- Challenge Coins 4 U, a Wyoming-based promotional products company, treated 10 of its employees to a trip to the Super Bowl last year to reward them for pulling late nights during an especially busy month.
- Super Bowl tickets and flights for 10 employees cost the business $28,000, but owner Kamil Faizi considers the money a worthwhile investment in his team’s cohesion.
- Other firms have taken to funding bucket list items to reward and motivate employees, including tickets to Burning Man.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Kamil Faizi’s promotional products company had a record-breaking month in January 2018. His team’s reward for their long hours and hard work? A trip to the Super Bowl.
Faizi’s company, a Wyoming-based promotional products producer that specializes in making coins for the US military, is one of a growing number of American companies investing in leisure experiences to reward and build morale on their teams.
To Faizi, $2,000 for each of the 10 Super Bowl LIII tickets Challenge Coins 4 U purchased was a small price to pay to let his employees know that he valued their hard work and build team unity at the same time. Every member of Faizi’s team is a big football fan, although he personally prefers soccer.
“That same spirit and camaraderie and brotherhood that athletes on these top tier football teams that make it to these big games like the Super Bowl feel, that’s the sort of spirit that I wanted to create within our company and successfully did so,” Faizi told Business Insider. “You get to know more about them on a personal level than you normally would at the office, especially because it’s a setting where everybody is happy and excited because it’s a bucket list item – a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
All in all, game tickets and flights for Faizi's 10 employees set the company back $28,000, he told Business Insider. Faizi used the concierge services provided through the company's American Express Business Platinum card to book it all. Employees were asked to handle their own accommodations for the two nights they were in Atlanta.
"When I brought it up to my team, I said 'hey, I want to thank you all, we work really hard,' and I brought up the Super Bowl - nobody said a word," Faizi told Business Insider. "They were just completely dumbfounded. They thought I was joking with them."
Challenge Coins 4 U is far from the only business helping employees cross items off their bucket lists
San Francisco-based performance management start-up 15Five offered to treat its employees to their first trip to Burning Man in 2019, Business Insider reported. For 15Five chief culture officer Shane Metcalf, that trip was designed more to increase creativity than to teambuild, he told Business Insider's Allana Akhtar in September.
Companies across the country are getting increasingly creative with workplace perks to help fight a pandemic of burnout among employees that could cost the global economy $323.4 billion, Business Insider reported. Common workplace remedies include flexible working hours and mental health training programs.
Although Faizi's team won't be making the trip to this year's Super Bowl in Miami, he's considering the NBA Finals or an MLB game for their next team outing.
"It was probably one of the best things I've ever done to increase that cohesion and loyalty among everyone that works at our company," Faizi told Business Insider. "It helps a team member realize that 'they really value me' and that 'I'm not just a number, I'm a part of the team,' and that's what it's all about."