Recognition & Rewards

A recent Harvard Business Review article looks at the three myths of feedback. Sometimes referred to as the “Feedback Fallacy”, it’s interesting to learn that subjective feedback - from a manager to her employee, for example - often doesn’t produce the performance improvements most of us have been taught to expect.

In fact, it may be that improving employee performance is best achieved by focusing on their existing strengths and key accomplishments. Wait, what?!

That’s right: According to HBR, focusing on correcting gaps or deficiencies impairs learning. Whereas, focusing on what your employee is already good at catalyzes learning. Moreover, praising an employee for a strong performance or a great outcome focuses their attention on what worked, helping them further strengthen that ability.

Show your employees more appreciation this year

What better time to start applying this approach to employee performance improvement than on Employee Appreciation Day?

This year, National Employee Appreciation Day falls on March 1st. Since first introduced by Dr. Bob Nelson in 1995, this day provides an excellent opportunity for employers to create a culture of appreciation and express their gratitude towards their hard-working employees. After all, employees are, arguably, your most valuable asset.

Critically, appreciation should not be limited to one or two days a year. The more you build appreciation into your company culture, the greater the outcomes you can expect. Start by using  Employee Appreciation Day as a  “preview” or “trailer” for the types of behaviors you want your organization to employ all year round. Of course, March 1st is the “big event”, but there’s no reason it can’t be a springboard for a larger, long-term initiative.

With that in mind, here are recommendations for a great Employee Appreciation Day:

It's the small stuff that counts

It’s easy to take note of bit accomplishments like closing a new deal or launching a new product. Often times, it’s all the little steps it took to get there, and all the extra team members who contributed that go unrecognized. When you “don’t sweat the small stuff” someone else usually does, and wouldn’t it be lovely to be recognized for that?

Whose reward is it anyway?

Sure, it’s always nice to order in food or take the team out for lunch, but what’s new about that? Reach out to your employees and let them choose. Brainstorm ideas that combine two rewards like an outing and food, or an activity and drinks. As a bonus, this can easily double as a team-building activity with fun challenges, leaving your team closer and talking about the event for years to come.

Shake up the pattern

A recent study done by the Huffington Post showed that the average person spends 13 years and 2 months, or 4,821 hrs, at work. This doesn’t include the extra time spent checking emails, prepping for meetings, and planning weekly to-do lists. This Employee Appreciation Day, consider rewarding employees by giving back some hours. Offer a paid day off, whether it’s this Friday or a different day of their choosing.

Keep it personal

Nothing is more meaningful than personal recognition. Employees can get caught up in their day-to-day work, allowing anxieties to brew. The moment someone shakes them up with a genuine ‘thank you’, any self-doubt is reduced and new confidence is sparked. This can be done in many ways, whether it’s through individual thank-you cards, in person with a grateful handshake, or an announcement to the team, you can bet it’ll go a long way.

Keep the party going

If you’re feeling cramped by a 1-day event, why not celebrate all month long. This leaves room for contests, multiple outings, and company-wide inclusion. Whether it’s one-by-one or all at once, showing appreciation to your employees leaves them motivated and productive. In turn, the rewards your company will receive will be higher morale, productivity, performance, and retention. This Employee Appreciation Day set the bar high for a productive year and see where it takes your team - the sky’s the limit! If you missed this year’s Employee Appreciation Day, don’t worry! You can show appreciation all year long with Qarrot. Connect with us to learn more about how to make recognition a part of your company culture.

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Strengthen your workplace culture and values using Qarrot - book a demo today!

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Sources

• ‍Forbes.com - 5 Ways to Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day
• ‍Entrepreneur.comBlog.hubspot.com - Employee Appreciation Day Ideas

Breaking a habit is one of the hardest things to do, nevermind establishing a new one. According to a recent study done at the University College London, it takes an average of 66 days to create a basic habit, and 21 days to break an old one. Combined, that’s a little under 3 months. A habit is a behavior, and one of the most difficult traits to change, especially when it comes to wellness, and therefore the most critical part of wellness. Behavior changes can be challenging to implement and sustain over the long-term and should be at the core of any effective wellness program.

