Archive for the ‘Incentives & Engagement’ Category

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Safety Program Ideas You Can Really Use

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

GiftCard Partners recently published our Gift Card Usage results white paper, which is chock full of ways employers are using gift cards to engage, motivate and reward employees.  Employers use incentives to promote all kinds of desired behaviors, but amongst the most important are for complying with safety regulations and precautions. A safer workplace leads to lower company healthcare insurance premiums, lower employee coverage contributions, less sick days, fewer short-term and long-term disability work outages, and increased productivity.

Here are a few of our best safety program success stories involving gift cards as incentives. Motivate yourself to motivate your employees with these success stories!

-  An electronics and process controls company plays “Safety Bingo” every month and they have been accident free for 15 years. “I use them as prizes, sometimes we will have 2 games going at one time like 4 corners and a regular Bingo, so I will give a $50 gift card for the 4 corners. Or I will surprise an employee who I catch using all their PPE (personal protective equipment) correctly.

-  An off-highway vehicle manufacturer uses gift cards “as incentives for Safety (no accident) and also for project team participation gifts”.

-  An engineering and remediation company created a “Spot Bonus plan where managers can reward an employee on the spot for doing a job exceptionally or safely.”

-  A community hospital gives gift card incentives to “staff who use creative ideas in initiating safety activities such as promoting better hand hygiene, and appropriate use of personal  protective equipment for patients in isolation.”

These employers and programs buy their gift cards in bulk to save money on their incentives.

Want to read more Safety Blogs from GCP? Click here for more on safety programs and safety
incentives.

The author:

Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.

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America’s Most Wanted Incentives & Rewards for Safety Programs

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

Using positive reinforcement to promote and reward for workplace safety guideline adherence is not a new concept. But what you choose to reward with can impact your program’s long term success and ROI. Do your employees really want more swag or tchotchkes? Really…not very likely.

But, if employees are offered a choice of gift cards, combined with the choice of what they purchase with those gift cards puts the power of choice in their hands. This power of choice stays in the employee’s memory, and it’s tied in their mind to their employer’s generosity.

It’s not just about what employees want. When employers offer “most wanted incentives” like gift  cards, their likelihood of realizing ROI in the short and long term increases. Offering flexible and coveted rewards offers workplace safety programs repeated adherence to safety precautions and sends the message that the employer cares as much about the employee as the ROI.

Here are a few examples of our typical gift card customers’ workplace safety incentive programs:
-          Measured accident reduction
-          Safety awareness contributions
-          Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) programs
-          Increased productivity rewards
-          Health and wellness programs, tailored to specific job functions
-          Driver safety and incident reduction
-          Training milestones

Check out America’s Most Wanted Gift Card Incentive Choices

The author:

Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.

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Keeping Small Business Employees Satisfied

Monday, February 20th, 2012

According to the 2011 Job Satisfaction and Engagement Research Report,conducted by the Socety for Human Resource Management 83% of American employees are satisfied with their jobs. However, only 52% feel engaged at work, and 53% enjoy going above and beyond in their professional role. In order to keep employees feeling engaged and satisfied it is important to both engage their thoughts and opinions to improve your workplace and offer opportunities for training and advancement. Setting up both formal training and informal mentoring sessions keeps employees engaged and feeling as though their employer cares about their career path.

Providing these opportunities for employees is productive, and can be paired well with spot rewards. For employees who achieve goals and milestones that are set in these types of sessions providing small rewards, like an afternoon off or a small denomination gift card goes one step above and beyond the role of the employer. Pairing these two employee engagement techniques allow employees to work toward personal achievements and become more committed to the company as the company allows and rewards them for growth.

Engaging and rewarding your employees will improve not only their commitment to their job and the company but their dedication to their role and their willingness to go above and beyond the employers expectations.

 

For more information on the SHRM survey or how to engage and incentivize your employees check out this “Small Business Trends” article.

The author:

Rachel Merkin is a recent college graduate, beginning a career in marketing and public relations. She has been exploring the worlds of social media and B2B gift cards since 2006. When she is not blogging, tweeting, or finding ways to leverage Facebook as a marketing tool, she spends as much time IN or ON the ocean as possible, beaching and boating.

