Gift Cards Are a Boon To Employee Recognition Programs

Gift cards as we know them became popular in the early 1980’s and actually started to be used in employee award programs only a few years after that. 

The development of the gift card has been a blessing for anyone who wants to award and recognize employees.  If you think you can find the perfect award that fits every employee you can’t. Unless you only have a handful of employees, you won’t know each of them well enough to offer an award that suits them, at that time.   And we've learned that one size really doesn't fit all.

Employee award gift cards have grown in popularity faster than anything else in the award industry.  In the retail world the growth has been exponential.  In 2004 we spent $20 billion in gift cards and that has grown to over $100 billion annually.  Today it is hard to find company that doesn’t use gift cards somewhere in their recognition mix.

Gift cards have gone from being considered impersonal gifts to being the most thoughtful gift of all. The gift card is a sign of the times - tastes change quickly, options should remain open, and when you use gift cards for employee awards, you’ll always be giving them the award that they want. 

Research shows that:

•         93% of U.S. consumers purchase or receive a gift card annually
•         Consumers spend an average of $213/year on gift cards
•        83% of corporations use gift & prepaid cards for employee incentives

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What Do Companies Spend on Wellness & Safety Awards?

When considering an incentive effort to drive employee wellness and safety one of the first decisions to make is how much to spend on each employee. There has never been any definitive analytical proof that will show you how much it will take to motivate someone to change behavior, or for that matter what award will induce the most excitement.  For years the incentive industry has provided guidelines to help you decide: example: X% of the salary for the program period, but there has never been any empirical evidence to support these rules.  The chart below will give you a good idea of what type of budget companies are using today.

A number of factors go into motivating behavior change.  And while one is the award itself, it is by no means the only one.  If you think by simply offering some type $50-$100 fitness device you are going to motivate an employee to change years of poor lifestyle choices then think again, it probably won’t.  But in combination with the other pieces of the wellness program (not the least of which is well designed communications) a choice of awards can be effective.