Ask any manager — no two employees are alike.
Your high performers may respond well to challenging assignments, while your creative thinkers will thrive when given a clear process for suggesting new ideas. In short, your management style needs to be flexible. And the same is true for your employee rewards.
From the kinds of rewards you offer to how often you deliver them, your digital gift cards need to be able to adapt to meet all of your employee engagement goals.
Here’s how flexibility is the key to having a successful employee rewards program.
READ MORE: Download our latest NAPCO Employee Incentives Report
While an office party, tickets to an event, or company-branded merchandise might be nice, research shows that employees strongly prefer rewards like digital gift and prepaid cards. In fact, employees desire these significantly more than even a salary bonus or additional vacation days, according to a BHN survey.
Whether they receive a digital gift card to spend at one of their favorite retailers or a virtual prepaid card, like Visa or Mastercard, that they can use almost anywhere, employees view both as a definite perk. Why? Because the flexibility empowers them to make the choice of what to spend it on themselves.
Successful employee rewards programs adapt to meet needs across the organization.
For example, maybe you want to encourage all employees to participate in your wellness program. You can curate a selection of gift cards for a wellness theme — healthy restaurants, activewear retailers, and spa services, for example — to entice them to sign up.
At the same time, if you need to motivate your sales teams but don’t have an incentive trip scheduled, you can offer a choice of gift cards for airlines, accommodations, and restaurants so they can plan their own getaway. Having lots of reward choices enables your organization to remain agile and offer tailored programs without having to do lots of extra legwork.
With so many ways to reach your employees, it makes sense to consider how best to send employee rewards. A rewards platform with multiple delivery options gives you the flexibility to adapt to your team and your program.
For instance, a team of Gen Z employees might prefer you to send rewards via text message, while Gen Xers are likely prefer an email. When you need to recognize international employees, either email or SMS is a better method than shipping physical rewards.
The best channel for delivery may also depend on where and when your employee rewards are being distributed. As a prize for an in-person team-building event, a reward sent instantly by SMS will have more impact than an email that the recipient won’t see till later. Similarly, delivering rewards during live meetings or over chat in Microsoft Teams can amplify the impact because your employees receive their recognition in front of their peers.
So many companies have employees all over the world now, so it’s important to be able to reward all of them consistently. After all, you don’t want your international team members to feel as though they are less valued than U.S.-based employees. Obviously, digital delivery is important, but so is giving them rewards they can easily redeem.
A flexible, global rewards platform like BHN Rewards allows you to reward every employee, no matter where they are or what language they speak. It offers gift cards for popular international brands and prepaid cards that can be redeemed in over 150 countries. It can even translate reward emails and redemption pages automatically.
If you’re on the hunt for more engagement, it may be time to ask your team members what they want from a rewards program. Send out an employee survey — with an incentive reward for completing it — to find out what may be missing. A flexible rewards platform may be just what you need to fill in any missing gaps.
Want to see how BHN Rewards can help you streamline and optimize your employee incentives? Request a demo now!
BHN Rewards puts the power of digital rewards to work for marketers, researchers, and HR managers. Don't forget to check out all the great content in our Resources section!
BHN Rewards puts the power of digital rewards to work for marketers, researchers, and HR managers. Don't forget to check out all the great content in our Resources section!
