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How to Rethink Company Contests and Incentives

It’s common in many sales and recruiting industries to have incentives and contests. Typically, these are earned by the top performers in the company. Many people have had experience working with these highly competitive salespeople. We refer to them as “sharks” and describe them as “cut throat”.

However, at Executive Staffing Solutions, Aaron Wandtke, our Senior Partner, has decided it makes more sense to win or lose as a company. Contests are company wide, and when we hit our goals, we celebrate together. This strategic decision was made to support our core culture and values.  At ESS, we believe that “a rising tide raises all boats” and wanted to create an environment where our team could collaborate and rally together to reach goals, versus the traditional competitive environment that is more commonly associated with recruiting and sales.

Why Hold Competitions Anyway?

At Executive Staffing Solutions our contest themes are sparked from reflecting on which behaviors we want to reward as well as goal of bringing our team closer together. We typically have 5-6 competitions a year with incentives for time off work.  We often have contests before holiday weekends because the only thing better than a 3-day weekend is a 4-day weekend!

Trip Contest

Every year we tally our recruiters individual goals and add them up to come up with a company goal. If we reach this goal, then the whole office goes on an all-inclusive, international trip with a guest of their choice. Everyone is invited – including admin staff, management and recruiters. Either the whole company goes, or no one goes. This amazing contest requires that we all succeed together. Throughout the year we check in on our goal and share ideas on achieving them.

Instead of looking at the individual recruiter goals, we look at ESS goals. This encourages our team to support and push one another throughout the year.

10-Year Trip

We love to support our dedicated employees. After you’ve worked for Executive Staffing Solutions for 10 years, we present you with a generous travel credit to travel as your choose. Instead of being incentive based, it is our way of appreciating our committed recruiters.


We love hosting, encouraging, and motivating our team through different contests. What is a company contest you can share with our company? How will you grow your office culture through these competitions?

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