Health and Wellness: Approaching Employee Enrichment, both inside and outside the office
According to a new industry white paper entitled “Beyond Employee Engagement: Creating Enrichment” indicates that employees want to feel truly cared for and valued as individuals. Employees want employers to address both work and non-work factors in employees’ lives in order to create expectations that are built with employee’s whole well-being in mind. The idea on the employer side is that if an employee is enriched and their work expectations are built around employee well-being they will perform to their fullest extent in their job. This is a new trend that goes beyond the traditional boundaries of employee incentives, and takes a holistic approach to employee health and wellness. Do you think this goes beyond professional boundaries, or is it a healthier way for employers and employees to interact?
Top Reasons why to use gift cards for incentives
Incentives as a way to boost employee morale, motivation and performance is nothing new, but let’s look at 5 perspectives for why to consider gift cards as incentives. Gift cards are as close as you’ll find for a one-size-fits-all incentive. They truly satisfy all demographics, interests, needs and lifestyles and offer much flexibility for the buyer. 1. Employees want gift cards. According to a recent study by Incentives Magazine, 8 out of 10 employees report that they prefer gift cards over other incentives. 2. Gift cards provide choice. Choice not just in what your recipient selects, but you often have choices in how you give them: eCert, mCert (mobile delivery) or plastic 3. Gift cards can be shared with family and friends. A night out with loved ones of friends has been cut back as discretionary spending, revive the night out with gift cards. 4. Gift cards can fit many corporate needs. Bulk gift card purchases provide cost savings and fit a variety of business scenarios can provide additional cost savings. Use for employee incentives & retention and use as rewards in corporate health & wellness programs, consumer promotions, customer promotions & loyalty, and/or as dealer and reseller awards. Source for list: Ceridian Connection.
Trend Watch: Strong consumer choices = strong rewards and incentive choice
It’s always good news to hear that the reward you are presenting to your employees or loyalty program participants is still the strong choice. A new study released by First Data called “Consumer Insights Gift Card Survey Results”, announced that “prepaid gift cards are still a popular choice for gifts in the United States”. This is good news for those purchasing gift cards in bulk as you know you are making a good choice. Other indications that gift cards remain a strong trend in the B2B market is the study’s conclusion that more consumers are reloading their gift cards. This means that consumers (your employees and rewards participants) are loyal to their cards, be-it a physical plastic card, eCert (virtual gift card) or mCert (mobile gift card). It’s also nice to know that by participating in the B2B gift card market, we are infusing the economy with additional shopping dollars. Consumers are inclined to stand by the gift card and reload it, which increases sales opportunities for retailers. The First Data study also announced that “35% of those who reloaded closed-loop gift cards said they visited the store more often, and 20% said they spent more money during each visit”. All good news for our economy, but re-loadable and technology based gift cards are also great for our environment.
Check out our Are Gift Cards Going Green? Blog. The full study is available at
First Data’s website.
Loyalty Points...Imagine If We Wasted This Much Cash!
Can you imagine what $16 billion looks like? It is an incredible amount of money, it is also the amount of perceived value of rewards points wasted by Americans annually. Americans accumulate the perceived value equivalent of $48 billion in rewards points per year. One third of those points expire, and are never used. If redemption of points is an indicator of engagement in programs, loyalty marketers should encourage their customers to redeem their rewards points as much as possible! Can you think of ways to encourage consumers to use their points?
Interesting Ways to Engage Customers or Promote Products with QR Codes
Although created in 1994 by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave; We’re starting to see these vehicles quite often now, QR Codes (quick response). They deliver a message, coupon, gift card, or transport someone directly to a website via an embedded link in the code. They connect the print or physical advertising world to the mobile and online realm.