Like other employee engagement initiatives, rewards and recognition can play a role in motivating your employees to adopt the behaviors necessary to put them on the path to making wellness a regular habit. When evaluating how to motivate employees to adopt wellness-related behaviors, consider these different ways of structuring your rewards initiative:

Participation

This is the most inclusive approach, as anyone who participates will earn rewards.

Progress

Keep your employees on the right path by rewarding pivotal steps or milestones along the way. These are given to employees who have actively been participating and pursuing their goals.

Outcome

Reward employees who achieve specific goals. Although this can be the least inclusive, it provides a strong incentive for participants who are striving to achieve long-term goals.

Will implementing a wellness program really succeed in making a difference?

The success of your wellness initiative is all about how you design and execute it.

Ask

Communicate with your staff and ask them what elements of wellness they consider to be important and they would like to see implemented. What do your employees need? Does this match the company’s goals? This way you’ll get a clear idea of what personal goals exist for your employees, making it easier to implement rewards.

Consider company culture

Using employee survey data, create a plan that combines physical activity with wellness education and incorporates core elements of the company’s culture. Continuous support and change comes from wellness being a core value of the company.The culture should be supportive of all aspects of health including financial, emotional, social, and physical well-being.

Strong communication

‍Create a comprehensive communication plan to keep employees aware of how to get involved, new challenges, workshops, rewards, and changes. For better results, communicating across multiple channels, with regular frequency (particularly at the start), and providing relevant content is recommended.

Budget

‍If employees can earn rewards or additional benefits for participating in your wellness program, then you’ll want to plan your annual budget. Studies have shown that rewards valued over 100$ correlate to higher rates of participation than rewards valued at less. However, this doesn’t mean your program needs to have a huge price tag. Other valuable reward options can include creative alternatives such as parking spaces or half days off from work, which are desired by most employees.

Administration

Using rewards and recognition software can be a great way to help alleviate the administrative effort associated with tracking employee participation and the rewards earned for their wellness achievements. It also encourages employee participation since they’ll experience less “friction” related to earning recognition and cashing in their rewards.

Measuring impact

While doing your homework upfront helps avoid unnecessary trial and error, it’s important to check-in frequently to see how things are going and allow for adjustments that suit your employees’ needs. 30% participation is the benchmark for success when it comes to wellness programs. Therefore, once you implement wellness rewards, a participation increase of 20% should be seen as a great improvement. More than just participation, measuring the beneficial impact on both employees and the company is highly recommended.  For example, as a result of your company’s wellness program are you aiming to achieve higher employee engagement and productivity or lower health plan insurance premiums? If so, it’s important to have baseline comparisons established before launching the program in order to effectively measure changes thereafter.

Legalities

Employers are also always wise to consider their potential legal responsibilities relating to privacy and workplace liability. A wellness program opens the door to becoming more involved in employees’ lives by tracking personal health and activity-related information. Consider legal waivers to protect the company against the unlikely case of injury lawsuits that result from program participation. Above all, it is important to remember that all programs must be voluntary. If an incentive is offered, employees should never feel any sense of obligation to participate.

Wellness programs can be implemented to help employees adopt healthier behaviors from simple daily adjustments to longer-term accomplishments. Gamifying behavioral health goals can keep your team motivated to succeed. Things like walking to work, packing a healthy lunch, or drinking more water, are easily rewardable and trackable. Prizes like gift cards for athletic wear or restaurants, and reusable water bottles make for great incentives. Challenges including long-term goals such as smoking cessation, 5-km runs, or weight loss can be harder to stick to, but with milestone-based incentives, as well as a larger achievement rewards, you’re sure to keep your employees motivated. What’s more, Qarrot is here to help! Our software is easy to use, allowing employees to directly enter results towards a given goal. Employees can easily track their improvement and feel inspired to continue on the wellness path.

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Workplaces thrive when they adopt Qarrot - learn more by booking your free demo today!

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Further reading

• ‍From Evidence to Practice - Workplace Wellness that Works

Sources

• ‍Forbes - 4 Steps to Implement a Successful Employee Wellness Program
• ‍Blog.corehealth.global - Top 15 Corporate Wellness Incentives by Budget
• ‍HBR.org - How to Design a Corporate Wellness Plan That Actually Works
• ‍Business.com - Corporate Wellness Program Benefits & Risks

The past few months have been busy at Qarrot! We've been lucky to sign-up new customers and to get great feedback from existing ones. And we love feedback! When customers request new features or functionality, we take note and put them onto our 'ideas board' for review. If we think an idea makes sense and would improve the experience and usefulness of Qarrot for most customers, chances are we'll add it!

