Incentive - January 2009 - (Page 10)

HEADLINES Fear and Recognition As the economy tanked, the use of employee recognition awards spiked, program management firm Globoforce finds BY LEO JAKOBSON The Incentive Editorial Advisory Board • Ira Almeas, President, Impact Incentives and Meetings • Michael Arkes, President and CEO, Hinda Incentives • Dennis O. Borst, President and COO, Patriot Marketing Group • Bill Boyd, President and CEO, Sunbelt Motivation and Travel • Karen Eglitis, Unit Business Manager, Premium & Incentive, Bose Corp. • Gail Fitzgerald, Vice President Hotel Sales & Marketing, CityCenter Las Vegas • Chris Flatt, Executive Vice President Hotel Sales & Marketing, Wynn Las Vegas • Adrienne Forrest, Assistant Vice President, Special Markets, Bulova Corp. • Dick Gaeta, President, Premier Incentives • Cindy Hoddeson, Director, Meeting & Incentive Sales, Monaco Government Tourist Office • Steve Lowe, Director of Sales, Harrah’s & Harveys Lake Tahoe • Terry Markwart, Director & Assistant General Mgr. of U.S. Sales, Canon USA • Art Masarky, Senior Director, Human Resources, Heineken, USA • Cindy Mielke, Manager, National Accounts, Marketing Innovators • Anne Platt, Director, Gift Card Services, Best Buy • Rodger Stotz, Vice President, Managing Consultant, Maritz Incentives • Patrick Sullivan, President, PRA Destination Management New York • Jon Von Rentzell, Vice President, Recognition and Rewards, Carlson Marketing • Joe Zanone, Senior Vice President, Movado Group Inc. t was fairly easy for Eric Mosley to see a broad-based spike in the use of corporate recognition awards during the last three months of 2008. As CEO of corporate recognition program provider Globoforce, based in Southborough, I by managers to their employees and by employees to their peers. “Until we put it in chart form with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Consumer Confidence Index, it was not clear just how linked they are,” he says. “The biggest spike we had [in for their jobs, their houses, their 401(k) retirement funds. “People, at times like that, naturally reach out to others,” Mosley says. “Their antennas are more sensitive to others’ contributions.” The second cause, he believes, is reward migration. “In good Employee Recognition vs. Dow Jones vs. Consumer Confidence Indexes Recognition Index 180% 160% Dow Jones Change Consumer Confidence Percentage Change 140% 120% 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 13-Jan-08 13-Feb-08 13-Mar-08 13-Apr-08 13-May-08 13-Jun-08 13-Jul-08 13-Aug-08 13-Sep-08 13-Oct-08 13-Nov-08 Mass., his company manages the back-end systems that let managers provide employees, and employees provide their peers, with recognition awards for going above and beyond in their jobs. It also handles fulfillment when the winners spend their award points on gift certificates. What was less clear, however, was why this was happening. Then he compared the year’s recognition award patterns to the stock market and Consumer Confidence Index. As the latter two fell, he discovered, more awards were handed out, both recognition award-giving] was the week the Dow bottomed out, the car makers were sent packing from Congress [without a bailout] and the economic indicators were at their worst in every way.” Globoforce’s Employee Recognition Index tracks awards at four Fortune 500 clients in four market segments—industrial, technology, pharmaceutical and consumer goods industries— with a half million participants. Mosley believes there are three reasons for this spike in awards. First is the human factor: People are afraid, he says, times, management would use incentives, bonuses, stock options to reward good behavior,” Mosley points out. “Those tools are taken away from them in bad economic times. Instead of giving one employee $10,000, they will give 100 employees an award worth $100. There is a big splurge in recognition.” Finally Mosley says, between layoffs and plummeting pensions, employee morale is sagging badly. “Managers are floundering for how to improve morale,” he says. “They are leaning more heavily on the tools they have.” 10 | Incentive | January 2009 | incentivemag.com http://www.incentivemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - January 2009

Incentive - January 2009 Contents Editor's Note: Rewards Must Be Sustainable Headlines Cover Story: Responsibility's New Role Incentive Interview: Patrick Lencioni Family Rewards: Who They're Working For Primer: Working Design Leap of Faith: Religion in the Workplace Cook Up Engagement: Kitchen Teambuilding My Turn: Procurement Possibilities Motivation@Work: Hard Times Recognition Legal Ease: The Tax Facts on Corporate Gifts Travel News: Where to Go and What to Do The Bahamas: Islands in the Sun Field Reports: Four European Destinations Golf: Around the World in 18 Holes Potentials Here and Now Watches and Clocks: Strike the Pose Golf Merchandise: Awards with a Solid Swing Computers: Digital Delights Retailers Band Together for Gift Card Market Gift Cards: The Prepaid Reward Spectrum Advertiser Index On the Web www.Incentivemag.com

Incentive - January 2009

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.