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One sure-shot way to keep your employees engaged and motivated for the long haul is by appreciating the work they do. This increases employee productivity, makes them feel content, and cultivates a sense of loyalty. While workplace appreciation through a monetary reward system can get expensive quickly, it might be worth looking at email gift cards to boost employee satisfaction. From work anniversaries and birthdays to spot recognition and quarterly awards — such gift cards for employees work wonders — regardless of the occasion. Email gift cards can be a part of your employee incentive program. To appreciate the value your employees bring to your business, email gift cards are a hassle-free corporate gifting idea.
Prasad Dhamdhere
What are Email Gift Cards?
In the simplest terms, email gift cards are more than just material tokens used to enable companies to make their employees feel valued. Research shows that 45% of employees believe gifts reflect their value at a company.
Do not be surprised when we tell you that the annual spend on gift cards is $24 billion. Suppose you are thinking of starting an email gift card program for your employees but unsure where to begin; in that case, fret not. This article will take you through the employee gift card program process step-by-step.
But first, let us explain to you the fundamental difference between the two terms.
Physical Gift Cards vs. Digital Gift Cards
A physical gift card is typically a plastic card, while a digital gift card does not have any shape but comes with a unique gift code number that your employees can use to redeem from retailers during an online purchase. Brands such as Amazon, Target, Starbucks, and H&M have physical gift cards, which come in different pricing, and you can purchase one based on your budget.
Alternatively, your employees can use store codes for digital gift cards inside a mobile wallet app, such as PayPal’s Venmo, Apple Pay, and GooglePay, to purchase what they want and when they like using the amount in the card. The only similarity between the two gift cards is that both come with an expiry date and have to be redeemed from the specific brand or store from where they have been bought.
Pros of Email Gift Cards
The benefits of email gift cards for companies and employees include:
Company Benefits
- You can gift these for the holidays or any other special occasion.
- You do not need to put in a lot of effort purchasing email gift cards.
- You can conveniently give a curated range of gifts to employees to choose from.
- The email gift cards can be personalized in the form of rewards, benefits, experiences and so on.
- For remote employee gifting ideas, they are available in multi-currencies and multi-denominations.
Employee Benefits
- They receive the gift card instantly in their email.
- The cards are easy and convenient to redeem and give employees the option to purchase something they want.
- There is no way an email gift card can get lost instead of a plastic card that may or may not make it into employee wallets.
Seven Reasons for Giving Employees’ eGift Cards
1. Cost-effectiveness
Without a doubt — email gift cards are cheaper. If you are wondering how, let us assume your company sends out 2,000 gift cards as a part of the best holiday gifts for employees, which takes about 400 hours of manual labour. You have to physically select and buy the gift cards, put them into envelopes or gift-wrap and put individual employee addresses on them before mailing them.
That is a lot of work. Fortunately, when it comes to digital gift cards, you only have to spend time selecting suitable gifts and emailing them, which should not take you more than 100 hours. That way, you can cut operational costs by 75%.
2. Minimum human error
The process of sending email gift cards is scalable, be it for sending one employee gift or 100. With the help of a digital system, you can send hundreds of thousands of gift cards by email in a matter of minutes. Human errors are minimized because recipient data is electronically imported and managed.
3. Branded delivery experience
Send digital gift cards from your email address to give a personal touch. You can design the email in a specific way to ensure the company branding is on point. Also, add the employee’s photo and write a custom note in the email, even when sending experiential gifts. Custom gift cards are also a good option to choose from.
Because you are mass-emailing gift cards to your employees, don’t limit your creativity when it comes to messaging. You can even place interactive elements within the email, such as a ceremonial bowtie to “unwrap” the gift.
4. Easy tracking
Keeping track of directly-mailed couriers can be pretty tricky and time-consuming for the company or the HR department. However, it is possible to manage digital gift cards sent via email in a centralized location using any incentives management system.
Not only will it let you know when your digital gifts are claimed, but it also allows you to send your employees a follow-up email for continued engagement. This is not possible at all when sending physical gift cards to your employees.
5. Time-saving and hassle-free
Sending digital gift cards only requires the email address of your employees — which is easy. But direct-mailing physical gifts need you to have their updated billing addresses, which can be a hassle because not everyone has a permanent address.
This not only makes the gift-sending activity prone to human error but also requires you to spend much time collecting and updating the home addresses of your employees. That takes the fun out of this activity! Gift-giving should always be a breeze.
6. Eco-friendliness
One of the major concerns for any company is to ensure they are interested in broader social and environmental issues rather than just those directly impacting the bottom line. Therefore, to make sure your company does its bit, use email gift cards.
You see, physical cards are incredibly wasteful, and there is no need to cut down valuable trees for making wrapping paper. Moreover, physical couriering gifts also add to pollution levels. Emailing gift cards is harmless from an environmental perspective. Plus, you do your bit to keep planet Earth safe and green.
7. Perfect for remote workers
Given that majority of the companies across domains are still working remotely, it makes sense to send gifts via email so that your employees feel recognized and appreciated for their efforts at work during these uncertain times. Some work from home gift ideas includes perks and benefits on fashion, automobiles, beauty and wellness, e-subscriptions, grocery, insurance, travel and experiences.
Ways to Implement an eGift Card Program
1. Use gift cards from different industries
Do not purchase email gift cards from just one brand or domain; instead, try gifting a range of experiences to your employees in:
- Restaurants
- Coffee shops
- Lifestyle stores
- Multiplexes
- Gyms
- Eateries
You can gift your employees high-end, luxury experiences by giving away digital gift cards from spas and furniture companies. If your employees know your reward and recognition program is versatile and offers gift cards with different budgets, they are bound to be more engaged with you. Also, the range of experiences allows the employee to choose a redemption option that is more relevant to them.
2. Create a calendar and budget
Sure, email gift cards are cheaper, but you will end up bleeding money if you do not budget them properly. That is why make sure you set a budget for each type of digital gift card sent via email. Put tentative dates on which you distribute the gifts and the number of people receiving them. Plan your gift card program properly.
3. Choose an integrated reward distribution platform
Using gift card solution providers such as Xoxoday, you can create a reward campaign, curate the catalog of gifts, fix reward budgets, select recipients, and schedule emails so that you never miss them. You can even link reward campaigns with business KPIs and optimize using analytics. Plum also gives you access to a global catalog with 20,000+ gift cards, merchandise, subscriptions, and more.
Summing it up
Everyone loves receiving gifts, and if you can make the employee email gift card process smooth and straightforward in your company, your workforce will be happier and feel cherished. Lastly, instead of having to think of creative gift ideas, you can give an email gift card with multiple redeeming options. The email gift cards for remote employees and on-site team members can be sent once a quarter to celebrate a milestone or can be a part of the incentive program. This is an opportunity to include perk benefits for your remote team as a part of the employee incentive program.
The benefit of email gift card ideas being it is a perfect gift for peers, employees and coworkers who are helping you build positive workplace relationships. Lastly, don’t forget to call them and check once you have sent the email gift card.
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