With that in mind, today we're releasing both a new look for Qarrot as well as several new features. Here's the skinny on what you can expect the next time you log in:

A simple, more colourful look

We love the way Qarrot looks (who doesn't, right?!) but wanted to make some features more prominent and add a touch more colour. You'll notice the biggest changes on the Home page:

• The social feed is larger and easier to read
• Colourful section titles improve page navigation
• Our new Get involved section in the top right displays actions you can perform depending on your role and settings. For example, you can now update your campaigns from this section
• Your Profile is now always visible in the top right

Whenever you're recognized or send a recognition, you'll see these new icons.

New features, because you asked for them

Birthday Awards

‍We received so many requests for automated birthday awards, we just couldn't say no. Now, the Super Admin can create a birthday award in Manage > Milestone Awards to automatically celebrate all participating employees' birthdays (as long as employee profiles include their birth date - don't worry, we don't publish how old you are!)

‍International Rewards

‍If your organization has locations outside of the USA or Canada, you will now see the option to select 'Country of redemption' when you redeem for rewards. To start out, we've added rewards for 22 countries. If your company is based in the USA, but some employees are in the UK, they can simply select the United Kingdom right on their My Rewards page to get a list of rewards in Great British Pounds, for example.

Improved features

My Rewards

‍We made this section look better ... WAY BETTER. We hope you like it!‍

My Campaigns

‍Ditto. We've improved the look of this section and made it easier to use.

‍Employee profile

‍You can now see all recognitions you've received and given right from your profile. Admins can see this information too when they go to Manage/Employees and click on your profile.

‍Side menu

‍To make navigation easier for Admins, we've created two sub-sections in the left-hand menu: Manage and Organization. You can expand these sub-sections where you'll find all of the previous options available for Manage, but we've moved Dashboard and Settings under Organization (it's just better that way).

We hope you enjoy these improvements and new features.

Sincerely,

The Qarrot Team

Employee recognition programs help create a collaborative, encouraging workplace where in employees are engaged and working to their full potential. With the benefits of recognition programs having been proven in companies across North America, why aren’t all companies implementing them?

For smaller organizations or those on a tight budget, funding an employee recognition program seems like a great idea in theory, however financially impossible.

Here is the oversight: Employees don’t have to be recognized through hefty monetary rewards! Research shows that when employees are already being fairly compensated, cash or near-cash rewards do not yield the highest engagement levels.¹ Companies with limited funding can institute a recognition program where acknowledgments are given not in currency, but through peer-to-peer acclamation, work autonomy, or sincere private thank you cards. Adhering to a realistic budget for your organization merely requires being knowledgeable about your options and establishing an effective program: with an informed plan, it is possible to achieve all your company objectives on any budget size.

It is a common fear amongst employers that if they don't give monetary rewards or bonuses, their employees will feel undervalued and more likely to seek out another job. In fact, the key to retaining talent and promoting work engagement is to create “constant gratitude.” Constant gratitude does not require a large financial investment, but a creative one. By understanding the generations which make up your employee base, you are given insight into the modes of appreciation which resonate with each age group. The ability to recognize, retain, and invigorate your staff is not a question of dollars, but of insight and sincerity.

There are currently five generations working simultaneously within the workplace.²  The individuals that make up these classes are shaped by various age and life-stage demographics. The nuances within these influences make any research on the characteristics of an entire generation a general evaluation. However, even a basic understanding of the forms of recognition your employees will best respond to can save you time and money.

“You cannot manage what you don’t understand. You won’t be able to manage outside of your generation unless you can see through all of the generational lenses.”

— Tammy Hughes, CEO, Claire Raines & Associates

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If not money, then what?

Consider your generation.

‍Traditionalists, also known as The Silents (1900-1945), are now a generation nearing the end of their presence within the workforce. Statistically the most loyal generation, these employees grew up before the surge of social media and technology and prefer to have their time and commitment recognized privately.

