IRF Releases 2025 Top Performer Study: Technology Industry

Washington, DC (September 24, 2025): The Incentive Research Foundation announces the release of The IRF 2025 Top Performer Study: Technology Industry. Success in the technology industry thrives on speed, creativity, and specialized expertise, requiring organizations to constantly 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 organizations.
• 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 emphasize inclusivity in qualification criteria, nearly double the frequency of other organizations.
• 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.

To download a copy of the full study and white paper, please visit The IRF 2025 Top Performer Study: Technology Industry webpage.

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

The IRF 2025 Top Performer Study: Technology Industry was supported by IRF Research Advocacy Partner, Creative Group.

Creative Group is a full-service meeting, event, and incentive agency that delivers business results by inspiring people to thrive. An industry leader, Creative Group has been honored with numerous Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) awards and the CMI 25 Award, which recognizes the top 25 most influential meeting and incentive management companies in the U.S.

Creative Group was founded in 1970, and has served clients in financial services, life sciences, insurance, manufacturing, retail, technology, automotive, and hospitality. Employing 220+ people, the company is headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois, and maintains offices in San Francisco, Appleton, Wisconsin, and Toronto, Canada.

www.creativegroupinc.com