Maximising the impact of Gift Cards in your employee engagement strategy

22 Oct, 23

Unleash employee rewards that make a difference and increase your employee engagement today with employee gift cards.

In the year to February 2022, 1.3 million Australian changed jobs, many were unhappy with their working environment or in search of greener pastures. This equates to 9.5% of all employed people and is the highest annual job mobility rate since 2012. As a result, businesses feel more powerless to retain employees in 2023.

Implementing an effective employment engagement strategy in your workplace can reduce your retention rate, lower HR costs, and lead to an overall improvement in business efficiency. Additionally, it can boost morale and incentivise an excellent work ethic across the board with an easy-to-distribute reward scheme. 

Using gift cards within your employee engagement strategy is a simple and effective way to retain staff and reduce the cost and time spent recruiting and training new employees. Gift cards provide your team with a flexible reward that is also scalable, repeatable, and easy to implement for your business.

Read on to discover how to maximise the impact of gift cards in your business.

What is an employee gift card?

An employee gift card is loaded with an amount of money, ready for the recipient to spend across many stores.

Employee gift cards and prepaid gift cards are preloaded with a gift value of the employer’s choice, that can be spent by the employee as they wish.

The employer pays for the prepaid gift cards in advance, before distributing them to the employees.

Can an employee gift card help improve customer retention?

Gift cards for employees can help improve retention, creating a positive connection to the workplace.

Australian Employee Engagement - 1300Hired

According to one study Australia’s employee retention is currently at a miserable 24%. As a result, 76% of employees in Australia are disengaged and unhappy in their workplace. 

Additional research found that employee engagement can increase profits by 22% in your business, making employees feel more valued. 

By having a repeatable system in place to reward your employees for hard work, loyalty and achieving goals you can look to offset these worrying trends.

The power of gift cards in an engagement/retention strategy is that you can quickly react and recognise employees without having to deliberate on the type of reward. This means you never miss an opportunity to engage, recognise and retain your best talent!

To make things even easier, here are some areas of the business that you can incorporate employee gift cards into:

Recognition for achievements: from milestones to KPI’s, successful completion of projects, meeting contract criteria and so on. This is perhaps the most obvious/easiest activity to reward with a gift card.

Anniversary celebrations: 1 year, 5 years, 10 years? Loyalty is one of the most underappreciated things in business. Make sure you don’t overlook the chance to recognise commitment.

Holiday gifts: Too often companies refer to their employees as “family” in a cliche manner, bring meaning to the phrase and celebrate holidays accordingly.

Employee feedback & surveys: Traditionally met with low engagement or uptake, internal feedback is imperative to business improvements – use gift cards to incentivise and encourage your workers to participate.

Referral incentives: Whether it is for a new piece of business or a new candidate, formally recognising and encouraging referrals by your employees is essential to seeing more of them.

Training & development awards: Finding it difficult to encourage your workers to upskill? Nobody takes up training modules or development courses? Use gift cards to incentivise and celebrate efforts in this area. 

What are the benefits of using gift cards for employees?

The benefits of using gift cards in your employee engagement strategy are numerous, however we have outlined four key reasons to introduce it to your organisation.

1.   The flexibility of choice

Employee gift cards, available as Mastercard or Visa, from Gift Card Store are the preferred reward by employees as they can spend their reward anywhere instore or online to buy what they really want, meaning your reward will be truly valued.

Incorporating the best security features, prepaid gift cards offer worldwide in-store and online acceptance with Visa and Mastercard. The gift card funds are safe and protected from fraud.

Employees have autonomy over what they use their gift cards for, empowering their choices. Mastercard Gift Cards from Gift Card Store, can also be added to their preferred phone wallet, meaning these incentives are more likely to be used and enjoyed by employees.

2. Employer flexibility 

Employee gift cards enable you to choose the gift or reward value of your choice, making them budget-friendly for your business, as well as being quick and simple to pick out. No more endless deliberating as to what gift which employee would like. If you need gift cards in a hurry, you can send Digital Mastercard Gift Cards (SMS delivered) or Mastercard E-Gift Cards (email delivered) the same day! 

Just an easy and well-received way to reward efforts and boost employee’s morale. You can easily purchase employee gift cards at Gift Card Store in bulk, which makes gift-giving easy and flexible for any employer.

3. Prevents wasting budget on unwanted gifts or rewards

Across Australia, 30% of people will receive gifts they expect they will never use or wear. That leads to a great deal of wasted budget and gifts.

Prevent wasting your budget on unwanted gifts by giving your employees what they want and the freedom to spend as they wish.

4.  Incorporate your strategy

Incorporate your gift card program into a scalable engagement strategy.  

Measure the effectiveness of distributing gift cards as rewards and incentives, and subsequently build this strategy further. Has the productivity of your team, and therefore sales, increased as a result of the strategy?

How do employee gift cards work?

Simply visit Gift Card Store to choose from a wide range of Mastercard and Visa gift cards for your employees.

  • Choose the employee gift card that’s right for your business and employees. Select from:
  • Pre-designed plastic Mastercard, eftpos or Visa gift cards. Delivered by post or courier in bulk to your office or to your recipients individually.
  • Design your own Mastercard gift card with your company branding or favourite team photo. Delivered by post or courier in bulk to your office or to your recipients individually.
  • Digital Mastercard Gift Cards. Delivered the same-day via SMS, great for employees working remotely. Order up to 1,000 cards in one order.
  • Mastercard E-Gift Cards. Delivered the same-day via email. All you need is your team’s work email! Great for employees you don’t have a contact number or address for, and those working remotely. Order up to 1,000 cards in one order.
  • Choose the gift value that’s right for your budget. Plastic, Digital andE-Gift Cards can be loaded up to $1,000, and Design Your Own Gift Cards can be loaded up to $500.
  • Add a personal message to show your appreciation to your employees.
  • Purchase your gift cards, ready to distribute to your hardworking employees.

Visit Gift Card Store now

Reward your staff today with employee gift cards at Gift Card Store. Recognise and appreciate their hard work and dedication to your business with a personalised approach and endless possibilities.

Looking for a solution for ongoing incentives and rewards, higher gift values of $1,000+ per card, need ATM access or a solution for staff expenses?

Visit Corporate Prepaid Cards, Gift Card Store’s sister company, who offer a wide range prepaid gift cards for businesses, including:

  • Reloadable Prepaid Gift Cards for your business that can be issued once to your employees and then reloaded with funds when the desired action has been achieved, e.g. sales target is hit.
  • Mastercard or Visa gift cards that can be loaded up to $9,999 across plastic cards, digital cards and e-gift cards.
  • Trust U Petty Cash Card for an easy and seamless replacement for petty cash
  • Optional ATM access for easy cash withdrawals.
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Express delivery Australia wide

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Secure and easy to shop online

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Worldwide and online acceptance with Visa and Mastercard

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