Employee loyalty and longevity are two of an agency owner’s greatest gifts. How do you reward your team members on significant anniversaries with your agency?

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Hey everybody, Drew McLellan
from Agency Management Institute
coming to you again from Tower 23,
in beautiful San Diego.
We were able to add a couple days on
to do some strategic planning,
and enjoy this gorgeous sunshine,
and the view behind me.
You know, while we were here,
an agency owner emailed their peer group
and asked this question,
how do you commemorate anniversaries of employees?
And she got a lot of great answers
and I infused into that conversation
what we always did at our agency and still do today.
And what that was, was at five years,
they got a 3-day pass, basically 3-day weekend,
a three day in the middle of the week, whatever it was
it didn't count against their vacation days.
And we picked up the tab for three nights of hotel,
airfare for two, anywhere in the continental US,
and then we gave them a $500 American Express gift card
to pay for meals and things like that.
The the hotel and the airlines we paid for with points,
the gift cards we paid for points,
so it was a way for our employees to have a great experience
with their spouse or partner or one of their kids or friend,
whoever they wanted to take with them,
but it really didn't cost us hardly anything.
At 10 years, we bumped it up to five days,
so same thing, inside the continental US,
we picked up six nights of hotel, two plane tickets,
and a thousand dollars of American Express money.
Then at 15, as you might imagine,
it jumped up to seven days, eight days of hotel,
two plane tickets,
and $1,500 in American Express gift cards.
And for 20 years, which I have one coming up right now,
it was 10 days in the continental US,
or seven days in either Europe or Hawaii or Alaska,
or seven days in either Europe or Hawaii or Alaska,
and same thing,
picked up the hotel, picked up the plane tickets,
and gave them a $2,000 Amex gift card.
So it was a great way for them to have memories
they would come back and share it with the team.
And so everybody was excited for their anniversary
because they knew they too were going to get this great trip
that was paid for by the company.
And from the agency's perspective,
it hardly costs us any money at all,
which is not really the point, but it's a benefit.
So we got to use our points to reward our employees
for their longevity.
And I'm excited that we have an employee
that's going to have a 20 year anniversary.
And I'm excited that we have done
all of the others multiple times,
and I look forward to having people stay even longer.
Now, I got to come up with what 25 is going to be,
which will be fun.
So if you don't have a way for celebrating
and rewarding your employees for their longevity,
that might be something to think about.
How are you going to do that?
How are you going to make them feel special and appreciated?
And maybe have it come back and benefit the agency
and get the rest of the employees excited as well.
All right, I'll see you next week.

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