If you have traditionalists amongst your employees, they are nearing retirement and likely occupy a higher position within your company. For a traditionalist, a personalized thank you card is likely to reinforce their already dedicated behaviour. Because these employees hold the development of interpersonal communication skills in high regard, recognition can also come in the form of mentorship: have a traditionalist take a younger or new employee under their wing to show you value their skillset and wisdom.

‍Baby Boomers (1946-1964) are the generation of competitive multi-taskers who value work and career advancement over a work-life balance. Most Baby Boomers crave challenging, creative work in their pursuit of self-gratification.

Give a Baby Boomer flexibility, their linear focus on career and security means they will highly value a day off from all those extra hours. Boomers also appreciate being shown respect through titles or public recognition; by highlighting their achievements in a formal setting or opening an opportunity for skill training or work experience, you are demonstrating high regard for their performance.

Generation X (1965-1977)Often incorrectly labelled as slackers, Generation X established the work-life balance mentality and believe in accomplishing work as efficiently as possible to leave more time for ‘living.’ Whereas traditionalists and millennials thrive in team settings, this generation generally prefer to work alone and focus on conquering challenges.

Like traditionalists, these employees prefer to be recognized in private over public praise. Their long-term goal is hold a job which enables a balanced lifestyle. Thus, they are consistently looking for ways to build their resume skills. Recognize Generation X employees by offering opportunities for personal development or enlivening their work routine with a new experience such as a conference or out-of-office work.

“For rewards and incentives, I would emphasize experiences more than anything—travel, project experiences related to work and their career.”

— Buddy Hobart, Author of Millennials and the Evolution of Leadership

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Millennials (1977-1997) grew up being recognized by their parents for every little thing, often being praised not for success, but just for showing up. Millennials have a difficult time comprehending why they shouldn’t be able to work where and when they like. Consequently, freedom, autonomy, work-life balance, and frequent feedback are top values.

Cost effective recognition ideas for these employees include strategic leaderboards, which celebrate various contributions from sales goals to commitment; the ability to work remotely or be given time off work; or an informal method of liking, sharing, and posting through which to give and receive recognition.

Constant Gratitude for All Generations

An option to attain ‘constant gratitude’ on a budget is to integrate an Employee Recognition Software that allows you, management staff, and employees to recognize one another with ‘high-fives’ or ‘badges.’ The absence of cash or purchased gifts as a reward means the cost of the program is reduced to a basic, per employee registration fee; enrolled participants can view all the recognitions throughout the company and comment on each, compounding a one-time recognition into a team conversation.

Millennials especially will adapt quickly and thrive in this program format. Known as digital natives, their social connectedness is second nature and implementing an online communication platform echoes their everyday discourse through social media. The software also offers a balance between public and private recognition enabling individuals who prefer not to have a spotlight on them in front of a crowd to still feel appreciated without any embarrassment. Although there is no monetary reward, the nature of the program- where an individual is recognized for a distinct behaviour- fulfills the need for consistent and specific feedback, which defines genuine constant gratitude.

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Your company can't afford NOT have a recognition program - book a demo with Qarrot to see why!

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Sources

• ¹ Incentive Research Foundation

• ² Forbes.com

Recognizing the unique Millennial

The top three challenges for HR organizations today are employee engagement, turnover rates, and succession planning. Though these issues are not new, former strategies just don't seem to have the same effect and the shift has left employers - especially those with Millennials in their ranks - scrambling for answers. In the past, reward systems were monetarily based, providing employees with compensation for their time and extra efforts with strictly financial compensation. The ineffectiveness of this method in retaining and motivating employees is indisputable.

• 37% of U.S accommodation and food services employees say that they had or will quit their position in their current place of employment within a 12 month period.
• The majority of employees in 2015 were reported as “not engaged” while another 17.8% were “actively disengaged”
• For the majority of 2015, monthly averages for consistent employee engagement hovered between 31.5% and 32.1%
• One-third of new hires quit their job after about six (6) months.¹
• Nearly four out of five (78 percent) of business leaders rank employee retention as important or urgent.
• In 2015, 40% of companies reported that with the arrival of lower unemployment rates, the difficulty in finding and maintaining talented individuals has heightened their concern for loss of personnel.

So, what has changed?

‍Millennials.

