GiftCard Partners Blog

Loking to learn how to bring wellness to your workplace, looking for the latest corporate health trends, or how to motivate and
reward your employees?
Check our this month’s Incentive and Wellness eNewsletter for the latest tips, trends, and research for how to make your workplace more efficient and productive. The incentive and wellness landscape is ever changing.
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vAs employers continue to try to control costs of health insurance benefits they are turning to incentives more and more frequently for their Health & Wellness programs. Incentives motivate employees to evaluate and improve their health, which obviously benefits employees and simultaneously helps lower costs for employers. Aon Hewitt’s recent survey of nearly 2,000 U.S. employers, their combined 20 million U.S. employees and their dependents found that 84% of employers offer employees incentives for participating in a health risk questionnaire (HRQ) and 64 percent offer incentives for biometric screenings to help employees evaluate their health status. 51% of employers provide incentives for participation in health and wellness improvement programs as well. The incentives used here do not need to be big, but rather need to be meaningful. Helping employees maintain their health and reach new health goals can be as simple as offering 
a gift cards to 
CVS/Pharmacy or GNC. A small investment such as this easily provides noticeable ROI  to employers and employees feel support from their employer;
,that their employer cares about them as a person, not just a part of the organization. Bettering your employees' health can often better your bottom line.  
For more information on Aon Hewitt's survey on Health and Wellness Incentives check out this article from Insurance Journal.

Do you remember that Customer Loyalty Program your company has in place? Oh that’s right I think Bob’s looking into that every other Thursday. Well it’s time to take it to the next level, it could be the difference between having a successful year that’s one for the books and barely making it through. Entrepreneur released an article explaining the importance of a Customer Loyalty Program and how it is more valuable than ever “in this age of social connectivity.” Word-of-mouth has gone to a whole new level…and spreads like wildfire. It’s important to invest financial resources into making your current customers feel appreciated, after all they could end up being a spokesperson for your company or for your competitor. The article highlights 5 ways to improve your Customer Loyalty Program. Here’s a couple that caught our eye:
Refresh the ‘Thank You’- Give your 'Thank You’ a facelift, after all it’s seen by all of your customers. Entrepreneur states, “…ideas for improvement include lacing in a promotion to instigate immediate action…” Why not offer gift cards to new customers to show that you appreciate their business, whether it’s to
SUBWAY for a healthy lunch or family night at
Boston Market they're sure to be grateful.
Improve your feedback channel- Most company’s don’t realize how critical your customer feedback can be. Make sure that you are getting relevant information and turning it around to give your customers the best experience they can have. *Tip: Maybe you understand the importance of customer feedback and find it hard to pry it out of your customers? I smell an incentive. Try rewarding them with gift cards to their favorite restaurant or clothing store! To find out more ways to kick start your Customer Engagement Program check out
5 Ways to Take Customer Loyalty to the Next Level here.

Using gamification as a tool for employee motivation is a fairly new strategy, but continues to prove its effectiveness in many different applications. Gamification can be used for Health and Wellness programs, to motivate a company to complete a specific goal, or as a running motivator to balance the seriousness of the workplace with some old-fashioned competition and non-disruptive social interaction. Keeping gaming in the workplace up to date, simple, and competitive are the most important, and often challenging aspects of this type of reward and recognition program. Gaming is not as effective or engaging if employees cannot view the standings and identify their competition continuously. Gamification of employee engagement can also help create a model for future engagement efforts. Since the game takes feedback from employees it creates incredibly useful data on how to engage your specific employees and what will get them excited about work, the competition, and socializing with their co-workers. This data can hel pemployers decide how to spend their rewards budget. Whether your workforce is interested in extra vacation time, a gift card to a favorite restaurant, or another type of reward the gaming data will help you determine how best to reward your employees. Gamification provides incredible ROI because it solicits a consistent feedback loop from employees to management and helps to retain employees and keep them satisfied in their professional setting. How do you use gamification in your rewards program?
For more information on gaming in the workplace check out this article from Mashable.