IRF Releases 2025 Top Performer Study: Automotive & Manufacturing Industries

Washington, DC (September 10, 2025): The Incentive Research Foundation announces the release of The IRF 2025 Top Performer Study: Automotive & Manufacturing Industries. The white paper examines how top performing automotive and manufacturing companies are leveraging non-cash rewards and recognition.

The study provides benchmarks and best practices employed by top performing automotive and manufacturing companies to influence performance, shape culture, strengthen partnerships, and retain top talent using non-cash rewards. It also presents the data by program type, including employee, sales, and channel.

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 159 automotive and manufacturing companies reviewed, 24% of participating firms qualified as top-performing companies.

Key insights specific to the automotive and manufacturing industries include:

• Nearly 80% of Top Performers rate executive support for their reward and recognition programs as excellent, more than 20 percentage points higher than the Comparator group.
• Participant flexibility is key, with 74% top performing companies prioritizing flexibility in merchandise and gift programs and 57% for incentive travel rewards
• Particularly within sales and employee reward programs, high-achieving companies are 25-30% more likely to use incremental targets for creating clear, achievable steps that encourage steady progress.
• Top performing companies’ average spend on a sales incentive trip is nearly $2,000 more than comparators. For non-travel sales rewards, top performers spend nearly $2,500 more than comparators.

To download a copy of the full study and white paper, please visit the The IRF 2025 Top Performer Study: Automotive & Manufacturing Industries webpage.

The full Top Performer Series will include Top 10 Things Top Performing Companies Do Differently and industry reports for the Financial Services, Manufacturing / Automotive, and Technology industries.

The IRF 2025 Top Performer Study: Automotive & Manufacturing Industries was supported by IRF Research Advocacy Partner, Maritz.

Maritz transforms human potential into extraordinary performance. Tap into what truly moves your people, through incentives and reward solutions that inspire greatness across your entire business, customer-base and business ecosystem. From digital rewards to points-based programs, immersive travel experiences to premium merchandise, leading Fortune 500 companies rely on Maritz’s rewards, as well as behavioral science expertise and sophisticated tech to design, deploy and measure programs that create moments that matter and lasting business success.