GiftCard Partners Blog

Smoking at work is not what it used to be. In the days of Don Draper, it was something everyone did, all the time, whether they were at work or home. Now, it's difficult to find a restaurant that even has a smoking section. According to a recent SHRM study that addresses smoking at work, employers have smoking cessation programs on their minds. According to the survey, 47% of responding employers restrict their employees smoking in some way during working hours.

A recent study from the Incentive Research Foundation, Engaging Outside Program Support for Incentive and Recognition Programs, is full of ideas on how to use outside firms to optimize your incentive programs this year. There are a number of ways to go about outsourcing an incentive program, from working with gift card providers as a cost effective reward solution, to having your program fully administered by an outside firm. Here are a few unique ways to outsource efforts, while keeping costs low and increasing your program(s) success rates:

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:

Throughout 2015, many companies were faced with similar issues around engagement, recognition, acquisition or retention, wellness, and more. As you take the time to evaluate efforts, here are a few trends that speak to the integral part incentives and rewards play in the success of your program in 2016.

Genesis Associates, a British-based recruiting firm focusing in the sales, engineering, and creative sectors, recently surveyed employees to try to determine exactly how important incentives were in the workplace. Their findings were astounding. 85% of responding workers indicated that they do their
best work when an incentive is involved. That’s not just better work, or they work harder, that is their best. Don’t you want their best all the time? This survey adds to the proof that incentives are no longer an option but a necessity to maintaining a positive work environment. Of those surveyed, 73% indicated that their work atmosphere was good or very good during an incentive period. So what do you give employees to properly incentivize them? The survey also went into the incentive itself. They saw: