Rewind recap: hiring, skills and team design in incentives & loyalty
When it comes to incentives, the industry is growing fast, but finding, training and keeping the right people is tough. Expectations are shifting, AI is transforming the process and teams are being stretched between the demands of "move faster" and "don't break things." We know the challenges, but fortunately, we also know the people who can help solve them!
Across two sessions our experts cut through the noise. We were joined by ….
Catharine "Cat" Parsons – CEO at The Incentive Company (South Africa), with nearly two decades in incentives.
Lucy Allen – Founder at Trifecta, recruiter and trainer with more than 15 years across incentives, reward, benefits, gifting (ex–Sodexo BD Director).
Together, they tackled skills, hiring practices, EVP, brand and regional differences. We hope you enjoy the recap.
What skills matter in incentives (and what's missing)
So where do we stand right now? In the first session, we got right to work, discussing the AI elephant in the room.
As Cat stated, "Our industry is evolving very much into tech-led, data-led, AI-led."
This means that the skills that we are lacking, or likely to lack, are the softer emotional intelligence factions '… the skill of accountability… having a continuous improvement mindset…' or as Lucy added ‘adaptability… being able to adapt in a changing environment.'
The team discussed the Japanese philosophy called Kaizen, which means continuous improvement. The takeaway is that having that mindset is incredibly important right now.
But learning is something that requires failure. As Lucy stated, "One of the things that is crucial for that environment is to make sure it's a safe environment to fail. You have to be able to go through that process of innovating… things don't work. That's how you foster innovation."
The buzzword was psychological safety - how can we make it okay to fail, even as leaders? Cat's advice was tactical.
"One-on-ones… consistent, frequent, curious sessions with your team. That's where the gold in your staff is unearthed. Our mantra is: entrust, empower and get out of the way. Amazing things happen when people are given that runway. Pass down what you learn. We recently learned about accidental diminishing behaviors in Multipliers by Liz Wiseman… the first thing we did was teach the senior team. It makes sure we're all talking a common language and teaches the next generation not to make the same mistakes."
Learning was considered by both experts to be something that is critically important, particularly in terms of empowerment.
"It's not just about getting them through the front door? How do you then grow them to the next set of leaders that's coming through your company? We find that the gold in your staff is often unearthed during 1-2-1 sessions. You really find out that, 'oh, somebody in data actually wants to be an HR'. How do we make that happen? It's a hardcore mantra that we have at CRC and that's entrust, empower and get out of the way. You know, if you have a leader who is holding onto tasks that someone else can be doing then you're not growing your team's skillset and you're not growing their confidence. So it's really important that you identify… all right, these are the next upcoming, this is our senior team upcoming next generational leaders."
AI is masking an array of incompetencies
AI has touched every area, but what about when it comes to hiring client-facing individuals, should you be filtering using AI, insisting on no AI, or sitting somewhere in the middle?
The most pressing and real risk is of great candidates never being seen by a hiring manager at all.
"Candidates are saying: I am absolutely perfect for this job, I tick every single box, and I'm getting rejected without hearing from anybody. It turns out the organization was using AI to filter all the candidates. You are missing out on a whole plethora of really good candidates."
At the same time, the experts discussed businesses using AI for job ads. While it may seem harmless to leave AI for the heavy lifting, it can come with brand damage.
"I saw one role with over 600 applicants, open for six months. That says: you haven't got your ducks in a row. You don't know what you're looking for. You've rejected candidates out of hand. The negative impact on your brand that you don't even see is massive."
Cat puts applications into ZeroGPT to see how much has been generated by AI, to detect the true writing skills. She cited research that showed the impact of AI on critical thinking skills in an experiment.
"Two groups of students wrote a creative story using AI prompting first, and the other wrote their own, then used AI to refine. The first group had zero synapse firing in the creativity centers of the brain. What's actually happening is we're not thinking anymore. We have to safeguard critical thinking."
How to position your roles
Moving forward, the team discussed standing out to candidates. Social media was discussed as a great way to stand out, with a highlight of its benefits. Lucy felt in her experiences that 'If they've got two jobs at the same salary, but one has better benefits and a stronger sustainability program, they're more likely to choose that organization."
There was a debate on salaries. Lucy felt that inclusion "encourages harmonization of salaries within businesses and cuts false applications, whereas Cat added that it should be role-dependent with senior roles with salary brackets more likely to lose candidates.
Her advice was to take a view based on your location. For Cat in South Africa, unemployment is high, but the market is strong, and they have an 80% recruitment referral rate. As she states, "What better advertisement for your company, when your own staff are reaching their network saying: hey, this is a great place." This could be a great selling point.
Lucy emphasised the differences in the USA - stressing that there it's "very much about the compensation package—the salary, the bonus, great. But what's my contribution to 401 (k)? What insurances do I have? What's my healthcare like? Does it cover my family? That is such an important and strong part of the proposition."
The takeaway is, of course, to be geographically relevant but also to sell these benefits. As Lucy stressed, think about the whole package, especially if you want to secure the next generation of employees.
"Clear training, career development, all of that should be showcased and highlighted."
Top tips for interviews
What tangible tools make a big difference in how recruitment works? As Cat stressed, recruitment isn't a skill we are all born with!
"When it comes to finding people, you become a manager, and it becomes part of your job function to interview, but you've had no training, no experience and you've not got the nuances of interviewing to get the information to establish if you're getting it right or not."
Lucky recommended a few tips, including a skills map. As she stated, "Sometimes you're recruiting for something you already have in-house. It allows you to diversify the business with that person all-around, rather than just what they were employed to do."
Cat added that a seat swap could even be an option.
"You might have somebody who's the right person for your business, but not in the right seat. They could be in the right seat for six months, and then the role evolves. When you match that skill set to a new role, you see a complete 180-degree transformation in a person overnight. They're happier and more productive."
Lucy also suggested a pre-interview checklist with questions that are varied and more conversational, such as " What is the most important thing that you were taught by your parent or guardian?"
Cat's favourite prompts included "What makes you tick? What can you teach me?' to open up that real conversation.
When things don’t quite go as planned…
Not every hire will work out. Sometimes, you need to reject candidates.
Lucy suggested that you should take notes or make any recordings of the candidates you recruit. When it goes wrong, don't just start again—look back and say, Why did I get it wrong? What questions did I ask? Then revamp.
Cat added that the process in South Africa can actually encourage a business to work with an employee.
"In South Africa, you can't just fire somebody. You have to go through a process. There is a great opportunity to change a struggling employee into a flourishing employee. Most of us just put a Performance and Development Plan in place and monitor for three months. But sometimes it's simply the wrong seat. I'd rather have the right person in the wrong seat than the wrong person in the right seat."
Something to consider before hitting the job boards!
Five practical moves to act on
Hire for values, test for problem-solving. Use relaxed interview time and prompts like "What can you teach me?" to surface how candidates think.Audit the person, not just the CVs. Consider removing AI screening and reducing your own reliance on AI when creating job descriptions.
Check what your process looks like. Should you tweak to add more benefits; to add a salary or take it away?
Track referrals as a signal. Low referrals? Diagnose culture, recognition and manager practices.
Map skills and consider a move of seats. Catalogue capabilities and consider internal moves before opening new roles. Work on the people you have and see how they can be moulded.
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Written by Elaine Keep - https://elainekeep.com/