Forty-nine percent of compensation leaders at enterprise B2B companies say the inability to scale incentive compensation programs is a top challenge. Just one third of such leaders say they align their incentive programs with organizational goals and objectives.

According to CaptivateIQ, an incentive compensation management company responsible for the State of the Incentive Compensation Report, these numbers represent a significant missed opportunity. "Incentive compensation is often an organization's largest go-to-market expense. The opportunities to drive real impact on revenue by aligning individual incentives with business priorities are endless, yet compensation management is surprisingly outdated, leaving compensation teams spending their days wading through manual to-dos," the report said.

The report, which surveyed 200 U.S. based compensation leaders, shows that many businesses struggle to find the right balance between tactical and strategic tasks. "Just 25% of those surveyed feel they can currently dedicate the right split between tactical and strategic tasks, with 42% wanting to do more strategic tasks," the report said. According to the study's authors, these numbers suggest that many respondents are dedicating too many resources to "administrative time-sucks" and not focusing enough on more impactful initiatives.