GiftCard Partners Blog

As we dive into 2016 more employers are focused on expanding their wellness programs. Towers Watson Staying@Work survey indicates that 75% of organizations plan to increase or significantly increase employee wellness initiatives over the next three years. But as those programs expand and change, now may be the time to re-evaluate your efforts before making any more investments.

Today is National Employee Appreciation Day. Did you know that? If you missed it you’re not alone. In a day and age where employee appreciation is paramount to workplace environment and culture, how can we not know about this seemingly important day? Here’s a quick FAQ guide to ensure you show employee appreciation appropriately all year round.

2015 was a huge year for gift cards. For the first time, gift card sales reached $130 billion, while e-gifting rose 26% and represented $7.1 billion in volume. Here are some of the other gift card trends the industry experienced in 2015 from The Gift Card Network.

Customers love loyalty programs. This is a long-standing tradition and has only evolved with new technologies. Many times loyalty programs are tailored to each store’s primary audience to both increase engagement and for customer retention. They bridge the relationship between the retailer and the consumer shopping/buying process. Now it’s time for organizations to leverage loyalty programs. A recent infographic by Selfstartr showed how loyalty programs are on the rise. The average number of loyalty programs per household was up 13.3% in 2015, increasing from 10.9% in 2014, and they are even popular with affluent shoppers.

Employee engagement remains a critical part of HR programs and a big challenge going further into 2016. While every expert is discussing engagement trends, here are three trends to help you get started in boosting your employee engagement.