Incentives: A Close Look

Keeping workers happy and motivated is the goal of the incentive planner. To find out the details of organizing an incentive event, M&C conducted an online survey in March. Most of the 135 respondents (83 percent) said they arrange the details in-house, while 9 percent hire a third-party incentive company and 8 percent work for such a company.

Incentives are a varied lot: 61 percent of the sample offer group travel rewards, 49 percent give away merchandise, 47 percent offer individual travel, 40 percent arrange prizes of gift cards and certificates, and 30 percent give cash rewards.

When it comes to incentive travel, 42 percent of respondents said their top performers in their most recent programs traveled to a beach destination; 13 percent said their winners went to a cultural destination and 13 percent said awardees visited a gaming facility. Typically, trips lasted three nights.

Most of those surveyed (80 percent) said their incentive participants are employees; 39 percent said dealers or distributors are involved, and 30 percent said they run programs to reward customers. In companies that motivate employees, 78 percent said sales departments participate, 46 said managers compete, 38 percent said service employees enroll in the programs, 36 percent said administrative staff are involved and 21 percent said C-level employees (CEO, COO, CFO) participate.

Program budgets are holding steady, as 58 percent of the sample said theirs remained the same for 2007 compared to 2006. Still, 29 percent saw an increase, while 13 percent said their budgets decreased.