It’s clear that employees aren’t happy at work. Quiet quitting has given way to the “Great Detachment.” And companies must find a way to reverse the trend, including employee appreciation incentives. Consider that in the first quarter of 2024, the U.S. had a ratio of 1.8 engaged employees for every actively disengaged employee. That’s compared with a ratio of 2.1 to 1 in 2023. In addition, Gallup’s latest measure in May shows half of U.S. employees (51%) are watching for or actively seeking a new job, continuing the trend toward higher turnover risk. Younger and remote employees are especially likely to feel disconnected from their employer. Employee appreciation incentives can play a key role in your organization’s efforts to increase employee engagement and improve plummeting employee satisfaction scores. Here’s a roundup of seven top tips for ensuring that your organization uses employee appreciation incentives to maximize engagement. Look for Reward Opportunities Everywhere It’s a fact. Your employees want recognition. If you don’t have the right rewards program in place—or your employees aren’t engaging with it—it’s time to make sure you are using employee appreciation incentives to their full advantage. One program may be more effective than another, and you may...
When purchasing holiday gifts for clients, there’s a lot to consider. Sticking to a budget, figuring out the best gift, mailing to both domestic and international customers in time — these tasks are even harder during the busiest time of year. Fortunately, your customers are more likely to want to receive gift cards instead of physical gifts from acquaintances like vendors or business partners, according to our 2022 Superlative Study. Sending those gift cards digitally will not only delight your clients, it streamlines this tricky end-of-year chore for your team. Your recipients will be able to choose a gift they love while your team eliminates the effort of trying to figure out who gets a branded hoodie or a fruit basket this year. Plus, with no postage or packaging fees, your company saves money. While digital gift cards and prepaid cards are definitely more convenient and offer recipients more flexibility, you do have to put a little extra thought into the delivery. There’s no handwritten card, so your reward email needs to add that meaningful, thoughtful touch and ensure recipients associate the gift with your company. Check out these tips to create a great email template and make your holiday...
When you purchase a prepaid card online for your mom’s birthday or a friend’s wedding, you might go directly to the Mastercard or Visa website, or you might visit a gift card mall like GiftCards.com. But when you purchase a prepaid card online for business—perhaps to reward employees, customers, or research participants—that’s not the best solution. A gift card platform like BHN Rewards gives you more control and other important functionality that a regular e-commerce transaction won’t have. Here are some of the advantages of a solution specifically designed for businesses to purchase a prepaid card online. READ MORE: Why a Gift Card Platform Is Better Than Direct Ordering Full Team Access and Permissions With a platform like BHN Rewards, you can empower multiple teams to buy gift cards and prepaid cards for any number of projects. Leaders can create separate workspaces for different departments and adjust individual permissions based on each person’s role. That way, all the purchase information can be consolidated in one place, rather than having different teams placing one-off orders left and right. Multiple Funding Options Most e-commerce sites take payment by credit card or third-party wallet, such as Apple Pay. But businesses must abide by...
There is a lot of valuable information that can’t be collected by simple online surveys. That’s when qualitative methods, including focus group research, play a key role. But recruiting participants for qualitative research is a much bigger challenge than finding people to respond to a survey. In our study with Qualtrics, when asked what type of research they prefer to do, only 5% of research participants said remote or online focus groups, and 4% said in-person focus groups — compared with 54% who like online surveys. Not only do qualitative methods take more time and effort, potential participants who are used to online surveys are likely less familiar with what focus group research entails. That means it’s even more important to optimize your outreach strategy and offer appropriate incentives to get people on board. Check out these other insights on focus group research, collected in our 2024 survey with Qualtrics of more than 2,000 research participants, to help you understand trends and optimize your recruiting efforts. WATCH THE WEBINAR: Unlocking the Secrets to Higher Research Participation Participants Expect to Be Compensated Fairly The overwhelming majority of both survey respondents (92%) and qualitative research participants (86%) say they get involved in...
We’ve all received some bad gifts in our time: that ugly shirt from Grandma, those ugly socks from your parents, that weird homemade vase from the cousin you barely know. But you’d be surprised by the list of the worst holiday gifts for employees. Our annual Holiday Branded Pay study has surveyed thousands of employees over the past several years, and the question about the worst gifts received continues to surprise us and make us laugh (or shake our heads). In the spirit of teaching employers what NOT to do, here’s a selection of 25 of the worst holiday gifts for employees, as submitted by our survey respondents. READ MORE: Making Our Incentive Management Tools Work for the Holidays The Cheap, Useless, and Underwhelming In our 2024 study, nearly half of the 1,261 U.S. participants said they’re underwhelmed by their companies’ holiday gifts for employees. And no wonder, given these less-than-joyful examples. “Some old dollar-store perfume.” (Definitely doesn’t pass the sniff test.) “A tote bag that immediately tore and a handle fell off.” (A tote bag that carries stuff? Pfft!) “A headband flashlight.” (Is your office in a cave?) “Toilet paper stacked to look like a snowman.” (Two-ply, we hope.)...
