GiftCard Partners Blog

This is an incentive and gift card blog, but at the heart of our industry is full of interesting stories about businesses, how they start, and what makes them keep on ticking. Check out Anthony Tjan’s post on
Harvard Business Review:
Great Businesses Don’t Start with a Plan to learn how GiftCard Partners was started and what makes it tick. Ed Shulkin’s post (Eshukin on the blog) is a great reminder of why we are all in business. Enjoy!

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.

Using gaming to engage employees has been proven effective in a number of different scenarios. Here are three stages of the employment process where gamification has been successful. How does your company use gamification to engage employees?  

College graduation has come and gone and now many have the honor of calling themselves Alumni! But what will keep that school spirit going after the diploma has been hung on the wall? College and University Alumni Associations across the country ask themselves this very question constantly. Well look no further, the answer is Gift Cards! Gift Cards are a great way to increase membership, thank donors and more: