Top Tips for Delivering An Impactful Staff Incentive Program That Works

A happier working environment is key to staff retention, driving productivity, and the overall health and growth of the company. Staff incentive schemes are an impressively effective way to reduce burnout and improve work-life satisfaction. Incentives programs help retain your company’s best talent by showing them that they are valued, one of the keys to unlocking employee loyalty.

Tangible recognition is a visual tool that will help to achieve a sense of satisfaction and develop a deeper appreciation of the culture and values of your company. When done right incentives are a crucial key to boosting growth and morale within your team and are a potent way to engage with your employees and acknowledge performance benchmarks. These motivators come packaged in a myriad of different ways, and many have seen a rebirth over the years. One such example of a time-honored incentive given a breath of new life is GIFTA’s spin on corporate gift cards.

There are many ways to approach developing a program to reward your staff. In this article, we walk you through a framework for developing a stellar and fruitful staff incentive program.

1. Set an appropriate budget 

There are several different strategies involved in determining a budget for your rewards program. As a generic number, typically a successful rewards scheme is suggested by SHRM to have a budget of 1% or more of the total payroll. It’s important, however, to figure out what works best for your individual case as there are other factors in play and considering all of them is crucial in making the right decision.

• Budget for tax implications

         Most cash rewards can be considered taxable income, and if you’re considering running an internal rewards program in order to have full flexibility over budget this can be a big deciding factor. Keeping track of every receipt is tedious and difficult to do, and having a centralised management system like GIFTA’s corporate portal where you can purchase gift cards online and manage them would make rewarding easier. 

• Consider potential earnings

         This aspect of budgeting comes from recognizing the value that your reward has as well as how much your employees will appreciate it. ROI conversions from there will help to determine how effective your rewards program is projected to be and ensure that you’re moving in the right direction in planning for your recognition initiative. Picking a reward that’s relevant for everyone is an important step to securing your ROI.

Selecting a rewards platform that has the flexibility and versatility to move with your budget is a highly advisable strategy. Avoiding pre-paid and fixed-term solutions in order to minimise the possibility of overestimation and overspending. Offerings such as custom corporate gift cards by GIFTA are great examples of rewards that allow seamless scaling at any time.

To learn more about our gifting ideas, click here! Lunar New Year Corporate Gifting

2. Clearly define your goals 

Your goals play the primary role in setting a budget for your incentive program. Having a goal that clearly carves out your outcomes will help you in shaping the size of your investment and figuring out your target audience.

There are different types of recognition and knowing what kind you’re after is beneficial to plan your program. Whether you want to recognise your staff on a regular basis for daily efforts (meaning frequent and low-cost), milestone recognition (big career jumps and yearly awards), or peer recognition (rewards from people working closely together such as direct reports and project leaders).

3. Pick an incentive that’s suited to your team

This step is the heavyweight of incentive programs: what to actually give. One of the key reasons why picking an incentive is challenging for many lies in the fact that everyone is different and finding a “one-size-fits-all” solution that motivates everyone (when each person likes something different) is a recipe for a head-scratcher.

A revamp on the regular electronic gift cards you’re used to, our offerings of some of the best corporate gift cards on the market are versatile solutions for your rewarding program. Key drawing factors include personalised (and sophisticated) branding, seamless delivery and scaling, and instant access to hundreds of Australia’s favourite retailers with our swap cards. Budgeting and scaling with GIFTA is made pain-free with a dedicated corporate portal: your one-stop shop for all you need to manage, track and send your Australian gift cards.

A rocking employee recognition program with our corporate services gift cards: as easy as you need it to be.

Our online gift cards are as customisable as they come – get a card for an individual retailer, or gift your staff with a swap corporate prepaid card from one of our seven categories (like Health & Wellness, Travel & Adventure, and Fashion). For maximum flexibility, our Ultimate Swap card is the foolproof pick; allowing your giftee to pick from any brand across any category (and with brands like The Iconic, Adrenaline, and UberEats) you know they’ll definitely want to pick something out.

Send gift cards online with a single click, or arrange to receive physical gift cards to give away in person at end-of-year functions and other celebrations. All gift cards can be personalised with a photo/video message and your company branding, so you can make this gift one that’s entirely your own.

When it comes to employee recognition, there’s a world of variability and uncertainty that can make planning difficult. At GIFTA, we aim to save your time and cost by offering a single platform to manage all your rewards, and we’ll scale with you so you don’t have to worry about making locked-in decisions that are hard to change. We aim to make gifting as seamless as it should be.

We have a specialised 24/7 support team ready to help you with any questions you might have when you start gifting with our corporate gift cards Australia-wide. Visit our Corporate Enquiries page and fill out the form to instantly get set up. Show your team how much their hard work and effort means to you and reap the benefits of what you sow. We’re the best when it comes to gifting, and we know you’ll soon see why.

If you’ve got more questions on how to buy gift cards online with us, we’re happy to help! Click here for more information.