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Maritz Practices What It Preaches
December 05, 2008
By Andrea Doyle
Maritz Practices What It Preaches
When asked why the company has annual incentive programs, Paula Godar, Maritz's director, brand strategy, says, "Overall, we believe we need to practice what we preach. Incentive and recognition programs are highly effective tools for connecting individual and team goals with corporate goals. It's how we drive strategy."
St. Louis-based Maritz does business with 30 of the world's Fortune 50 companies. Its revenues for fiscal year 2007 were $1.45 billion, and Maritz has a worldwide presence, with wholly owned offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany, and associates, alliances and preferred suppliers in Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas. It has 4,117 employees worldwide.
Its recognition programs are anchored in its six compass values: client focus, teamwork, people, achievement, perseverance and fun. Incentive programs drive employees to the key behaviors of growth, productivity, client-focused innovation,
and performance culture.
Maritz conducted an assessment of all its incentive and recognition practices in 2003, and developed a strategy based on those outcomes as well as its goals, launching new company-wide programs. It performed an employee engagement study in 2004 and 2006, and scores improved overall, says Godar.
The strategy includes peer-to-peer recognition, which is available to all employees with the purpose of communicating and reinforcing corporate values; ad hoc spot recognition; reward programs that are managed at the business and department level to drive specific strategies and goals; incentive programs geared toward sales and account teams for achieving measurable goals; and top honor recognition, including the Standing Ovation award, reserved for the top 3 percent of employees (team and individual), based on peer and manager nominations.
All employees are eligible for several of the recognition programs, peer-to-peer and service anniversary, and for the annual Standing Ovation award. Other incentive programs are targeted to sales and client account teams. Each business and division has the ability to run its own recognition program to drive distinct goals, but everyone is encouraged to follow a guideline of setting an overall budget for this, based on 1 percent of annual salary expense. Incentive programs also can be set up by businesses and divisions based on their specific needs and objectives. There is a Recognition Advocate team with representation from every business and division to share best practices and ensure programs are in alignment with Maritz's recognition philosophy and strategy.
In the coming year, all Maritz employees will have access to a recognition system, called we.com, that enables everyone to send e-cards and e-certificates to coworkers, with each e-award generating an automatic e-mail to their managers. Another change: Maritz began a corporate wellness program this year that awards points for participating in health assessments, seminars, weight loss, smoking cessation, and other healthy activities.
The company brings employees together at an annual sales meeting, regular town hall meetings and an annual recognition ceremony. When celebrating a service anniversary, Maritz people receive award points redeemable for items in its rewards collection or for selected retail shopping, hospitality, or travel suppliers. Those go into bank accounts with rewards for employee referrals, spot awards, top performer recognition and incentive programs.
Points can be used for items in its collection that support causes like American Heart Association and Breast Cancer Awareness. There are also items that are environmentally friendly or "green" and items geared to wellness.
Recently, the company's technology group, Maritz Global Technology Services, held a Run Through the Warehouse for its annual top performers in the categories of client support, innovation, calculated risk taking and exemplary manager values. This is an award experience that Maritz offers clients as well, where achievers have 60 seconds to run through the Maritz rewards warehouse and grab all that they can, placing their goodies on a large cart.
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