from Corporate Incentive Travel

Booming travel habits and evolving workplace values illustrate how corporate travel incentives can have a positive impact across an organization, and most importantly, on its bottom line.

Here are a few ways travel incentives can deliver massive ROI for companies:

Employee Productivity & Engagement Gains

Aligning incentives with real employee motivators is what makes incentive programs most effective. And if employees want to travel, offering travel as a reward for great work is a strategic way to improve workplace productivity. In addition, the trips and retreats are a great way to foster a fun and unique corporate culture and improve employee engagement – especially for teleworkers or contractors who aren’t in the office every day.

Company Branding & Culture

Travel incentives make great marketing fodder during the talent acquisition process. Pictures from past trips and information about upcoming destinations can help paint an organization’s brand as fun, adventurous and unique. This brand impression is vital – a study from Employer Branding reports that a company’s brand is the first thing a job-seeker considers when applying for a new job.

Travel Incentives Are Scalable

Whether for a group of 100 international employees or for a single member of a team, corporate travel incentive programs are adaptable to a company. Cash-based incentives like bonuses and profit-sharing are fixed to budgets and employee numbers. A travel program can adapt to a company’s budget and workforce constraints. Instead of shelling out for a cruise to Cancun, a company could invest in a more local trip – or allow employees to choose their own.

An evolving workforce requires companies to adapt in the ways they drive employee engagement and innovate workplace culture. Corporate incentive travel may give business leaders an edge in organizational branding, culture-building and employee engagement that leads to massive gains on the bottom line.

Check out other unusual and impactful employee benefits, read our blog “15 Unusual Employee Benefits That Drive Productivity”. You can also explore a whole new way to promote your unique total compensation program by trying the online total rewards software for free today!