Research
Reader Forecast: The Comeback of 2011
By Leo Jakobson
January 21, 2011
This may finally be the year of recovery for the incentive industry, according to
Incentive’s second annual Reader Forecast survey, conducted in association with the Incentive Research Foundation.
In December, we asked our readers what they see happening in 2011 in all facets of the industry.
From the 466 of you that responded, we learned that nearly half have a larger incentive budget than last year, while just one in five saw budget cuts. Compare this to 2010, when only 22.8 percent had larger budgets versus 2009 and more than one-third dealt with budget cuts.
In the survey, 60 percent felt that the events of 2008 to 2010, as painful as they were, will prove beneficial in the long run by forcing companies to run more efficient incentive programs and by forcing them to demonstrate return on investment.
Below are the complete results. [Editor's Note: In some charts below, some descriptions were truncated due to limitations of our survey system. Full descriptions marked by asterisks have been added below each of these charts.]
*Letting participants know the program will be back when the economy and/or political climate improves *Concerned that you will pay a price in loyalty and retention when the economy and job market improves *Reducing the budget for a final night/awards banquet
*Letting participants know the program will be back when the economy and/or political climate improves
*Concerned that you will pay a price in loyalty and retention when the economy and job market improves
*Letting participants know the program will be back when the economy and/or political climate improves
*Concerned that you will pay a price in loyalty and retention when the economy and job market improves
*Prove to be beneficial in the long run by forcing your company to run more efficient incentive programs?
*Prove to be beneficial in the long run by forcing your company to show the return on investment (ROI) to company leadership?
*Fundamentally change the way your company's leaders view incentive programs?