January 2006
Keeping top talent

The trade show industry is at another crossroads in its search for top talent. Though we constantly lament the fact that some of the brightest stars of our industry leave for jobs in publishing, marketing and sales, we don’t seem to be willing to do what it takes to really keep them here, based on what I’m seeing from EXPO’s 2005 Salary Survey, published in our November/December 2005 issue.

Show managers haven’t seen much in the way of salary gains in the past several years, despite the fact that the industry reported gains across all categories — revenue, net square footage, attendance and exhibitors — according to the 2004 CEIR Index (see our feature on p. 26). Sure most organizations are granting annual increases in the normative range of 3 to 5 percent, but that’s probably not going to help keep or retain top talent.

In addition, compensation analysts will tell you that about 70 percent of management-level employees should feel their compensation is adequate. Yet, our survey reveals that in the exposition industry, it’s slightly over half. Though money is often more a “heightening factor” rather than a pure motivator, these results, coupled with job security and satisfaction reported at only average, leaves us at risk of the premature flight of good people.

For many, the solution is incentive compensation. Incentive plans not only increase pay but also increase satisfaction by giving people the feeling of greater control and autonomy — assuming the plans are structured correctly. Incentive plans also cost the organization nothing, or very little, “at goal,” if the incentive is tied to growth — though they can also be tied to revenue, profit, marketshare, EBIDTA or any other measurable unit.

An incentive plan differs from a bonus plan in that a bonus is typically a discretionary, after the fact payment that probably doesn’t influence behavior. An incentive plan, on the other hand, is a series of goals and objectives defined at the start of the measurement period; the rules are explicit and communicated early; there is regular feedback throughout the measurement period; and there’s a true opportunity to influence and shape behavior.

Many for-profit show management companies do offer incentive plans, but associations often don’t. Why? The short answer may be that associations want to focus on customer service vs. selling. But some associations are moving away from this model to operate more “corporately.” They’re establishing sales goals and incentivizing at several levels.

The biggest mistakes people make in the implementation are too many measures and a lack of alignment with strategic goals. Too many drivers will distract and dilute your efforts. And you can’t decide your goal is to increase profit margins, but base the incentive pay on total revenues.

Incentive matrices and weighting factors can be tedious to produce the first year — and it may take a year or more to get it right. But the efforts will more than pay off when, as an industry, we’re able to attract and keep the top talent we need to drive our business forward.

Danica Tormohlen, Editor
dtormohlen@ascendmedia.com