The latest market research tips aren’t just for those new to the role — even the most seasoned of researchers can learn, especially as the motivations and preferences of their participants continue to change. That’s why we partnered with Qualtrics to survey 2,000 research participants, collecting insights on how you can optimize your strategies and processes to enhance the participant experience and get the best data possible. Here are three market research tips based on our findings. DOWNLOAD THE REPORT: Learn more market research tips for maximizing participation and optimizing incentives Adjust Promotional Strategy to Attract Younger Participants Millennials and Generation Z remain an elusive audience in many industries, including research. In our study, these younger generations report participating in quantitative research less often, with only 54% of younger people doing online surveys daily, vs. 73% of those in older generations. Promoting your research opportunities is just like promoting any product or service — you have to meet your target audience where they are. And those elusive younger generations are all about the digital world. When asked where they typically find out about research opportunities, the top two answers for Millennials and Gen Z were online ads and social media...
Nearly half of employees say that their companies are bad gifters, according to our research. So how do you stay out of the Gifting Hall of Shame? Opt instead to give holiday gift cards for employees. BHN’s Holiday Branded Pay study, which surveyed 1,261 U.S. employees in July 2024, found that 83% would prefer to get a gift card or prepaid reward like Mastercard or Visa as a gift from their employer. Only a quarter actually get that. Hopefully that statistic easily sells you on giving holiday gift cards for employees, but then you have to worry about doing them right. Here are some more insights from our study to help guide your buying decisions. READ MORE: Not Planning to Give Staff Appreciation Gifts for the Holiday? You Should Insight #1: Flexibility Is More Important Than Ever When asked what they would spend a holiday gift card on, the split showed no one overwhelming winner, with groceries, clothing and shoes, household expenses, a night out, self-care and pampering, and fuel all falling within a range of 16 percentage points. It’s no surprise, then, that holiday gift cards for employees that offer more flexibility for recipients are becoming more desirable. Nearly...
For any researcher, survey fatigue is a major concern. That’s why many research firms, including PRA.ca, have included incentives to drive participation for years. But, as the PRA.ca team learned, manually sending out rewards for each survey quickly becomes a drain on time and resources. “We wanted to streamline this process and get those incentives out ASAP,” says Zia Hameed, Senior Research Analyst at PRA.ca. “Immediate redemption of incentives not only increases the likelihood of reengaging participants for future studies but also helps them remember the topic they provided information on.” A Decrease in Research Participation Initially, PRA.ca managed their incentives manually, which involved mailing physical gift cards or going to individual online retailers to send out cards one-by-one. Hameed adds, “Before, we used to collect everyone’s information at the end of the project, which could be a month after, resulting in people receiving their incentives much later and forgetting about the project.” This time-consuming and inefficient process was having a negative impact on immediate participant engagement and their willingness to participate in future studies. PRA.ca knew they needed to make a change. Automating Rewards and Driving Engagement With Points Wanting to automate the incentives process, PRA.ca partnered with BHN...
Did you know that less than a quarter of sales emails are opened by recipients, and it takes an average of 18 calls to connect with a buyer on the phone, according to Gartner? The sales team at BHN Rewards was feeling that struggle, says Adam Ross, a Senior Manager of Sales Development at Blackhawk Network (BHN). Like any sales team, “getting clients and prospects to respond to our outreach is always a huge challenge,” says Ross, who leads a group of reps tasked with driving acquisition. Since they were already selling BHN Rewards, the solution seemed obvious: Ross and Senior Director Landon Teague carved out budget to empower their own reps with digital incentives. READ MORE: Download our Sales Playbook on using rewards for prospects and customers Moving With Velocity for Big Impact Teague and Ross took advantage of BHN Rewards’ integration capability (with Salesforce, in this case, but it also integrates with HubSpot and Microsoft Dynamics 365), so each rep could send incentives directly from the CRM. “By offering an incentive, it helps them get that response rate up. It piques curiosity,” Ross says. “Plus, it helps us speed up transactions, getting prospects to attend a demo or...
You can’t just set and forget your employee reward programs. Deloitte reports that a lack of recognition is the biggest reason that employees leave their job. No wonder, since 82% say recognition is important to their happiness at work, according to SurveyMonkey. That’s why it’s a good idea to review your employee reward programs on a regular basis. Staying up to date on workplace trends and employee preferences allows you to adapt your incentives and make sure they’re as effective as possible. Here are seven upgrades to consider. READ MORE: Download our Employee Incentives Report from NAPCO Research Go Digital If you’re still giving out traditional employee incentives like branded swag, office supplies, food baskets or even physical gift cards, it’s time to consider switching to digital prepaid and gift cards. Not only are they more convenient and sustainable — no postage costs or packing materials — digital rewards offer a lot more flexibility for redemption, thanks to mobile wallets. Reaching your remote employees is also far easier when you can deliver via email. Use a Rewards Management Platform Clunky spreadsheets and manual processes are no match for today’s platforms. Not only are they built to streamline your team’s workflow,...
