An incentive scheme introduced by the Fairmont Southampton is helping to boost employee performance and improve service levels.

Richard Simon, senior vice president for sales and marketing at Incentis Ltd., realised there was a need in Bermuda for company incentive programmes and approached the Fairmont Southampton with the Payback Programme.

?The Payback Incentive Programme is a medium to reward employees for accomplishing or performing certain tasks,? Mr. Simon said.

The Fairmont Southampton has a ?Department of the Quarter? and Incentis created personalised Fairmont cards for the hotels employees, each loaded with $50, that were given to over 120 housekeepers who are able to enjoy their reward at over 60 different merchants Islandwide.

Fairmont Southampton director of learning and development Jane Yrenaya said that instead of giving staff cash to reward them for something they did well, they could use the Payback cards to use at gas stations, spas, restaurants, hardware stores, grocery stores and other venues.

?The reason the Housekeeping department won Department of The Quarter is because of their outstanding hard worth for the last three months,? Ms Yrenaya said.

Karla Wilmot, housekeeping supervisor, said: ?It was a big achievement to get the award as we were the first department to get it and it made all of our colleagues happy.?

?We always had the Employee Of The Month award but this reward is a recognition of team effort of all staff working in the Housekeeping department.?

Marva Trott, executive housekeeper, said: ?I feel housekeepers work very hard to please guests and this year we pushed hard to make our department better and rather than be good, we want to be a great department.

?When the guests comes in we want to make sure their rooms are ready because our guests travel from long distances to the hotel and to have your room ready is a big plus.?

The Housekeeping Department department feel the Payback incentive scheme has helped to boost staff morale, instil pride and encourage them to go the extra mile.

?It has been proven over and over again in studies that a cash bonus is not a very good incentive because the money disappears in the person?s regular bank account and they soon forget where it came from,? Mr. Simon said.

He said with the Payback programme, when they spend their incentive dollars they have to look at their company name on the incentive card and this builds positive reinforcement because they just enjoyed a wonderful dinner paid for by the company.

?They will also have an incentive to get more incentive dollars on the card and the employee gets to choose where to spend their incentive dollars.?