GiftCard Partners Blog

As technology continues to advance and increase efficiency across a variety of industries, organizations continue to slow their hiring rates. Surprisingly enough, it's not always due to a slow economy or lack of growth, but simply that technological infrastructure is preventing companies from needing as many people. Additionally, for the positions employers are looking to fill, there is often a skills gap between the candidates available and what the employer is looking for. So even for the limited positions available, employers can't find qualified replacements for their departing staff. The solution? Employee retention, invest in people so they stick around. A recent study from Ken Esch and PwC Private Company Services notes that 20% of employers surveyed feel pressure to raise salaries, partially to retain employees. 56% of employers indicated that hiring remains a priority for the company, given the skills gap and the increased difficulty to fill positions with the level of talent and skill set required. However, most compelling is that a whopping 84% of employers surveyed are making substantial workforce investments, ranging from training programs, to talent retention benefits like workplace rewards programs. Workforce investments that recognize employee effort, motivation and increased production are great ways to increase employee retention. Using small denomination gift cards to retailers like
Subway,
Crutchfield or even
Xbox Live are effective ways to reward employees, with trophy value that creates a lasting impression. For more information on the skill gap and workforce investment head over to Forbes
here.

Last week on the blog, we covered how employee recognition can help employers lower salary costs. Well this week, we take a less optimistic (but equally useful!) approach to the issue. As employers struggle to raise salaries, they need to keep in mind that employee benefits are part of compensation as well. Going beyond the "expected" benefits like health insurance, boosting an employee benefits program can be more cost effective and lead to employee satisfaction in the case of financial limitations. Adding benefits like a commuter program to help curb the cost of commuting or parking, or an organizational health and wellness initiative, or a company-wide employee recognition program that is well communication and used often can all be great ways for employers to boost benefits packages without boosting salaries. Adding these types of additional benefits allows employees to feel like they are getting something extra from their employers, while employers can apply fixed costs to these programs. Commuter programs can put a dent in employees' cost of commute. Health and wellness programs are a great way to motivate employees toward healthy behavior and maintain their own personal healthcare by offering preventative health screenings. Employee recognition programs are another way to provide non-cash bonuses in the form of a gift card or some extra time off that allow employees to indulge. Since all of these can be applied to an annual budget and used incrementally throughout the year it can put much less financial strain on the organization's total budget.
For more information on maintaining employee satisfaction through employee benefits check out Employee Benefits News.

Employee retention is a hot topic in a job market where there’s no such thing as a “company man” anymore, and changing positions every 2 years has become the norm. For employers, employee retention should be a top priority for any HR staff because frankly, new employees are expensive. Between onboarding, training, manager’s time lost, break in team rhythm and potential costs of signing bonuses, relocation or travel and new employee socialization taking on new employees are expensive. Check out the infographic below for a full breakdown of why making employee retention a priority can help keep your organization in the black for the back half of the year. Employee rewards programs can often fall victim to budget cuts, or not get approved at all due to lack of executive buy-in. However, make smaller investments in employee rewards like gift cards or extra time off can actually provide ROI, not only in the saved cost of employee retention but also in increased productivity and further employee motivation across your entire workforce. Positioning employee rewards programs as promoting employee retention, and even the “lesser of two evils” can help any executive see the benefits of employee retention vs. employee on-boarding. Thanks to 
SHRM.org for this great infographic on the ROI of Employee Retention

What do cities like Huntsville, AL, Nashville, TN and Orlando, FL have in common? They made the top 10 in Quantum Workplace's list for
Best Cities for Employee Recognition. Quantum's survey polled nearly 5,000 organizations and 400,000 employees to identify the top cities for employee recognition based on which contained those employees most satisfied with their employee recognition programs. The report evaluated employees' perceptions of 11 types of recognition, frequency of recognition and satisfaction levels. In order to be considered for this data set, each city was required to have held a Best Places to Work contest with the participation of more than 70 organizations.

When a survey shows that 46% of Americans are not certain that they want to stay at their current company, it's no wonder employers are scrambling to find out ways to increase employee retention within their own company. A recent
Korn Ferry study indicated that the secret may lie in the bosses creativity. Employee retention should not be taken lightly. Your employees are the life blood of the company and their loyalty can make or break it.
EBN, Employees Benefit News, gives three tips on how to get your employees to stick around for the long haul.