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| home > about us > Newsletter > Issue 5: August 2008 > Employee Perspective | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Employee Perspective: "As an expression of gratitude for all your hard work, the company is giving you a loaf of bread and an 8-pack of toilet paper!"
This concept may sound ludicrous, but if your company is offering cash or universally accepted prepaid cards as an employee incentive, studies show that you may be sending your reward earners this very message.
When surveyed, many reward recipients claim that they prefer to receive cash-based rewards so they can purchase whatever they want. However, redemption analysis shows that universal cards are redeemed primarily at the ATM for cash or at disposable retail outlets, like grocery stores. In that case, it's safe to say that reward earners may not want you to pick out their prize for them (not that there's anything wrong with that gold-plated engraved anniversary pen), but perhaps they are also not choosing what you would want for them either.
To make the most of your investment, you need to offer a reward that your employees savor – something that provides them with a positive memory whenever they think about or look at the reward. An everyday purchase for basics like a loaf of bread simply isn't memorable.
Your employees want choice, and you want the maximum return for your reward investment. So, what works? Consider a prepaid card that offers selective merchant shopping choices. Prepaid cards, such as those utilizing American Express Incentive Services' (AEIS') patented DirectSpendSM merchant acceptance process*, spend like cash but provide the opportunity to direct the reward earner's spending to a place where they can purchase something that they will remember and appreciate. They provide a wide array of choice, and they still give you the control to prevent your employees from losing out on a motivational experience.
And what about the memory held by the employee who spent his reward dollars on toilet paper? Most likely, it went down the drain.
*DirectSpendSM is protected by U.S. Patent Numbers 5,689,100 and 5,956,695 and/or Canadian Patent Number 2,215,969. |
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