GiftCard Partners Blog

A recent study, State of the Industry: Employee Well-being in 2016, from
Virgin Pulse, in partnership with Better Work Media Group, surveyed over 1,000 HR professionals across a variety of levels and industries to see how they planned to use employee wellness and health programs in 2016. Their findings go beyond the obvious answer we have seen in past years.
The survey indicated that employee wellness programs in 2016 will not simply focus on reducing healthcare costs for employers and employees. Employee wellness has expanded to include financial wellness, and more company-centric motives like employee productivity, promoting organizational culture and employee engagement. The investment in employee wellness is moving from being viewed as a cost-cutting measure and is now used more as a tool for employee engagement.
Here are the key stats from the new study:

2016 is looking to be a huge year for the organic foods industry. And as the world's leader in natural and organic foods, Whole Foods Market is no exception. The organic foods giant is rethinking its business model and revamping its brand to stay competitive with a slew of new competitors. Whole Foods ended 2015 with over $15 billion in sales, and their growing competition can likely be attributed to their own success. Whole Foods Market CEO, John Mackey recently commented,

Employee incentives are a proven way to motivate employees, increase productivity and retention, as well as align your organizational goals with employee goals. However, do you know how efficient your incentive program is? It may be working, but not as well as it could. With a fresh new year, now is a great time to take stock of your employee incentive program and find ways to make incentives work better. Roy Saunderson shared 10 tips with Incentive Magazine on how to make incentives work better, here are our top 3 tips:

As employee wellness becomes the rule and not the exception there’s an opportunity to have your program rise above the rest. Expanding wellness programs past just medical health and focusing on other aspects of employees’ lives, such as employee financial wellness, that can affect their health through stress and other factors can create a more holistic wellness picture. Financial education is a component that continues to enhance employee wellness programs across the country. Finances are a common stressor for employees regardless of their age or station and providing financial education and planning to employees can actually make employees healthier.

2015 gift card sales in the U.S. reach $130 billion, a 6% increase over 2014.

2015 gift cards sales are just the beginning as gift card sales are predicted to reach $160 billion by 2018. E-gifting had the largest increase, rising to 26% in 2015, representing $7.1 billion in volume. E-gifting is also expected to support the overall payment industry growth. Long-term prospects for e-gifting remain promising as more payment services become mainstream and plastic cards make the switch to digital.