The Incentive Research Foundation has announced the release of The IRF 2025 Top Performer Study: Technology Industry. Success in the technology industry thrives on speed, creativity, and specialised expertise, requiring organisations to evolve how they motivate and retain talent.
The study provides benchmarks and best practices employed by top-performing technology companies to influence performance and motivate employees and partners.
To be considered a top performer for this study, companies met benchmarks in revenue growth, achievement of performance goals, customer trends, and employee attraction and retention. Of the 109 technology companies reviewed, 31% of participating firms qualified as top-performing companies.
Key insights specific to the technology industry include:
- Strong Cross-Departmental Collaboration: nearly all Top Performers (94%) report strong collaboration in program design, which is significantly higher than the 71% reported by Comparators.
- Excellent Financial Support: Top Performers are 16% more likely to report excellent budget support for their reward programs compared to other organisations.
- Unlimited Reward Potential: nearly 90% of Top Performers’ programs include a “fast start” component, providing immediate rewards to new participants, which is more than 25% higher than in Comparator programs.
- Inclusivity in Qualification Criteria: 41% of Top Performers emphasise inclusivity in qualification criteria, nearly double the frequency of other organisations.
- Discretionary Recognition: 74% of Top Performers provide opportunities to acknowledge achievements beyond standard performance metrics, nearly double the rate of Comparators.
- Investment in Rewards: the average spend by Top Performers on an incentive trip reward for sales participants is over $4,000 higher than Comparators.
