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We have an entire
website devoted to Africa MOTIVATING A DIVERSE
WORKPLACE: MARITZ TRAVEL LAUNCHES TOOL TO IMPROVE
EFFECTIVENESS OF INCENTIVE TRAVEL
PROGRAMS Maritz Travel Insight Enables
Companies to Offer Choice and Increase Motivational
Impact of Travel Rewards to Increase Return on
Incentive Program CHICAGO (Sept. 27, 2005)
&endash; Today at The Motivation Show, Maritz
Travel announced the launch of Maritz Travel
Insight, a new survey and analysis tool that
increases the effectiveness of incentive travel
programs for today's diverse workforce.
Designed by Maritz Research scientists, Maritz
Travel Insight compiles the results of an employee
survey into an easy-to-use tool that identifies
what travel reward attributes and activities best
motivate a specific company's employees. With
this new tool, companies can build, test and
compare the motivational impact of several
different travel experiences. This, in turn,
enables companies to offer choice in their
incentive travel programs to ensure all segments of
their diverse workforce are motivated to reach
higher performance goals &endash; often within the
same cost of their current incentive travel program
spend. "One size does not fit all in
today's diverse workplace. Employees are
unique with different lifestyles, attitudes and
interests, and therefore, are motivated by
different things. For example, the travel
experience that interests a single, 30-year-old
male may be quite different than what interests a
40-year-old mother of two," states Christine Duffy,
president and CEO, Maritz Travel. "This tool
enables companies to compare the motivational
impact of one travel experience versus another
across different groups of people, so they can
identify the most effective mix of travel rewards
to increase employee performance and ultimately
improve a company's return on incentive program
spend." A nationwide survey conducted
using the Maritz Travel Insight tool found three
out of four respondents (76 percent) prefer smaller
trips that offer choice in dates, destinations and
activities. The poll also found that
almost one out of six employees (14.5 percent) who
won trips failed to attend at least one earned
trip; reasons cited included unappealing trip (16
percent) and date conflicts (65
percent). "These results indicate there
are a significant number of employees that could be
motivated to higher performance levels if offered a
travel experience that is more personally
meaningful," notes Duffy. Other statistics from the study
show how certain preferences can drive motivation,
including: • Younger participants
prefer shorter awards programs more than older
participants. • Having big-named
entertainment on a trip is more appealing to
participants traveling with a spouse/partner than
to those traveling without a
spouse/partner. • Date flexibility is more
important to participants in lower income brackets
($75,000 and under) than to those with higher
incomes. • Having on-your-own
leisure time during a trip is more important to
ethnic minority groups. "This tool makes it easy to
offer choice in incentive travel programs &endash;
something that has been difficult for companies
until now. Offering choice solves the
year-after-year dilemma companies face of
delivering new and different incentive programs to
continually engage their employees," comments
Duffy. "This is especially important to
companies with a large number of travel reward
participants, which usually encounter limitations
on destinations and activities that can accommodate
their group size." HOW MARITZ TRAVEL INSIGHT
WORKS Maritz Travel Insight works by
polling employees to determine what activities and
interests are most motivating to them.
Results are then compiled into an easy-to-use
decision support tool that companies can use to
build and test the motivational return of different
travel experiences that are based on a variety of
trip options, activities, destination preferences,
preferred month of travel and other incentive
travel reward factors. The trip options can
be customized to meet each company's individual
culture or needs. The employee poll is based on a
three-part participant
questionnaire: ·
Part one &endash; Program Attributes: this portion
of the survey asks participants questions on up to
15 travel program attributes of incentive travel,
such as trip length, destination choice, etc., and
includes choice evaluation questions to identify
which programs respondents would work harder to
earn. ·
Part two &endash; Trip Activities: this section
analyzes the priority of up to 20 activities, as
respondents are asked to select activities they
would most and least like to do. ·
Part three &endash; Participant Details: the last
part of the survey uncovers respondent profile
types using demographics, past reward travel
experiences and "firmagraphics" such as past trip
earners, non-earners and up to 10 additional
sub-groups. ACTIONABLE RESULTS Comprised of the questionnaire
data and analysis, the Maritz Insight Travel tool
is used to separate and quantify the value and
impact of program attributes. The program
produces a report showing the value of each travel
experience in motivating employees in total, and by
demographic segment or segments. According to
each company's specific employee data and the
Maritz Travel Insight tool, Maritz Travel is able
to help clients understand the trade-offs
associated with different combinations of program
elements, such as the benefit of offering a number
of destinations to choose from versus the specific
length of the trip versus offering a choice in
travel dates. This enables companies to
construct the most effective mix of travel
experiences to better motivate their
employees. "Maritz Travel Insight is the
first tool of its kind to combine the science of
research with the art of travel to broaden and
customize incentive travel reward selection,
enabling us to understand and provide a choice of
travel experiences that increase employee
motivation to achieve desired business goals,"
states Duffy. "Tailoring programs so that
everyone is motivated to earn an incentive travel
reward, because they can find one that is
personally meaningful to them, will motivate not
only top performers but all employees to move to a
higher level of performance, ultimately improving a
company's bottom line." About Maritz Maritz Travel is the world
leader in meetings, events and incentive travel
management. A unit of Maritz Inc., Maritz Travel
designs programs that make memorable experiences
leading to measurable business results. As one of
the world's largest marketing research firms,
Maritz Research, a unit of Maritz Inc., helps many
of today's most successful companies improve
performance through a deep understanding of their
customers, employees and channel partners.
Founded in 1973, it offers a range of strategic and
tactical solutions concentrating primarily in the
automotive, financial services, hospitality,
telecommunications and technology industries.
The company has achieved ISO 9001 registration, the
international symbol of quality. It is a
member of CASRO and official sponsor of the
American Marketing Association. Maritz Inc., based in St. Louis,
is ranked No. 227 on the most recent Forbes list of
500 Largest Private Companies. Maritz provides
market and customer research, communications,
learning solutions, incentive initiatives, meetings
and event management, rewards and recognition,
travel management services, and customer loyalty
programs. Maritz has key offices in the United
States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France,
Germany, and Spain. For more information, visit
www.maritz.com or contact us at
1-877-4MARITZ. Maria L. Ronan Account Executive M. Silver Associates, Inc.
747 Third Avenue New York, NY
10017-2803 Fax: 212-754 -6711 E-mail:
maria@msilver-pr.com Visit us on the web
at:
www.msilver-pr.com M. Silver Associates is a member
partner of The WORLDCOM Public Relations
Group Imagine the
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