GiftCard Partners Blog

Maintaining open communication with employees is crucial to a positive working environment and and engaging employees in the job roles. Creating open communication is a way to be open and honest with your employees, which provides them with meaning and a clear purpose for even seemingly mundane everyday tasks. Making employees feel a part of something greater than themselves is an easy and cost-free way to engage and retain employees. Providing a constant information flow both to and from employees regarding goals, company vision, desired company cultural aspects, and individual and team objectives are some of the ways to keep employees engaged. Also, communicating rewards and recognition for accomplishments of goals or exceptional contributions to the company are equally important. Rewards do not have to be big, small denomination gift cards and a team email is a great way to reward an employee's accomplishment, and recognize the accomplishment among the employee's peers. How do you communicate with your employees? How do you think your organization could improve their employee communication?

Gamification continues to grow in the workforce motivation realm. The gamification market was estimated at around $100 million a year ago, and is projected to from to $2.8 billion by 2016, according to M2 Research. Five years from now, every new employee entering the workforce will have grown up with mobile devices and Facebook, this means the demographic in the workforce is accustomed to constant gaming and media stimulation. To ensure your gamified employee motivation and recognition is executed properly follow these 3 easy steps:

Chicken or Steak; Obama or Romney; Comedy or Drama; Yankees or Red Sox; Gift Cards or Cash? We may not have all the answers, but according to Incentive’s “2012 Gift Card IQ” survey, gift cards trumps cash.

The use of gift cards in the incentive industry grew from 27.8 percent last year to 36.7 percent in 2012. Not only are companies using gift cards as a way to recognize or reward employees during the holiday season but the survey shows that they are increasing the frequency of which they use gift cards throughout the year and the amount spent on them. The survey seems to be holding steady states Incentive Magazines Leo Jackson, “…the best word to describe the results of Incentive’s “2012 Gift Card IQ” survey, compared to the 2011 version, is stability. By and large, this year’s results were within a couple percentage points of last year’s in virtually every category.”

It looks like gift cards are on the rise while cash rewards could become a thing of the past. Some interesting findings from the survey include:

The use of incentives, such as gift cards and small bonuses, are becoming increasingly popular among employers to incentivize employees to participate in health and wellness programs. The HR Consultancy's 2012 Health Care Survey of nearly 2,000 U.S. employers, representing over 20 million U.S. employees and their dependents, provides insight on how employers are using incentives to promote healthy behavior in their workplaces. Healthier employees lead to happier employees who are more productive and dedicated to their organization. Healthy employees also lower the cost of insurance for employers, making the ROI for health and wellness incentives apparent. Here are some of the insights the new HR Consultancy revealed: •58% offered some form of incentive for completing lifestyle modification programs, such as quitting smoking or losing weight. • About a quarter offer incentives for progress or attainment made toward meeting acceptable ranges for biometric measures such as blood pressure, body mass index, blood sugar and cholesterol. • More than 80% of employers provide an incentive to complete a health questionnaire, yet less than 10% provide an incentive to address the results of the questionnaire. • More than 60% of employers provide an incentive to complete biometric screening, but less than 10% provide an incentive to take any action.  
For more information on health and wellness incentives check out this article in Home Channel News.

The infographic below covers the importance of keeping employees happy and engaged. It certainly pays off for your organization. Happy, engaged employees boost productivity, revenue, and retention rates. Implementing employee engagement and reward programs are a great way to keep your workforce happy. Whether it is a health and wellness program rewarding employees for leading a healthy lifestyle, a spot rewards program providing small rewards such as gift cards to employees for a job well done, or putting in extra hours on a big team project. Any way you choose to reward and engage your employees will lead to a happy workplace, which leads to a measurable ROI for your organization.