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Empowering Employees to Improve their Experience

Thursday, February 16th, 2012

According to WorkSimple 2012 we’ll see a growth in empowerment and engagement of employees. Employers will invest in ensuring their employees are feeling confident and recognized in order to guarantee they are productive and committed to the company and its mission. Here are three simple steps to empowering your employees.

  1. Remove Barriers to Success- Conduct surveys or interviews to find any barriers employees feel bar them from success. These may be policies that were put in place with good intentions but make employees feel limited.
  2. Create a Supportive Culture- Encourage employees to build a supportive workplace together. This should be an activity all areas of the company can be involved in together.
  3. Allow for Trial and Error- not all strategies work, that doesn’t mean they have been a failure. Trying different methods will mean both the employer and employee learn more from the experience.
This list is just the beginning. To learn more check out the full story from Business2Community
The author:

Rachel Merkin is a recent college graduate, beginning a career in marketing and public relations. She has been exploring the worlds of social media and B2B gift cards since 2006. When she is not blogging, tweeting, or finding ways to leverage Facebook as a marketing tool, she spends as much time IN or ON the ocean as possible, beaching and boating.

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Attracting and Retaining High Performance Employees

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

86% of businesses use employee recognition programs. Rewards and incentives can spur sales, improve retention and employee loyalty, and raise productivity.

The Incentive Research Foun­­dation (IRF) reports that incentives can attract and retain good employees, boost team performance by as much as 44% and increase individual productivity by an average of 22%.The right kind of recognition program can provide staggering benefits to an organization. In a recent WorldatWork survey 90% 0f businesses indicated that rewards and incentives improved length of service, 79% of respondents indicated rewards incented employees towards “above and beyond” performance, and 43% of respondents indicated that incentives led to peer to peer recognition.

This kind of data reveals that creating programs for employee rewards, recognition and incentives is a small investment that reaps significant returns. Not only keeping employees happy, but creating a work environment where the employee appreciates the company can lead to longer and more prosperous employee employer relationships. Ensuring that these rewards are properly and often communicated from the employer to the employee using different modes of communication such as a company intranet, email, bulletin boards, and the like help to remind employees constantly of the appreciation of the company for their hard work and dedication. Measuring success and gauging satisfaction of recognition and rewards programs is another important way to ensure that as an employer you keep your employees engaged in these programs is important.

Rewards do not have to be big, rewards can range from small spot rewards such as a gift card, and can extend all the way to more valuable incentives like a trip or extra time off.

For more tips on engaging employees in rewards programs that drive performance check out this Business Management Daily article.

The author:

Rachel Merkin is a recent college graduate, beginning a career in marketing and public relations. She has been exploring the worlds of social media and B2B gift cards since 2006. When she is not blogging, tweeting, or finding ways to leverage Facebook as a marketing tool, she spends as much time IN or ON the ocean as possible, beaching and boating.

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Reward Your Employees this Valentine’s Day with a Gift They Can Give

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, many are gearing up to figure out just the right gift for their significant other. Why not take the worry and stress out of finding that “perfect” gift that usually comes with a gift receipt and another trip to the store.

Calling all employers! This is a great time to exercise that wonderful incentive or loyalty program you’ve just put in place. Show you care by rewarding your employees with gift cards to 1-800-Flowers or CVS/pharmacy so they can reward the ones they love.

While the gentlemen are scratching their heads on whether to grab the Small shirt, so not to offend their wife, or trying to decide if her favorite color is purple even though she’s been wearing a lot of black lately, there is an easy solution. A gift card to The Limited will insure she gets exactly what she wants and leave him out of the dog house this February 14th.

The women in the office may be having some trouble of their own. They can get their guy the gift that keeps on giving with an AutoZone Gift Card…for the other love of his life. Or give him the chance to revamp his wardrobe with a gift card to Burlington Coat Factory.

Use this Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to reward your employees hard work and let them reward their loved ones.

 

 

The author:

Lauren McAuley is a fresh face to the GiftCard Partners family. She is a recent graduate who she enjoys diving head first into several aspects of the business including social media, graphic design, marketing, business development and public relations. Her passion for challenging herself keeps her trying new things every chance she gets, vegetable lasagna this week, maybe skydiving next week.

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Reward Your Employees, Help Them Save

Monday, February 6th, 2012

U.S. Workers are spending $3,0001 a year on WHAT? The answer might be shocking to some…coffee and lunch. Sadly, I’m not shocked.  For years, I spent lunches at Boston’s Newbury and Boylston Street eateries in addition to daily trips for my (former) favorite chai tea latte. Those were the days…of draining my cash!!

