GiftCard Partners Blog

In an innovative use of gift cards as incentives came not in the workplace but in a public health and wellness initiative. As part of the Affordable Care Act California received $10 million to incentivize citizens who receive government subsidized health care. This grant is meant to help steer this population toward healthy behavior, including quitting smoking. The State of California has used part of this grant to provide gift cards to select individuals who participate in a smoking cessation program over the next five years. The program isa cutting edge smoking cessation trial, in which individuals are given $20 gift cards good at major retailers as a carrot for enrolling and participating in the program, and a larger pool will receive $10 gift cards to help relapse prevention. A pilot of  the program executed in the Sacramento area has shown positive results. The gift cards are a small but sufficient motivator to get people to sign up, and it is having an overall impact on the health of the city and state, and helping to control costs of Medi-Cal, California's public health assistance entity. The gift cards the grant is providing are proving to be a successful motivator on a large scale. These types of small but sufficient rewards can also be applied to smaller health and wellness reward executions, such as in an individual office. These programs will help the company manage healthcare costs as well as make the whole employee population healthier. These small rewards have an obvious ROI for employees and employers alike.  
For more information on the smoking cessation case study in California check out this article in the Sacramento Bee.

One of the most important challenges that employers share is undoubtedly reducing health care costs, while maintaining the perception of high healthcare value being offered to employees. But, employer and employee perspectives can be greatly skewed.

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 UK Gift Card & Voucher Association recently announced that the sales of vouchers and gift cards increased by 9% last quarter (Q2-12), while the gift card/voucher industry as a whole has grown 5%.
GiftCard Partners believes so deeply in the corporate use of gift cards as employee incentives, like health  and wellness program incentives and sales incentives, employee rewards, and customer loyalty tools, that a growing percentage of our staff is focused on selling gift cards in bulk to the corporate channel. GiftCard Partners recently launched
maxchoice international vouchers, which offer great options to reward employees with vouchers that are redeemable at more than 1,000 top retailers throughout Europe and leisure and service providers throughout Europe, Asia and Australia. maxchoice brings you options that allow your corporate incentive program the flexibility of choice:

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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