Award Employees

Should it be the responsibility of business to keep employees happy?  Certainly an employee’s happiness has something to do with the company they work for, but is that the responsibility of the company?  Happiness has many facets, and while work environment does have an effect on it, some has to be the individual’s responsibility.   

Here’s an article from Incentive Magazine that we found very interesting.  It’s about ten ways of keeping your employees motivated, engaged and happy.  You know, all those motherhood and apple pie type things that the author says are so important in business these days.  Far be it from me to argue with such admirable management talents such as, 

“being nice, caring, mindful, helpful, courteous, sensitive, present, happy, responsive and grateful.” 

but after I read it I felt like I just came out of being dropped into a syrup bowl.  It reminds you of a Boy Scout motto for business, doesn’t it?   I’m sure that if more of those things happened in the business worlds, the workplace would be a better place for all concerned, and I’m sure there are businesses where little of this is ever the norm.  And that’s a shame. 

As we have been in the employee recognition world for many years we certainly applaud any attempt to make the workplace a better place to be, but feel that there is another very important side of the issue.   

What about teaching employees how to be responsible?  What about fairness?  How about not providing the pabulum of the moment when dealing with annual or other performance reviews?  How about telling the truth about performance?   How about teaching them how to be accountable for their actions?  What about extoling honesty and integrity?  How about measuring performance accurately and taking out the subjectivity?  What about teaching them how to set personal and business goals and then how to achieve them? 

I’m all for appealing to employees through the pleasant touchy feely things, but they need to go hand in hand with the realities of business and why employees are there in the first place.  You could have a department full of happy souls doing marginal work and barely achieving their objectives.  But standing around in the afternoon holding hands and singing Kumbaya won’t cut it when you’re faced with competitors that are eating you alive because their employees are hungry to be the best. 

Happy, caring, helpful etc. employees are fine, but they are so much better when that is combined with a winning attitude shared by hard working no nonsense winners!

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Wouldn’t you just once like to give a gift that was guaranteed (well at least almost guaranteed) to be the one that the recipient really wants?  Take a look at this article on Consumer Reports that speaks to the new electronic options for gift cards.  While somewhat unrelated to the subject, it starts by mentioning that…

“the number of people getting a gift card of any type this year has dropped over the last few years.”

Has a gift card become less popular as gifts this year, or is it that the economy has caused most of the decrease?  In another Consumer Report article it shows that eight in ten consumers intend to give a gift card this season.  In fact gift cards were the #1 gift this year as they have been for the last several years.  So why do folks like Consumer Reports like to look on the negative side of gift cards?  Because in the spirit of full disclosure, they think they owe it to the unsuspecting public that there are some negatives in purchasing and giving gift cards, such as fees, expiration dates, the fact that people often add money to them to get what they really want, and of course that some of the cards are never used, estimated at below 10%.  And, they’re right, although recent legislation has dramatically decreases the problem of fees and expiration dates. 

What about gift cards as used for employee awards…do they have some of the same problems?  Sure, when you purchase them on your own, but to a lesser degree because you supposedly know what your employees want.  However, when you use an Award of Choice card, the answer is a resounding “NO!” they don’t have the same problems.   When you use an Award of Choice card you give your participants a choice of over 500 of the most popular gift cards to choose from.  And there is a decided difference when someone gets to choose the gift card that they really want, one that fits their own lifestyle.  When they really want that card, they use it, and they usually use it within a short time of receiving it.  All internal focus groups that we’ve conducted as well as survey’s to participants after programs have issued rewards show that the vast majority use the cards for items that they want, and often items that are discounted at sales by the retailers so they actually get a bonus on the amount on their card.

So, if you want to use gift cards as awards, consider using the Award of Choice, it will almost guarantee that your participants will get the award that they really want.  And when you can buy the Award of Choice for the same price as purchasing a card on your own, it will save you lots of time in acquiring it which can translate into money saved as well.

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There’s no doubt that the electronic options available for gift cards will make them more and more popular as an employee award.  Gift cards have grown to become the #1 incentive and recognition award in only a few short years.  Now with the ability to issue and redeem gift cards from your mobile phone or other electronic devices, gift cards will only grow in popularity. 