As of 2015, Millennials make up the largest section of the global workforce and will compromise nearly 75% of personnel by 2030.² The average tenure of a millennial employee is only two years and the key to building a strong, profitable business in 2018 rests in the ability of a company to redirect this pattern. Millennials may have a bad rap for being on cell phones and a general sense of entitlement, but here is the truth: Millennials aren't lazy, they have specific needs.

Psychologically, every human being experiences a direct correlation between their perception of self-value and their state of happiness. This is even more pronounced in millennials, where monetary rewards are secondary to the feeling of personal growth, engagement, and significance within a company. With every resource at their fingertips, millennials are constantly looking to jump into a role that will fulfill these elements. The employer then is fighting a perpetual battle against the threat of the “next best thing.” In order to win the fight, you have to understand your employee's criteria.

Fuelling your employees

Retaining valued talent in your business depends on your employee engagement levels. For Millennials, the single highest contributor to this is their belief that they are truly valued for their unique strengths. Recognizing the influential role an employee plays within your company bolsters their confidence and boosts their comfort with expressing ideas amongst coworkers and superiors. If a millennial believes their employer recognizes them as an asset, they respond by fully applying themselves to maintaining high standards, simultaneously satisfying a need for self-growth and importance.

“More than ever, they want to be part of a workplace culture that allows them to discover their own identity and inner confidence so they can unleash their full potential. (Glenn Llopis, Forbes 2014).

”Currently, less than 40% feel so engaged.³

Because Millennials base their performance on output rather than time spent on a project, it is essential that they feel their commitment to quality is noticed. According to a recent survey by TriNet, one in four millennials feel in the dark about their work performance; As it stands, 8/10 Millennials think they deserve to be recognized more for their work. Only 54% of female employees say they are recognized when they do excellent work and only 61% of males.⁴ That's an average of 43% of employees operating under the impression that they are not valued!

‍The answer to these statistics is relatively simple- Workplace culture is everything. Traditional superior-to-employee encouragement, though beneficial in its own way, can often feel contrived, insincere, or infrequent to an employee. Peer-to-Peer Recognition fosters camaraderie, heightens energy levels, and alleviates preoccupying worries about work performance which deduct from creative spirit.

You can completely re-establish your work culture by integrating a peer-to-peer recognition program. By encouraging staff to communicate with one another on their successes, you are cultivating company-wide collaboration. Values-based recognition from a peer is like getting a compliment from a friend on your outfit or touchdown in high school- instantaneously that person is invigorated with new energy to duplicate their success or surpass it. The cycle peer-to-peer recognition promotes quickly takes on a life of its own, as each compliment given encourages the receiver to then offer one of their own to another co-worker.

Did you Know? ‍

86% of values-based recognition programs show an increase in worker happiness.

Peer-to-peer recognition benefits

Peer-to-peer recognition is statistically 35.7% more likely to have a positive impact on financial results than manager-only recognition. In 2015, 41% of employees said that if they were given the tools to comfortably engage in peer-to-peer recognition, they would gladly do so. Once a program had been established, 58% of “happy employees” (individuals who considered themselves fulfilled by and content with their job) reported giving regular peer recognition.⁵ Staff who are empowered to recognize other employees are twice as likely to identify themselves as highly engaged while 90% of employers say their employee recognition program had a positive impact on overall employee engagement.

These interactions then, are not one-off comments, but authentic conversations progressively developing gratifying company habits, transparency, and teamwork. Not to mention the right culture attracts new, talented employees who will vie for the chance to be a part of a positive, collaborative team. Millennials will choose to invest themselves in your business' long term, thriving in the synonymous relationship between their ambitions and your company’s achievements.

What are you waiting for? Mature employee recognition programs are 12 times more likely to have quantifiable, superior business results!!⁶

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Foster a collaborative and engaging workplace culture of your own - book your Qarrot demo today!

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Sources

• ¹ https://www.tlnt.com/9-employee-retention-statistics-that-will-make-you-sit-up-and-pay-attention/
• ² Bureau of Labour Statistics
• ³ Tony Schwartz, Harvard Business Review
• ⁴ Modern Survey
• ⁵ Great Place to Work
• ⁶SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Survey 2012

The amazing growth of gift card rewards

Recalling my days working for a leading customer loyalty program, I remember the remarkable growth of program members exchanging their points for gift cards. This growth was remarkable for different reasons. First, it was a travel program where the majority of members accumulated their points for airline tickets. This travel orientation meant that members were accustomed to saving-up their points for long periods of time. Moreover, before the program introduced gift cards to its catalog, it added merchandise and experiences. This meant that members had a wide range of choices—everything from plasma TVs to show tickets to VIP events. Despite all these options, gift cards quickly grew to become the most popular non-travel reward.

