MotivateNow by the IRF

Gain key insights from the Incentive & Events Industry Software Report: 2020. Stephanie Harris, IRF President, and Allan Schweyer, IRF’s Chief Academic Advisor and author of the report, discuss how technology is being selected, customized, and integrated into rewards and recognition programs. They address what features and functionality program owners prioritize now – and what will likely be critical in the near future.

Find out what program owners think about their programs and what they need from incentive program providers, suppliers, and associations. During this webinar, Melissa Van Dyke, IRF President, will present "The Program Owner Manifesto," based on highlights from the new study by the IRF 2019 Voice of the Market: The Use of Non-Cash Rewards & Recognition. She discusses what front-line program owners prioritize when designing, implementing, and executing incentive, rewards, and recognition programs.

The IRF Top Performers Study: Financial Services Sector study identifies the non-cash rewards strategies and tactics used by top performing financial services firms. The study also provides benchmarks and best practices to help financial services firms design effective non-cash rewards programs. During our latest webinar, Mel Van Dyke, IRF President discusses findings from the data collected across multiple financial services firms and compares the results of top performing financial services firms to those of average performing financial services firms. While the findings in this webinar are specific to the financial services industry, they are also aligned with what IRF is seeing in other verticals.

Get key takeaways from the IRF’s signature study 2019 U.S. Federal Regulations and Non-Cash Awards. During the IRF webinar Changes and Compliance, we discuss the feedback from program owners that regulatory requirements for incentive programs make it difficult to reward and recognize good performers. We explore how high awareness and knowledge of regulatory and tax requirements strongly correlated with greater rates of change in program design. Find out what types of changes are being made to program design in order to be in compliance – and if program owners are really accomplishing their compliance goals by making these changes.

Find out what truly successful technology companies are doing differently regarding human capital investments during this IRF discussion. We discuss benchmarks and key findings reported in The IRF Top Performers Study: Technology Sector. Executives at top-performing technology firms were twice as likely as executives at average technology firms to support non-cash rewards and recognition programs – we take a closer look at how these top-performing companies are designing, implementing, and measuring their programs.

The Spring 2019 issue of The IRF Quarterly Academic Review focuses on the conditions in which non-cash rewards are most effective and how non-cash incentives can impact a “21st century talent culture.” Get high-level summaries and actionable take-aways from the results of field and lab experiments reported in six papers, including contributions from 13 researchers across 11 universities in four countries.

Melissa Van Dyke, President of the IRF, presents The IRF 2019 Wellness in Meetings and Incentive Travel Study, an analysis of the integration of health and wellness into meetings and incentive travel programs. The IRF’s survey of meeting planners revealed health and wellness practices in meetings fall short of the stated company goals. Melissa addresses the disconnect between companies’ stated goals of wellness as a critical focus and the implementation of health practices in meetings and incentive travel. She’ll also presents insights collected from meeting planners who have successfully integrated wellness into their meetings and incentive travel programs.

The IRF 2019 Trends Study highlights ten key trends that will affect organizations, their products and services, and the workforce in 2019. From shifts in corporate culture to emerging technologies to new goals in the design of programs and use of rewards, the study identifies key areas of change and their implications for workforce engagement, rewards, and recognition. IRF President, Melissa Van Dyke, dives deeper into the latest industry trends during the IRF 2019 Trends Study webinar.

You probably agree that one-size-fits-all incentives no longer work well enough to attract, keep and engage employees or customers. Our latest study discusses how successful companies are using artificial intelligence right now to better understand and engage their employees. In this webinar, Melissa Van Dyke, IRF President and Allan Schweyer, IRF Chief Academic Advisor, discuss key findings reported in the IRF’s latest release, Predictive Analytics and Artificial Intelligence in People Management. Mel and Allan discuss how companies are currently using artificial intelligence to identify, monitor and analyze their talent continuously – and the implications and potential for AI in the incentives, rewards and recognition industry.

The latest IRF webinar discusses the new study, The Impact and Potential of Artificial Intelligence in Incentives, Rewards and Recognition. Allan Schweyer and Jesse Wolfersberger discuss the tools and techniques that professionals in the incentives, rewards and recognition industry are using and developing to incorporate artificial intelligence into their program design. Find out how businesses large and small can build artificial intelligence into their incentives, rewards and recognition programs. They also address the issues a program owner should consider when beginning to incorporate artificial intelligence capabilities, including data consistency, using third-party software, hiring external expertise, launching pilot programs and developing a culture that fully supports this next level of data-driven decisions.

The IRF’s Industry Outlook for 2019: Merchandise, Gift Card, and Event Gifting reports high levels of economic net optimism during the Fall of 2018 and a positive outlook for 2019. Megg Withinton discusses the study’s insights and benchmarks on non-cash reward types, average spend, budgets, and reporting for incentive programs. She also highlights some key areas revealed by the study where program owners can improve how programs are being administered.

Find out how program owners and end-users learn about and engage with our industry. During our next webinar, IRF President Melissa Van Dyke and IRF Chief Research Advisor Megg Withinton will discuss the IRF’s latest release Voice of the Market, Part 2: Engaging Program Owners in the Incentives Marketplace, a qualitative study of how incentive program managers, program owners and end-users seek out information, resources, and contacts in the incentive, reward and recognition industry. Mel and Megg will discuss the study’s findings including why owners and managers of non-cash reward and recognition programs reported that a lack of awareness of industry resources is the primary barrier to accessing valuable information and expertise. Program owners and managers will learn impactful ways to engage with the industry. Suppliers and providers will learn strategies to reach program managers earlier in their careers in order to engage with them and form more significant partnerships.

In its newest release, Establishing the Intangible, Non-Financial Value of Awards Programs, the Incentive Research Foundation explores the important role of intangible benefits – such as culture, collaboration, and teamwork – and how they are a critical component of the most impactful incentive, rewards, and recognition programs. During our next webinar, join IRF President Melissa Van Dyke and IRF Chief Academic Advisor Allan Schweyer as they discuss the report, including the IRF’s new research on valuing intangibles. Find out why intangibles are so important to an IRR program and how to measure their success.

Melissa Van Dyke and Allan Schwyer discuss the recent IRF study. This study (the first in a two-part series)discusses the role of recognition in incentive, reward and recognition initiatives and the broad benefits of rewards. We discuss 6 key recent field studies from neuromarketing, behavioral economics, incentives and others to see why non cash awards under the right conditions can have a higher performance boost than cash awards for the same cost.

As the most prevalent award type across all incentive and recognition program audiences—employees, sales, customers, and channel partners—gift cards deserve special attention. Truly a booming business, U.S. businesses spent $24 billion annually on B2B gift cards. To understand their prevalence deeper, the Incentive Research Foundation researched how gift cards are sourced for incentive and recognition programs, how much money is budgeted toward them, what types are being purchased, and where opportunities lie

The IRF 2018 Trends Study highlights ten key trends that will affect organizations, their products and services, and the workforce in 2018. From market optimism to concerns about risk and safety, the study identifies key areas of change and their implications for workforce engagement, incentive travel and recognition. In this webinar, IRF President, Melissa Van Dyke, dives deeper into the latest industry trends.