7 Types of Employee Incentives That Work in 2026
Employee incentives have come a long way from plaques and pizza parties. In 2026, employees want meaningful recognition at work: rewards that show appreciation, build motivation, and align with their personal values.
Showing Blood Donation Appreciation with Gift Cards
According to the Red Cross, every two seconds someone in the United States needs blood. And because red blood cells have a shelf life of 42 days (and platelets a mere 5 days), new blood donations are always needed to battle shortages.
How to Implement Effective Employee Wellness Programs
Implementing employee wellness programs can save your organization money in both employee absenteeism and employee productivity, and can help control costs of health care benefits. Here are a few ways to ensure the implementation of your wellness programs is successful.
Make Sure the Program Is Comprehensive: Make sure your health and wellness programs focus on all aspects of employees' everyday lives. Build a community of wellness, focusing on every day areas of concern like exercise, healthy eating and stress management. Build community by creating an office running club, softball league or weight loss group.
Engage Employees: Center your wellness programs around results, while engaging employees into the program. Ensure employees set goals, whether they are weight loss related, fitness related, or focused on healthy eating (does anyone really
need that 3rd cup of coffee?). On the other side, reward employees for reaching their goals, or for investing themselves in the program. Small rewards like small denomination gift cards to healthy retailers like
GNC or CVS/pharmacy will be a treat for employees, showing them that their employer cares for their well-being and wants to help them down the road of healthy behavior.
How to Foster Employee Loyalty
Compensation: Compensating employees can take many forms, and in order to foster employee loyalty compensation should extend beyond a paycheck. Standard payment is important, however finding innovative ways to compensate employees will help maintain loyalty among your workforce. Using spot rewards, like small denomination gift cards to popular retailers like
CVS/Pharmacy,
The Cheesecake Factory and
The Limited is a great way to show employees you noticed extra effort on a specific project, or appreciated them staying late one night.
Environment: Creating a comfortable environment where goals are clearly stated and communication is clear between peers and from managers to their team is key in creating a culture of loyalty. Working hard and having fun as a team will form relationships and camaraderie that foster loyalty, job satisfaction and improved productivity.
Employees Wellness Programs Pay for Themselves
By now you are probably familiar with the new laws that took effect as part of the Affordable Care Act earlier this summer. Employers can now offer incentives totaling 30% of total plan cost (they used to only be able to offer 20%) to employees who are healthy, taking preventative measures to stay healthy, or meeting goals to get healthier. The idea is that employers should encourage wellness (not just for the greater good of society) because it cuts down on absenteeism and the cost of health care benefits for the employer…and the benefits keep coming. A review of 72 studies in the American Journal of Health Promotion revealed these staggering figures:
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