For the past six years, Incentive magazine has held a roundtable with industry experts whose job descriptions have spanned the motivation business. This year was no different. Our Seventh Annual Industry Roundtable included folks from incentive houses, hotels and certificate companies. We had merchandise reps, incentive travel planners and a corporate planner. The experience in that room was massive. We should have asked everyone how long they'd been in the incentive business, because it probably would have been about 300 years combined. I've been in the industry since 1986 myself…eee gads!
Leo Jakobson, Alex Palmer and I sat around talking with them about trends (green, socially responsible programs and wellness, among others). Of course we had to talk about the recession and its effect on incentive programs, such as the banking industry cutting its travel programs. The Roundtable lasted about two hours, so we couldn't possibly include everything in the magazine itself (see page 16); the story jumps to our Website. I'd love to hear what you think after checking it out: www.incentivemag.com/roundtable2008.
That's not all that there is in the issue, though. Not by a long shot. Our Incentive Interview by Andrea Doyle features Bill Catlette and Richard Hadden, authors of Contented Cows Moove Faster. I got to hear Bill at the Recognition Professionals International conference recently in Newport Beach, Calif., and now I'm dying to read the book. They write about Marriott, Southwest Airlines and Chick-fil-A, as organizations that "get it." Unfortunately, they say, most don't.
Our primer was written by Derek Irvine, vice president of global strategy for Globoforce. He says underperforming and disengaged employees are contagious: "Disengaged employees cause productivity levels to drop, company morale to plummet and can even destroy a company's ability to recruit new talent." How do you combat disengagement? Read Derek's here. This is a must-read for managers.
As always, check out our Web site, www.incentivemag.com, for more columns from industry experts, Q&As and a whole lotta extras on some of our featured features
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