GiftCard Partners Blog

Sending employees out for business lunches or dinners is a great way to offer some flexibility and change of atmosphere to employees. Help them get out of the office, put them in a neutral and more personal setting, and new ideas will flow. However, the moment the check comes so does that awkward question of who picks up the tab?

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.

As National Employee Wellness Month comes to a close this week, it’s important not to shelve the Corporate Wellness Initiatives you launched so passionately with in the first week of June. An emphasis on employee wellness should be kept throughout the year. Our
June GiftCard Partners eNewsletter is chuck full of great ways to keep that workplace wellness going strong through the remainder of the year…don’t forget flu season is just around the corner.

Innovation is an intriguing idea for employees; it keeps them motivated to keep up with the organizational environment and innovation helps drive learning and professional development from within. Creating and maintaining a culture of innovation at your organization contributes to higher employee retention rates. Innovation tends to encourage employees to maintain their positions because they are constantly engaged in their organizations decision-making and direction, while also being given more autonomy to contribute to the future. Here are a few tips to ensure your organization and its employees remain innovative. 1. 
Create a structure for unstructured time: Ensure employees have the time they need to innovate individually, whether they are innovating internal processes or the product your company sells. Having a designated “innovation hour” gets employees creative juices flowing, allowing for more out-of-the-box thinking. “Innovation hours” also give employees a productive, company sponsored, outlet for self-motivation and pet projects. This type of free thinking often raises productivity within the workplace during structured work time, and will also prevent employees from looking outside of work for a distraction or another position. 2. 
Measure what is meaningful: Finding a way to quantify the products of employee driven innovation is key to finding ROI for organizational management. The measurement indicators could be an increased employee retention rate since employer structured innovation was implemented, or your organization is innovating to the point where you can match actual revenue dollars to employee innovation. However you measure the impact of innovation, collecting data and finding what is meaningful for your specific company’s circumstance is important in finding the organizational ROI. 3. 
Give "worthless" rewards: Find non-monetary rewards like poker chips or Monopoly pieces to give employees in any instance of innovation. These rewards can be used as a recognition tool from the boss for solving a problem- either internallyor externally. These rewards can also be used as a “random act of kindness” among peers for doing someone a favor or helping out on a particular project. However the rewards are used, they raise company morale by getting people around the organization talking to each other, interacting, and forming relationships. This type of morale-building will also lead to higher retention rates by making the workplace a fun, vibrant place to work together and collaborate to further common goals. Creating innovation creates a culture of connection and betterment of the organization and its individual employees. This culture often leads to higher employee retention with employees sticking around to continue to build that culture and reach those common goals. 
How do you create a culture of innovation within your organization? For more information check out this article from Fast Company.