Editor's Note: The Human, Global Touch
August 07, 2008
August 2008
By Jennifer Juergens
At the Recognition Professionals International Conference this year in Newport Beach, Calif., Derek Irvine, VP of Global Marketing & Client Strategy for incentive house Globoforce, and Mary Kennett, senior manager of human resources at Amgen, a biotech company that makes pharmaceuticals, did a seminar on the challenge of making incentive programs work worldwide.
They played to a pretty packed house.
The fact is, more and more companies are trying to learn all they can about global recognition as the world becomes smaller and smaller.
Irvine discussed the best practices for launching global reward and incentive programs to deliver optimal results. He and Kennett talked about how Globoforce helped Amgen roll out Bravo!, a global program that was pretty easy to manage and maintain. "Amgen had a culture of recognition, but did not have the tools to recognize people on a global basis," Kennett says.
Now they do.
Read Leo Jakobson's cover story, which also includes the ins and outs of the global recognition program Avnet has in place. The main theme for both companies? How a global program can successfully unite your workforce worldwide while also delivering an extra boost to your return-on-investment.
Steve Church, the senior vice president and chief human resources development officer of Avnet, a distributor of computer and electronic components, says of a successful recognition program, "employees stay longer, and they're your best recruiters. They go above and beyond. They perform better so the company performs better."
Also at the Recognition Professionals International Conference was Steve L. Robbins, who gave a moving speech about diversity (he was born in Vietnam) and, at lunch, got everyone together in one of the most Kumbaya moments I've ever had at a conference. His story, in our Interview section.
On a lighter note, read the story about incorporating comedy at your next meeting or incentive (page 38). I met Josh Beckerman at a function, and I've seen a few magicians in my life, but his act had us all amazed.
And even though it's only August, it's time again to start thinking about holiday gifts. The story starts on page 71. Hope you get a few ideas.
Enjoy the issue.
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