GiftCard Partners Blog

We all know it’s a little tough to focus in the office when kids are out of school and the weather is nice. Workplace productivity drops 20% during June, July and August, so to ensure your employees stay focused, happy and productive in the office, make sure they spend some of their time out of the office. Employers often use summertime to offer special perks like the 41% who indicated they offer flexible schedules, and the 28% who offer "summer Fridays." Ensuring that your employees take some time away from their desk for a vacation and "digital detox" is a great way to increase workplace productivity. For those workaholics who you can't seem to squeeze in a week at the beach other incentives such as gift cards are a great way to acknowledge hard work. Small denomination gift cards to popular retailers like 
The Limited, 
Boston Market, or 
AutoZone allows employees to treat themselves during the summer, and feel appreciated by their employer. Encouraging a work/life balance and rewarding hard work, especially when temptation to slack off is at its height, will keep your workforce engaged and workplace productivity going long after Labor Day. For more ideas on keeping your organization's summer productive check out this infographic from American Express Open Forum.

The total cost of workplace injuries was $167 billion in 2021, with a loss of 103,000,000 work days. These kinds of numbers demonstrate the importance of safety management in the workplace. Ensuring safety goes beyond mere compliance; it requires a comprehensive approach that fosters a culture of safety. Drawing insights from modern safety practices, here's an updated guide to crafting an effective employee safety program.

The
Retail Gift Card Association recently released a study of 1,000 consumer opinions surrounding gift cards, how they are used, how they are gifted to others, and how consumers view them overall. While consumers are still practical about how they spend the balance, with only 30.6% indicating they would use the balance for a "slurge" purchase, consumers use gift cards and covet receiving them. Here are some of the most compelling facts from the
RGCA survey.

Gamification is rapidly growing as a tool for employee motivation. According to a new report from research firm 
Markets and Markets, the gamification industry will be worth $5.5 billion by 2018, up from $421 million this year. With this significant increase, if your company isn't already gamifying employee motivation it’s time to start. The incredible predicted growth of the industry over the next 5 years is an indication that gamification is working and that both employer and employee adoption rates are on the rise. Driving employees to desired behavior and self-motivation through a social outlet is a double reward. Humans are social beings, so whether it’s productive to our work or not we seek out social opportunities at work. By implementing gamification employees get motivated to desired behaviors by providing rewards, and satiate their need for a social experience through an organizationally sponsored channel. The social outlet and small rewards like gift cards to retailers like 
Speedway and 
Boston Market, combined with the increased productivity motivated employees bring, creates a win/win for the whole organization. This double positive for employers and employees builds harmonious relationships that will maintain employee motivation long after the game is over.

As 2013’s National Safety Month nears its end it’s a great time to reflect on this year’s theme; "
Safety Starts With Me." The message is a great reminder to employers that  creating a culture where employee safety is a priority empowers the workforce to keep safety in mind at all times. Companies work from the ground up to build a variety of employee safety programs, going from having nothing in place to having a fully structured program with tiers of success that employees can work through either individually or as a team. These types of structured safety programs encourage employees to take safety into their own hands and make it a priority in the work they do every day. Empowering employees to take safe practices seriously begins with management. Give employees the autonomy and accountability to build a culture of safety within the workforce. Take notice and reward those employees who maintain clean safety records. Using small rewards such as gift cards to popular retailers such as Crutchfield or The Cheesecake Factory shows the general workforce that management takes notice of employee safety, and appreciate employees who take it upon themselves to empower others to be safe and give them the autonomy to do so. Showing employees that management recognizes employees who contribute to common goals and better the organization as a whole will motivate and engage them in the organizational effort. Remind your workforce that employee safety starts with them- and if they make it a priority people 
will take notice.