Help Your Employees Save $$$

Employers across the country have realized that they offer aid their employees’ budgets, even if the younger employees don’t (yet) have budgets.

Employee incentives can be practical and they instill practical qualities when the incentive itself is practical. Many employers look to practical retailer and merchant gift cards, like SUBWAY and  Boston Market to help curb that expensive lunch spending. Many employers take the “practical” theme further and offer CVS/pharmacy gift cards, so employees can care for themselves and their kids and cover prescription co-pays, over the counter medicine, or the travel sized products they need for their next business trip.

Are you ready to save your employees some cash while rewarding them?

Source: 1. Accounting Principals Workonomix Survey

The author:

Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.

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Engaging the “Activist Employee”

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

New trends in employee engagement and the democratic climate suggest that effective employee engagement may soon include supporting causes and social issues that their employees do. Keeping an open dialogue with employees about which causes to support and how to spend philanthropic dollars keep them engaged in the company. This type of dialogue also allows the employer to get to know employees better, and understand who they are outside of the office.

Allowing employees to express their opinions and communicate with upper management and key decision makes can take a number of forms. Some companies use online platforms such as surveys or anonymous feedback forms. These tools are often effective for communicating ideas, but do not contain the interpersonal aspect that a company-wide town hall meeting, or lunch hour fresh air forum.

Engaging employees increases productivity and employees’ sense of purpose. Consider engaging your “activist employees” this year. For more information check out the GreenBiz.com article.

The author:

Rachel Merkin is a recent college graduate, beginning a career in marketing and public relations. She has been exploring the worlds of social media and B2B gift cards since 2006. When she is not blogging, tweeting, or finding ways to leverage Facebook as a marketing tool, she spends as much time IN or ON the ocean as possible, beaching and boating.

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Can Smartphone Apps Help Maintain a Healthier Workplace?

Monday, January 30th, 2012

People rely on their smartphones to ring alarms, retrieve all facets of communications, navigate where they’re going, and so much more! But what about navigating one of the most difficult challenges of life…changing behavior to improve one’s health? There is ZERO debate over the attractiveness and popularity of Smartphone, tablet, and computer apps to help us in our everyday life; but can they help change our behaviors, or keep our attention on our goals on a long-term basis?

One of my first experiences with a healthy-app was more than 10 years ago, on my Palm Pilot with a program that tracked the foods I ate (down to the TBSP of milk in my latte). The program allowed me to input my daily exercise, and it would tally up my healthfulness for the day, week,
month and adjust my workout accordingly to stay on track. I have to say, I was pretty good for a few years about tracking those crunches and treadmill walks to counter whatever food I ate.Although the technology became obsolete, the habits of how I make my coffee and the calorie & fat counting sticks with me to this day.

Such apps could certainly be integrated into a workplace health and wellness program. Since tracking health and wellness milestones is an

important cornerstone of any program, apps can be set up with individuals’ health and wellness goals to help employees track, in real-
time, their own success…connecting them closer to their potential incentives or rewards, like the gift cards or premium reductions. With or without a health and wellness program, workplaces can promote such apps to keep healthy behaviors on track through the workday.

Check out this Quora discussion, to find some great ideas that you can pass on to your employees, coworkers,
and teams. By supporting these technologies; you could help create a healthier workplace, one app/one person at a time.

The author:

Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.

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Show You Care AND Engage Your Program Participants with their Rewards

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

We read a lot about gift card “breakage”. That pre-paid industry term that translates to “gift cards that have been sold but never redeemed”. Breakage is a negative term for gift card holders and it’s really not such a positive one for retailers (surprisingly). Although breakage leads to higher profit margins; retailers and merchants are NOT gaining customers or building loyalty if those gift card holders never visit the store to become a real customer.

Let’s turn this principle into an opportunity for employers, loyalty programs, and Scrip gift card programs, to communicate to their participants and engage them with your program. You know who you have given gift cards to. So, communicate with those program participants, and use that information to engage them in your program. Although many will have redeemed their gift cards, show you care and send them a reminder to use their cards…that employee, loyalty points redeemer, or the Scrip gift card buyer will thank you for the reminder.

The author:

Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.

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