GiftCard Partners Blog

Employee motivation can be key to maintaining productivity, especially during times of the year like summer when employees can be distracted with kids ending school, or simply the change of season and the nice weather. Providing incentives to create a positive company culture and make the workplace employees feel motivated and inspired to be can provide the motivation to keep your employees productive throughout distracting times. Check out these three easy strategies for employee motivation and see if you could use them to boost productivity this summer.

New regulations have recently taken effect as part of the Affordable Care Act allowing employers providing health care benefits to employees to steer their workforce toward healthier lifestyles and away from disease causing habits. The new rules enforced last week as part of the law by the Obama Administration guide employees through a classic carrot and stick rewards program. Employees who participate in wellness programs, set goals to live a healthier life, and work towards those goals can be rewarded both financially and with non-monetary rewards, while employees who continue to exhibit unhealthy behaviors; or who not working to eliminate preventable conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol can be penalized similarly. Any outcome based program such as smoking cessation or weight loss programs are often required to have a "cycle of failure and renewed effort" to give employees multiple chances to achieve their goals. These new rules reinforce the effectiveness of the carrot and stick reward/disincentive strategy, rewarding good behavior and penalizing bad behavior. It shows that strategy is financially sound for any size business and can in fact help manage the ever-rising cost of providing health care benefits. Finding rewards that fit each occassion and have value for your employees is key to programmatic success. Gift cards are a great way to fix cost while providing a choice for employees. Using gift cards allow an employee to choose a brand that they value and will use. For health and wellness programs providing a variety of health and wellness retailers such as NutriSystem, GNC, and CVS/Pharmacy show employees that their employer is supportive of their concerted effort to live a healthy lifestyle. Equally important is finding the balance in the disincentives handed out to employees who do not participate in health and wellness programs. The sticks cannot be so big that it makes and employee unhappy with the organization, or makes them wholly averse to ever participating. The stick should be big enough to push employees in a healthier direction. A widely used disincentive is a higher monthly premium for employees not enrolled in the program- encouraging employees to take the step without turning them off totally.

Yo-Fi Wellness is churning some serious waves in the sea of corporate wellness incentives! As employer healthcare costs continue to rise; innovative wellness incentives continue to offer companies of all sizes the latest in corporate wellness incentives and wellness gifts for employees. This online platform brings healthy living initiatives to employees through inspiring and instructive video programs, on any device. Offering expert yoga, fitness, nutrition and meditation video content, Yo-Fi Wellness empowers employees to live a healthier lifestyle, reducing absenteeism in the workplace and improving employee productivity. The Yo-Fi Wellness digital platform is the perfect solution to providing corporate gifts, incentives and rewards via gift cards and e-Certs.

June is National Safety Month, so as we kick off the new month and the summer season, it seems like a great time to put some fun contests and training sessions in place for employees to help promote workplace safety. Here are a few quick and easy ways to make workplace safety a priority at your company this June, and how to continue it throughout the year.