GiftCard Partners Blog

The holidays are rapidly approaching and we have the latest in shopping and holiday gift card trends for this season!

According to the National Retail Federation’s Holiday Consumer Spending Survey, consumers will spend an average of $805.65 on food, decorations, gifts, and more this holiday season, the highest amount in the survey’s 15-year history! Top findings of consumers surveyed showed:

It’s been a little over a year since the Speedway acquisition of Hess Retail Network, and executives are excited that the conversion to the Speedway brand is “significantly ahead of schedule”. Nearly 1,000 of the 1,245 Hess locations have been rebranded to Speedway and 240 have been remodeled or are in the process of being remodeled.

Technology is part of all of our lives and, if you haven't already, it may be the right time to add technology to your rewards program. Technology can help integrate rewards into existing HR systems, integrate your rewards program into your employees’ consumer behaviors, and eliminate some of the cost of the program. Here are HR.BLR.com’s“ 4 C’s” for integrating technology into employee rewards.

More and more employers are using wellness programs as a solution to rising health costs and even more are expecting to launch wellness programs in the coming year. But is our privacy at risk? Wellness program privacy is a hot topic and, with the slow development and implementation of standards to keep information confidential, it's no surprise. Wellness program data collected by employers is released to wellness providers and this non-confidential data could be abused for workplace discrimination, credit screenings, and even unwanted marketing. As more employers grasp wellness, they are pressuring employees to give unfamiliar 3^rd party companies detailed data about one of the most sensitive parts of their lives. In many wellness programs simply taking the health risk assessment could mean you are waiving your privacy rights. So, what are the best questions we should ask our employers to help retain our wellness program privacy and keep our sensitive information secure?