GiftCard Partners Blog

GiftCard Partners and CVS/pharmacy recently co-sponsored a webinar called Healthcare Reform’s Impact on Wellness - How to Incentivize Employees to Engage in Healthy Behavior. Speakers included Jonathan Edelheit, Editor in Chief of Benefits Live Magazine, Vanessa Cullerton, Senior Manager of Employee Wellness for the Hillshire Brands Company, Stacey Nelson, Manager of Health and Welfare for Sprint; and our own Edward Shulkin, President of GiftCard Partners.

Employee retention can be difficult in today's job market. There is no such thing as a "company man or woman" any longer, and employees tend to switch jobs for one reason or another more frequently than we have seen in the past. Making employee retention a priority for your organization helps maintain continuity in the workforce, which makes the whole organization more productive, happier, and more motivated to succeed within the organization, not outside of it. Check out 3 common mistakes that can drive top talent out, and how you can make employee retention a priority in your organization.

The level of engagement within your workforce will affect your bottom line whether you know it or not. Engaged employees come to work energize and motivated to do the best, and most, they can for their organization each and every day. Engaged employees are willing to use their expendable energy, the extra energy they reserve for themselves, on their jobs when they are fully engaged at work. Employee engagement begins with the employer- ensuring your whole workforce is fully engaged in their positions takes investment from the organization to energize employees. Here are a few proven ways to ensure your workforce is engaged, and as productive as they can be:

According to a new study from the Midwest Business Group, more than 80% of the nation's largest employers use a carrot and stick approach when it comes to their corporate wellness program. Using this approach allows employers to reward for desired behavior, while creating penalties for employees who participate in unhealthy behavior, such as smoking. As the full implications of the Affordable Care Act take effect and employee benefits costs continue to rise, employers place more value on employee healthcare benefits savings, by both maximizing the health of employees and lowering the cost of their healthcare benefits. Here are some quick facts about employers who use a carrot and stick incentive strategy to manage employee wellness.

The training and implementation of your safety program is set up for failure without the emphasis on one key word: participation. If you do not have the participation of the workforce you don’t have a successful safety program. This is because it can be difficult to foster enthusiasm and cooperation when training involves sitting through a 3-hour safety training video or reminders like posters of smiling faces in hard hats and goggles.
Managers understand the importance of workers safety programs and the effect it has on their organization as a whole. Take a look at the Accountability Model
ProfessionalSafety published in their May 2013 edition,
Near-Miss Reporting. It breaks accountability into four steps and explains how, “Accountability entails defining expectations, providing training, defining metrics and recognizing outcomes.”