GiftCard Partners Blog

Innovating employee rewards programs are an important part of any HR strategy. However, monetary bonuses can get a bit stale and employees will look for new ways to be rewarded for a job well done. The more innovative your employee rewards program is, the more effective it can be. Here are three ways to reward employees in new and innovative ways.

The Affordable Care Act, sound familiar? While we haven't talked about it on our blog lately, it doesn't mean its effects aren't still causing changes across the country. More and more organizations are jumping on the wellness program bandwagon as the ACA has made it even more compelling. These wellness programs can range in their complexity while one struggle is felt across them all, how to increase both participation and engagement. In the recent article,
Wellness Incentives Encourage Participation and Engagement, the 
OH&S explains that the struggle with participation and  engagement is due to factors like poor program design, unattainable objectives, poor communications, and the big one, proper incentives are not being used.
The right kind of motivation. The article goes on to explain the difference between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation would entail an employee doing something because they enjoy the process and tasks, they want to participate or are driven to engage, while extrinsic motivation requires a little more, like inspirational leadership, compelling communication, team support and yes,
tangible incentives. While many employers hope intrinsic motivation will be enough, in most situations people need extrinsic motivation to both start and keep going until intrinsic motivation kicks in.
Touching on tangible. Tangible incentives can include merchandise items, gift cards and cash, and can be used for a variety of reasons, in many different ways, and for varying amounts. The important thing is to identify what tangible incentives match best with your particular wellness program and to look for incentives that will leave a lasting impression on your employees. For example, while using cash as rewards and incentives may have been an obvious go-to in the past, when receiving electronic paychecks many times the value of the reward is lost and and holds no long-term effect. The turn to more
tangible or memorable incentives, like gift cards, have become more popular in the recent years. Learn more about the use of tangible incentives in wellness programs
here.

This topic is really exciting for us at GiftCard Partners. In the past we've reference the growing popularity of non-cash incentives in the marketplace, highlighting statistics from the 2013 study from
Incentive Federation Inc. and
Aspect Market Intelligence's
Incentive Market Study. The 2013 study touched on the popularity of non-cash incentives, stating that 74% of businesses use non-cash options to recognize and reward key audiences in the form of incentive travel, merchandise, or 
gift cards. Now 
new research by the
Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) and Aspect Market Intelligence, conducted for the
Incentive Gift Card Council,  is showing how non-cash incentives (specifically gift cards) are still hot, hot, hot. The study highlights the continued preference for gift cards in a variety of programs, with the largest companies using them at a rate of 56%. So what are these gift cards being used for? Of the companies using gift cards, 67% are using them for employee incentives, 38% for sales incentives, 30% for customer rewards, and 8% are allocated to channel incentives. As gift cards continue to be a staple for rewards and incentives, with goals to foster motivation or drive engagement, acquisition, retention or loyalty, it's safe to say they're here to stay. Does your company use gift cards in any of their programs? If so, we'd love to here more about how. And if you're looking to add gift cards to your programs check out our gift card brands
here.

How well do you know your neighbor? With the hustle and bustle of everyday life many are finding themselves more and more dettached from their neighbors and the community as a whole can end up suffering.
Using small rewards to incentivize community engagement can help not only accomplish community goals, but engage a certain subset of your community to slow down and get involved. Whether you need to clean up the neighborhood playground, seed the community garden or encourage young adults in your community to get in the habit of giving blood, a small incentive could do the trick. Offering a $5 gift card to retailers like
Subway or
Speedway to incentivize either your whole community or a specific group, like young adults or seniors (or both to get cross-generational volunteerism going!) can provide a small boost to get community members active. Whether your goal is to make a positive impact on a small budget or to bring the community together as a whole, gift cards are a great motivational tool and something everyone can appreciate. How is your community incentivizing community engagement? As the summer comes to an end and fall is quickly approaching, what are you doing  to bring your town, city or community together in a unified effort to make your community a better place? Leave us a comment with your ideas!