Feature: Motivation: Experience preferred

If you meet staff at integrated agency Space, they may secretly harbour specialist skills as a ballroom dancer or a chef – all thanks to a personal development fund set up by their employer. The company is one of a growing number to take a more innovative approach to rewards and training by providing them with experiences that are motivating and enhance their job.

“When we started [in 2003], we wanted to provide our own people with a work-life balance and the type of work they would enjoy doing,” says Space director Guy Hepplewhite. “We wanted an innovative way to reward them so that they could live ‘spaceness’.”

The company now provides £750 to all staff after they complete their three-month probation. Initially, employees had to make a formal presentation to Hepplewhite and co-founder David Atkinson but now, to encourage take-up, they only have to be kept informed of what the fund is being used for. “It can be anything as long as it expands their mindset out of the workplace, and should be something they want to do but couldn’t afford to do. It’s not about going out and buying a Prada bag.

“It has all been positive,” Hepplewhite adds. “As we take on more and more people, it will be interesting to see how it gathers momentum.”

A number of companies are now supplying experiences into the motivation sector, including Red Letter Days, Lastminute.com, ExperienceMore and The Full Experience Company’s Smartbox.

Space works with a specialist company called Altyerre which aims to go one step further by going “beneath the surface” with its “progressive” offer. So, instead of just going to a cookery class, participants spend two days learning about sourcing food as well as preparing and cooking it in a busy working restaurant.

Experiential agency RPM has been investing in its own “Experience Fund” for some years. Each month, staff can pitch for £1,000 that is designed to “encourage individual thinking, engage as many senses as possible and stimulate discussion”, says client services director Dom Robertson. “The fund is awarded to whoever wows the board enough to warrant the money towards their experience of a lifetime.”

Robertson himself took on a challenge through the Fund three years ago, completing the arduous Marathon des Sables, a six-day 151-mile run across the Sahara, which is equivalent to five-and-a-half regular marathons. “At RPM, we truly believe that experience is everything and actively encourage all our staff – full-time and contract – to experience as much in life as they possibly can,” he says.

Tequila is another agency that has put schemes in place to develop their skills away from the marketing sphere and help them broaden their expertise. It has run a series of six-week courses to help inspire staff, including stand-up comedy, life-drawing classes, playwriting and photography. There is also a quarterly staff recognition scheme which has rewarded employees with sessions at the Raymond Blanc cookery school, a trip to Iceland and a day at Colchester Zoo.

Chief executive Tim Bonnet says: “We need to enhance the skill-sets of our employees with everything from digital training to negotiation and presentation skills so they are able to do their role. However, we recognise that work is a huge part of someone\\\'s life, and while we never want to be a sweatshop there are certain occasions when people are expected to work long hours, and that can dominate their lives.

“Therefore, while our training is focused around our core discipline of creativity, demonstrating that you can get inspiration from many different areas, we try to offer courses that will give employees some work-life balance and interaction with colleagues in a more relaxed environment. For example, stand-up comedy is fun but also helps presentation skills.”

Tequila also has a programme called “4x4” which rewards staff after four years with four weeks’ fully paid leave where they have to go away and do an activity in line with the agency’s motto of “fun, fearless and provocative”.

“From a purely financial point of view, it is vital for agencies to retain their top talent as the cost of recruitment is so high,” Bonnet explains. “By investing in a training programme and therefore being able to offer our employees the training and development that they desire we are giving ourselves the best chance of keeping hold of the talent.”