GiftCard Partners Blog

Ensuring wellness in and across organizations. Talent Management magazine outlines
Tips to Ensure Wellness Boosts Productivity, which offers us key considerations for a sound framework and wellness program structure, as well as
5 Key Steps to Workplace Wellness. These are both interesting articles and offer ideas, but they are summaries of concepts we’ve been hearing about for some time. Now that wellness programs have been running long enough to show increased productivity, healthcare cost savings for employers and employees, and bottom line ROI; what’s next for creating an even more holistic approach to wellness?
An online community comment to the “Tops to Ensure Wellness” article offers the concept of management also paying attention to employees’ emotional and psychological well being while at work. Since physical well being is only 1 facet of a person’s whole being, is this facet of manageable and measurable within health and wellness programs? Since incentives and rewards have become fundamental parts of wellness programs, can they also be used to motivate emotional wellness on a measurable basis? Let us know your thoughts by commenting here.

Using carrot rewards, which reward employees for desired behavior, have been proven effective in rewarding employees in a number of ways. Carrots can be used in health and wellness programs to reward employees for reaching goals, they can be used as spot rewards, to reward employees on the spot for desired behavior, but carrots are most traditionally used as milestone rewards. Rewarding employees for long-term commitment to their organization goes a long way. Whether it is a gift card on their one year anniversary, extra vacation time after 5 years, or a watch after 10 years, recognizing employees efforts, commitment and sacrifice over time is crucial. It both recognizes the employee's contribution, and shows the employee that their organization will continue to support and recognize them. When employees feel noticed and supported their productivity goes up, their commitment extends, and they become more content in their jobs and their workplace. Dangling carrots may help boost retention rates and keep employees content for longer.
For more information on using carrot rewards to improve employee retention check out this article from Daily News and Analysis.

There are 4 major criteria on which employee rewards should be evaluated. Addressing compensation, benefits, recognition and appreciation through employee rewards will help address a diverse range of HR topics. Using employee rewards to address these areas will help cut down on HR issues and keep employee productivity up. The investment in the rewards program will save your organization in the long term and help support strategic organizational goals. A comprehensive reward program should recognize both employee activity performance, and specific behaviors. Activity performance is goal oriented. Once an employee reaches a performance goal, they should receive some type of reward from the company, whether it is a gift card to their favorite restaurant, or an extra afternoon off. Behavior-based rewards are slightly more difficult to execute. When an employee exhibits a certain type of behavior desired by the organization, they should also be rewarded. This can often take the form of a "spot reward." These are smaller rewards given on the spot of desired behavior. This could be a small denomination gift card given to employees whenever appropriate.  Rewards should be given for both types of behavior, in all four categories to maintain consistency and a culture of appreciate within the organization. This will improve retention rates, productivity, and morale.  
For more information on creating a strategic rewards system visit this Entrepreneur.com article.

Employee loyalty is at the lowest rates in recent memory. According to a recent CareerBuilder survey one in three currently employed individuals plans to leave their job by the end of the year. 76% of current employed people would leave their job if the right opportunity presented itself, although they are not actively looking for a new job. Other studies have also shown staggering turn-over rates, showing that the average company loses 20-50% of its workforce each year. These numbers show employees are disconnected to their jobs, and that employers are not showing reciprocal loyalty to their workers. As the recession still continues to affect the economy and the job market employees see down-sized benefits packages, cut backs on organizational spending that was previously invested in professional growth and training opportunities, and a lack of demonstrated commitment to employees.  Employee loyalty has declined, because if employees don't feel that their organization has invested in them, they will not invest their longterm professional commitment in the organization. Investing in employees, whether it is giving a small denomination restaurant gift card for a one year anniversary, or ensuring that employees continue learning and growing through professional development training, it is important to show employees that their organization cares about them.
How will you use loyalty rewards to improve your retention rate this year? For more information and ideas on how to show loyalty to your employees check out this Forbes article.