Looking back, I now realize that the popularity of gift cards as a reward option had a lot to do with their flexibility and their faster attainability compared to the more aspirational, less attainable travel rewards.

But, my previous company isn’t alone. The entire incentives industry has seen the same trend in the past decade. In fact, the Incentives Research Foundation states that in 2012 gift cards had become the most popular gift among consumers shopping for friends and relatives and the tool of choice for businesses hoping to motivate employees, customers, and partners.

Gift cards: the preferred employee incentive reward

When it comes to motivating employees, gift cards are now undeniably the preferred non-cash reward option and used by 75% of businesses. Use of gift cards in employee rewards and recognition programs has even exceeded travel, merchandise, and cash rewards according to the October 2011 October 2011 report “State of Gift Card Use in the U.S.” by the Incentive Research Foundation. According to the IRF’s research, consumers have embraced gift cards because they make gift-giving “easy” and “reduce shopping time”. This convenience factor has no doubt also influenced people’s warm reception of gift cards as incentives in the workplace.

Incentive program managers and planners also prefer using gift cards as incentives because they are easier to administer, are more flexible and personal, and are popular amongst company staff. Above all, incentive planners view gift cards as the “most effective” reward option that offers the best overall return on investment, even compared to cash.

Similar to the IRF’s findings, we believe the effectiveness of gift cards over other non-cash and cash rewards is largely due to the unique combination of flexibility and “trophy value”. For example, if you offer your staff a catalog of merchandise, you’ll achieve high trophy value but low flexibility as staff may aspire to have some of the items you offer, but won’t necessarily find something appealing at any given time. In contrast, cash rewards offer high flexibility but low trophy value. The following quote from Mike Ryan, President Emeritus of The Performance Improvement Council, in the IRF report highlights this perfectly:

“A responsible person who receives cash as a reward may not feel comfortable about spending it on themselves, so it is not exciting for them. A $25 gift card is better than $25 cash because it gives them license to spend on themselves and this makes it appealing.”

Gift cards seem to strike that perfect middle ground - by offering a selection of well-known brands, as well as “open” prepaid cards from Visa, MasterCard, or American Express, your employees will find both trophy value and flexibility.

Compared to merchandise and travel, gift cards also dramatically reduce the administrative costs and burden associated with employee incentive programs. Ever shipped a TV across the continental US? It’s not cheap. Not to mention that merchandise programs require frequent catalog refreshes to maintain employee interest and tend to have higher customer servicing requirements (with staff calling to find out when their rewards are going to be delivered).

Digital revolution: the rise of e-gift cards

With the rise of mobile and digital payments, it’s not surprising that gift cards too are increasingly offered electronically. “E-gift cards” are similar to their plastic equivalents in that they can often be used in-store (printed or with a barcode displayed on your phone) or used to pay for purchases online (by either entering a PIN or redemption code). Moreover, Millennials prefer e-gift cards because, unlike physical cards, they can’t be “lost” and don’t need to be remembered before going shopping.

Plus with the growth of online retailers like Amazon as well as the online offerings of bricks-and-mortar retailers like Best Buy and Walmart, the number of possible ‘reward options’ is nearly infinite. Why manage a merchandise catalog with hundreds of items, when these online retailers have tens of thousands? And to offer their catalogs as rewards to your employees all you have to do is provide their e-gift cards as rewards in your employee incentive program.

Beyond the flexibility and choice provided by e-gift cards, I believe they will quickly overtake physical gift cards in the coming years as the most popular employee incentive reward due to their simplicity. Incentive program managers and planners will love them too - from the low cost of fulfillment to the instant gratification they provide (e-gift cards can be emailed or received instantly upon redemption), they help simplify and, at the same time, expand the utility of incentives.

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Qarrot makes motivation easy with our feature-rich platform and catalog of e-gift cards! Book your demo today!