Employees Love Gift Cards

Why do the traditional merchandise catalog providers hate gift cards as awards? Because employees love them! And when employees choose gift cards over the traditional merchandise awards, those suppliers lose clients, and lose profits. It’s just as simple as that. This recent blog post by Globoforce states some very compelling evidence that gift cards are the #1 award as chosen by employees.

Gift cards didn’t find there way into incentive and award programs because the reward and recognition companies offered them as options...just the opposite. They were put in these programs by the program sponsors because that’s what the employees clamored to have. The catalog companies fought against them tooth and nail, and are still fighting.

We have experienced that time and again. Clients come to us to include gift cards as a part of their award offerings, and the current supplier does everything they can to stop that from happening. As a last resort they offer ten or fifteen cards to placate the client (usually the kind of cards that are not in much demand) and even bury them inside the system so they are hard to find. I can remember one program called Merchandise Madness, where the cards were buried virtually so deep in the system the participants had to dig through several electronic layers to find them. When they didt, just as mentioned in the above article, the employees chose gift cards over 95% of the time.

Don’t let traditional merchandise companies fool you into thinking that their pre-selected merchandise items are what your employees really want. Some may be, most won’t be.

Be Well, Be Happy, Hug Someone!