GiftCard Partners Blog

No matter if you gave your mom a gift in person this past Sunday, sent her flowers, or just called to let her know you were thinking of her, the most important thing was that you sent her a personal message. 1-800-Flowers teamed up with celebrities and professional athletes this Mother's Day to send personalized messages to both their moms, and potential 1-800-Flowers customers. The celebrity Facebook posts about sending mom flowers on Mother's Day served as ads on sponsored pages encouraging consumers to do as the celebrities did, and use 1-800-Flowers's services, but they are also using social media in a dynamic way. Using Facebook as an advertising forum, while still staying true to the traditional form of personalized social media messages is a new trend. Chris McCann, President of 1-800-Flowers noted“Getting customers to tell stories is better than us telling the story,” and went on to comment about how Facebook is used to facilitate relationships. Those relationships can be between a retailer and a consumer, or between a mother and child. How did you celebrate your mom this Sunday? Did you use social media to let your network know just how much Mom means to you? Leave us a comment and let us know!  
For more information on unique usage of social media for mother's day campaign check out this New York Times Media Decoder blog post.

When employees are distracted, stressed, or discontent in their personal lives they often bring that negative energy into the work place. Combine outside stress with the general workplace grind and you are bound to have some unhappy employees. They feel disengaged at work, not supported by their organization's management and begin to resent their position, their professional environment, and ultimately try to change their professional situation. The Corporate Leadership Council shows some staggering statistics about recent employee (lack of)  organizational engagement. 60 percent of organizations report that they are experiencing a leadership crisis, which is an increase of 40 percent from just a year earlier. Weak leadership often also leads to a restless, dissatisfied workforce. Worse yet, the number of employees that are “highly disengaged” has doubled since early 2008. So how do you combat this negative energy in the workplace? Focus your organization's employee investment dollars on the time employees spend outside of the office. Reward employees' desired behavior with spot rewards such as a gift card to a restaurant employees can enjoy with their family, or create a points system so employees can save their rewards points and redeem for bigger incentives, such as an extra vacation day. According to research done by the Corporate Executive Board employees who feel they have a better work-life balance tend to work 21% harder than those that don’t. So instead of investing in employees work time, invest in employees non-work time, so that when employees are at work they are mentally present, physically present, and just as invested in their job, as their employer is in them.  
For more information on creating a positive workplace environment check out this Care2 article.  

As businesses increasingly recognize employee wellbeing as foundational to both employee performance and organizational success, it’s clear that a holistic approach is essential. Gallup’s 2024 report on employee wellbeing highlights the need for companies to address five interconnected elements of wellbeing: career, social, physical, financial, and community. Yet only a small percentage of employees feel their employer supports these elements. This gap can leave employees feeling undervalued, risking burnout, low engagement, and attrition.

Employee engagement is a critical factor in driving organizational success. When employees are engaged, they are more productive, committed, and aligned with the company's goals. However, measuring employee engagement can be challenging. It's essential to ensure that the time and resources invested in engagement initiatives yield tangible results. Here’s how you can measure employee engagement effectively:

Social Gaming Towards Health

As pressure increases on employers and health insurance companies to reduce costs by improving participants’ health, innovative approaches are emerging. One such approach is the use of health gamification in the workplace. By leveraging virtual reality games and inter-organizational competition with real rewards, companies can motivate employees to reach their health goals. These gaming portals, ranging from basic health tracking to social, team-based competition applications, offer rewards for hitting milestones. The rewards can vary from small denomination gift cards to larger prizes like vacations upon reaching significant wellness goals.