MONTVALE, N.J. — The $400 million Paragon Federal Credit Union is now a firm believer in employee incentives using the team approach combining cash and peer pressure and the proof is a $5.4 million gain in new business.
The sports-themed program running over a nine-week period "has been truly fun for the employees and the idea of competitive peer pressure has been productive," said Michael Puzycki, assistant vice president of marketing.
The program, called IncentiveLeague and offered by the CU's agency, Youngworth Communications Inc., is effective in attracting front-line personnel, top management and back-office because of the peer
pressure notion of wins linked to favorite sports teams, said Puzycki.
During the nine-week period that ended in September and brought in the $5.4 million in deposits and loans, the CU paid out $9,875 in prize money to individual and team winners. Baseball and the runup to the World Series created further employee excitement in the contests, said officials.
Youngworth said its program, which was previously used at a New Jersey bank and tested years
ago at Paragon, includes strict rules, guidelines and motivational tips.
Agency officials said IncentiveLeague also employs a staff of motivational coaches that can guide each organization through the whole process and utilizes proprietary Web-based software to help track results on where to find business.
Puzycki said the 2007 version of the Youngworth program "exceeded what we did two years ago by more than 20% and when you consider how much you'd have to spend for TV ads, this is a better investment for us."
The IncentiveLeague is set-up in such a way that all of Paragon's 120 employees had a stake, said Puzycki, adding the program has turned out to be "an interesting study in human behavior since the contest has everything from the usual cash incentives
for individuals and teams to a subtle yet powerful dose of pressure on team managers to keep their
teams performing."
No team manager "wants to finish in last place," he said.
The President/CEO of Paragon, Richard Rays, said the program works well in motivating employees "to learn all about our products and services, improve their cross-selling skills and develop a culture of sales."
The program, he said, "takes a rather moderate or no-sales environment" and turns it into the sales culture adding, "we tell employees that this is part of their responsibility to see their company grow."
Discussing incentive programs, John Zalarick, president of the agency and founder of IncentiveLeague, said many corporations are reluctant to pursue them because of the labor-intensive nature of managing them and tracking results. Youngworth, he said, "eliminates the hassle" by doing the legwork.
Over the years Paragon has looked at a number of incentive programs but this one "is not complicated and is easy to administer," Puzycki concluded.
–jrubenscut@aol.com
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