Why You Can’t Afford NOT to Offer a Recognition Program

What is the number one reason that employees give for leaving their jobs?  A LACK OF APPRECIATION AND PRAISE!

A few quick statistics that may or may not surprise you:

• A study conducted by Towers Watson revealed that only 30% of the current workforce is ENGAGED. By the simplest definition, this means that engaged individuals exhibit a level of enthusiasm and dedication towards their jobs.  These people actually CARE about their work as well as the performance of the company and they sincerely feel that their efforts make a difference.  Engaged employees are in it for more than just the paycheck.
•  But now for the bad news.  This study also revealed that 54% of employees are NOT engaged; and that 16% are actively DISENGAGED. That’s a lot of ambivalence and negativity walking around every day!
• And even more disappointing is that 60% of new hires – who came in all bright- eyed and bushy-tailed with big dreams of making a difference – fall into the Not Engaged category after just 6 months on the job.

So if you subscribe to the belief that low engagement equals low performance, you’ll certainly understand the importance of keeping your employees excited and sustaining their belief that they are valued and appreciated.

And remember, losing an employee that you’ve spent time to hire, train, and onboard is significant.  The cost of replacing an employee who leaves is at least 30% of that employee’s annual salary.  To put that in perspective, with a $150M annual payroll, just a 20% turnover cost would cost that company $9M a year.

Recognition is not just a “nice to have” – it’s a MUST HAVE.  

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

Wishing You a Happy New Year!

Ultimate Choice wishes you a happy, healthy and safe new year and wants to thank you for the many positive comments and support we have received on our recognition award systems! 

Holiday Shopping and Recognition Awards

What does holiday shopping have to do with recognition awards?  It is the best time of the year to prove to recognition specialists that giving your employees a choice of any award they want it is a key to the success of your program. 

This holiday season sales are expected to be in excess of $655 billion.  Online Black Friday sales alone exceeded $3 billion!  So what did they buy and where did they buy it? You name it, anywhere and everywhere.  Certainly the national bricks and mortar retailers and their websites got the lion share of the sales, but many regional retailers had millions in sales as well.  In addition the online-only companies achieved huge sales as well, the foremost being Amazon.

Our point, when you plan an incentive program, it is virtually impossible to pick the handful of retailers or merchandise items that will appeal to your entire workforce, so why try.

Almost all incentive studies have shown that gift cards are the most popular and effective options within the safety incentive category. Over 80% of respondents to Incentive Magazine’s “Gift Card IQ” survey are currently using gift cards in their reward programs.

Some gift card suppliers would like YOU to choose which gift cards to offer in your incentive programs and will recommend what gift card brands would be most effective based on the unique composition of your employee base. That may be one way to do it, we however think you should give that option to your employees and let them choose the one they want.

As mentioned, it is virtually impossible to pick the handful of card brands that will appeal to all your employees.  Use a gift card system that will allow them to choose from a much larger list of brands that comprises over 95% of all retail sales.  Then you will have an incentive with far greater motivational appeal.

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

Should Gift Cards Be an Option in Years of Service Programs?

Believe it or not, the latest market research conducted by Incentive Magazine showed that close to 40% of all Years of Service programs use gift cards as some of their award options.

It wasn’t too long ago that you would never see gift cards in employee anniversary programs for several reasons.  First, the major recognition companies spent millions of dollars marketing their traditional awards such as company identified jewelry items, crystal, clocks, watches and the like.  Second they used very sophisticated training programs for their sales forces as well as for clients building a mystique that only deluxe trophy type merchandise would be proper to recognize an employee who remained at a company for a period of time usually in 5 year cycles  starting at 1, 3, or 5 years.  And lastly, they created excellent software platforms that made is very easy for a client to purchase a turnkey employee service award program.

So what changed?  How did gift cards start to become an option in these programs?  It certainly wasn’t because the companies that specialized in gift card systems spent millions in advertising, or marketing or a sales force that was trained to call on the clients. And it wasn’t because they built sophisticated electronic platforms to implement them.  It came about because clients were getting tired of paying very hefty premiums over retail price for these traditional trophy type items and hearing from employees that they were tired of being told an item as valued at $500, but they could see it every day online for a lot less.  Employees simply wanted more choice at a better value. 

With the age of the internet anyone could do a quick search to determine the value of an award, it didn’t take long for the employees to ask why the award that they understood cost $250 or $500 actually had a value of only $125 or $250.  That was the rule rather than the exception.

Gift cards are a part of Years of Service programs because it gives your employees what

they want without incremental cost to you.  If you are going to spend $250 or $500 on an award, wouldn’t it make sense to make sure that your employee receives as much of that budget as possible?  The traditional recognition companies will fight long and hard to keep you from putting gift cards in your program.  They know that once in, they will lose prized profit dollars year after year.  But do you really want to support their Taj Mahal corporate offices at the expense of your employees?

If you would be interested in how to use our gift card systems in your employees years of service programs please contact us at ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net.