Management Association, the Society of
Incentive & Travel Executives and the U.S.
Travel Association — recently released
these best practices guidelines for the
use of meetings, events and incentives
by recipients of emergency government
assistance, and by other organizations
that want to demonstrate responsible
meeting policies and procedures:
1. General policy statement: The CEO
shall be responsible for implementing adequate controls to assure
that meetings, events and incentive/
recognition travel organized by the
company serve legitimate business
purposes and are cost-justified.
2. All proposed meetings, events and
incentive/recognition travel organized
by the company must serve one or
more specified legitimate business
purposes. Each proposed meeting,
event or incentive/recognition travel
with a cost exceeding $75,000 must
be supported by a written business
case identifying a specific business
purpose.
3. Total annual expenses for meetings,
events and incentive/recognition
travel shall not exceed 15 percent of
the company’s total sales and marketing spending.
4. The amount spent for an employee
performance incentive/recognition
event shall not exceed 2 percent of
the total compensation of eligible
participants or 10 percent of total
award earners’ compensation.
5. The process for approving meetings,
events and incentive/recognition
travel, and the procedures for assuring adherence to this policy, will be
subject to independent audit to confirm policy adherence.
6. At least 90 percent of incentive program attendees shall be other than
senior executives (as defined by Treasury Department guidelines) from the
host organization.
7. Performance incentives shall not promote excessive or unnecessary risk-tak-ing or manipulation of financial results.
8. All internal meetings or events
attended only by senior executives
(as defined by Treasury Department
guidelines) and/or board members
shall be devoted to specific business
purposes, and participating senior
executives shall be responsible for
any expenses incurred for non-busi-ness related activities.
9. The CEO of the company shall certify
to the board at least annually that the
foregoing policies are being followed,
and are sufficient to provide reasonable assurance that the company’s
expenditures for such purposes are
not excessive.
10. These policies shall be subject
to modification only with board
approval stating the specific business
rationale for the change in policy.
Employers Cut
People, Pay &
Perks
In order to weather the recession, Chicago-area employers are cutting costs — and
they’re starting with their employees,
according to the Management Association of Illinois, which recently released
the results of its second Current Economic
Conditions Survey.
Conducted among 216 Chicago-area
employers in March 2009, the survey found
that Chicagoland companies are cutting
staff, compensation, benefit programs,
executive pay and perks in pursuit of necessary cost savings. Some of the details:
