Research on Reward Programs

Online Rewards – Reward Points Programs Versus Cash

Cash or Carry? Does money work as an incentive?

1. Some surveys suggest money is low on the scale of what people want as rewards.
2. Managers surveyed in these studies typically rate cash especially low as a performance motivator.
3. 2003 survey conducted by the Incentive Federation reported that 60% of respondents agreed that travel or merchandise is preferable to money as an incentive.
4. 61% of incentive program managers felt they could build a more effective incentive program with merchandise as opposed to cash
5. American Express Incentive Services reported that only 25% of the respondents who had ever received an incentive award listed cash as the best job performance reward they ever received

HR Perspectives on Non-cash Rewards and Recognition

1. those with the highest financial and operational results) were more than twice as likely as all other firms to provide non cash incentives
2. HR has been slow to become the true corporate-wide strategic partner for non-cash rewards. HR respondents reported that they only represent 50 to 80% of the overall non-cash R&R spend
3. Of 603 respondents, approximately 67% had formal non-cash reward and recognition programs or incentive travel programs
4. 401 respondents with programs, 251 had either direct or indirect planning duties in either the non-cash reward and recognition programs or incentive travel programs
5. non-cash reward and recognition programs receive a surprisingly large amount of sponsorship at the corporate level with 73% of respondents noting that their noncash reward and recognition programs have corporate sponsorship

The Economics of Employee Engagement

http://theirf.org/research/content/6000044/the-economics-of-engagement/

1. The cost of employee disengagement is profound.
   1. 350 billion dollars per year in lost productivity, accidents, theft and turnover
   2. the difference between an engaged and disengaged workforce can ultimately mean success or failure
   3. At the individual level, engagement at work influences all aspects of an employee’s life and those that are close to him or her

It’s In the Cards: An In-Depth Look at PrePaid Cards in Incentive, Rewards & Recognition Programs

1. Prepaid cards are now the most frequently used reward in corporate incentive programs
2. non-cash rewards for employees, partners and customers has become a $46 billion plus industry in the United States
3. This represents more than double the $22.8 billion spend ten years earlier
4. 75 percent of organizations use prepaid cards
5. 83 percent of respondents said that gift cards make gift-giving easy, and more than half said they save shopping time
6. 37 percent of our survey takers that do not use prepaid cards in their rewards programs
7. 10 percent do not because they have tried them and are disappointed with the results
   1. it appears that very few organizations that have tried prepaid cards stop using them because they are ineffective as rewards