Consider this article from Bankrate.com stating that big named retailers and a major credit card issuer have recently rolled out e-gift cards and it won’t be long before most retailers will have this option.  According to Rebekka Rea, Executive Director of the Retail Gift Card Association 

“It’s definitely something that if retailers don’t have now, they are behind.” 

While new technology will continue to help in the growth of e-cards, this market is still small and makes up less than 5% of the close to $100 billion in gift cards purchased last year.  No one thinks that the traditional plastic cards will be disappearing any time soon, or ever.  There’s something to be said for the use of the old plastic especially in the desire to give or reward something that is tangible.  But as the newer generations who live in the digital, texting and IPad world become the heart of working class America, it’s only time before this type of award system takes over the old world of the pewter trophies, the diamond watches and the silver bowls.  Those items may still be in recognition and reward programs, but the channel to acquire them is changing dramatically.  I would be concerned if I were in the traditional merchandise award business where winners are forced to go to a website to pick from a rather limited list of items.  That won’t be their world.

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The award industry has many variables and choices, sometimes too many.  With this vast array of options why do we often see so many employee awards programs that just don’t achieve results?  They don’t improve employee engagement, they don’t improve performance and they often work in opposition to what they are designed to do in the first place and can demotivate their participants. 

As a company that fulfills employee awards (specifically gift cards) for a variety of companies, we don’t often get involved with our clients in helping them structure their programs.  They’ve made up their minds by the time they get to us and are just looking for the award component, or a better mousetrap than they had before, or the quick fix award du jour of the moment.  It’s a shame we don’t get involved sooner as we have seen thousands of programs over the years and can help clients navigate the award program jungle and give them ideas that would eliminate a lot of mistakes that are made every day. 

So what’s the biggest problem with employee award programs?  Why do so many of them fail?  In our opinion it’s simply because no one takes the time any more to ask questions, a lot of questions, questions designed to give the buyers the knowledge they need to implement the right program.  Too many buyers think they have the expertise to do it themselves, after all, how difficult could it be to design and implement an awards program?  Unfortunately many don’t have that expertise. 

The best thing these buyers can do for the betterment of their program is to assume nothing, question everything, and question a good cross section of professionals in the award industry.  You will be surprised at the answers you receive pending the professionals you ask.  It’s those answers which will foster more questions, and when the exercise is completed you will be in a far better position to structure and implement an employee award system that works well and achieves results.  Of course, asking the right questions goes hand in hand with the art of listening.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be on the top of the priority lists of buyers these days. 

When you are confronted with a puzzling question in the design and implementation of an employee award system, we will be happy to offer our expertise; we have over 100 combined years of experience.  If you only have a couple of questions, ask away.  We are happy to share our expertise without charge.  Our compensation comes when your program is a success and you utilize the Award of Choice card to reward your participant.  Your success determines our success.

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We are often asked by prospective customers why we feel that gift cards make the best employee awards.  The simple reasons are that they provide the best value and choice than any other merchandise award, mainly because with gift cards you can get just about any kind of merchandise available in the incentive industry, but your choices of just the right one will be dramatically greater, and the cost will be dramatically less. 

In our daily surfing of the net on the subject of awards we come across many articles, this one, giving us another reason why gift cards make great awards, caught our eye.  It relates a new shopping event for the after holiday season designed to entice those who received gift cards for Christmas to come in and spend them on a certain weekend…the GCW or Gift Card Weekend Sale.  Many partner companies have used this concept to drive incremental sales in January.  The gift card recipients can redeem their gift cards from participating retail partners and receive extra value through special deals posted on the GCW website that will be offered that weekend only.  

As a very large percent of the incentive and recognition awards budgets are paid out to participants at the end of the year, having sales like the GCW actually increases the value of the award to the participant.  If they earned a $100 gift card, it could be worth $125 to $150 on these sales. 

For years, the traditional merchandise award companies have used “sale” pricing on a few of their items to entice participant redemption, unfortunately most of the awards in the typical incentive catalogs are so overpriced that even by offering a discount the prices are still quite high compared to the sales that a gift card holder can take advantage of. 

If you want to give your participants the items they really want, let them have the gift card that they want.  Let they choose from over 500 of the most popular gift cards in the country by giving them the Award of Choice card.

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