A quick guide to reward vouchers for employees (& other benefits)

Introduction

An increasing number of employees prioritise rewards and other perks over salary when looking for their next role. This has become especially true with the trend of wages growing slowly for many years.

When creating a reward scheme, it’s important to include reward vouchers or gift cards that appeal to as many people as possible, such as:

• Educational vouchers
• Health and beauty vouchers
• Fashion and accessory vouchers
• Food and drink vouchers
• Days out and entertainment vouchers

Investing in rewards can be a daunting process. So in this article, we’ll explain why reward vouchers are important and how you can use them as part of a more personalised employee experience solution.

Why use reward vouchers?

Giving your team reward vouchers as a token of your appreciation is an effective way to promote behaviours and your business values.

However, this isn’t the only benefit. Reward vouchers can also improve a range of people metrics including:

• Retention
• Turnover
• Employee satisfaction
• Productivity
• Engagement
• Motivation

Reward vouchers can even positively contribute to your employees’ financial wellbeing, particularly if they’re part of a comprehensive discount and benefits package.

Plus, rewarding employees with gift cards for their favourite brands is great for building team morale, as it shows senior management understand their teams on a more personal level.

 

The benefits of personalisation in your employee reward scheme

If your reward vouchers are a feature of a more comprehensive engagement platform, you’ll have greater scope for personalisation, especially if you can offer a mix of custom rewards and vouchers.

With Perkbox, employees can be rewarded with points, and with thousands of rewards to choose from  – there's something for everyone, from cinema tickets and coffees all the way up to digital vouchers for big brands and unforgettable experiences.

We understand that personalisation is more challenging if you’re part of a large organisation or want to boost remote employee engagement, so we suggest delegating this responsibility to line managers or senior members of the recipient's team.

That said, personalisation is well worth the effort as it has so many benefits and promotes:

• Higher levels of engagement. People feel a stronger connection to their company when their managers and supervisors make the effort to get to know them.
• Greater job satisfaction. Encouraging personal gestures between colleagues contributes to a greater sense of job fulfilment.
• An increase in loyalty. Employees are less likely to move on when they receive recognition from peers or managers.

How to personalise your next employee voucher in four steps

Choosing a personal gift voucher can be tricky, even when you know a colleague very well, so to help, we’ve broken down what you need to do in four steps. You don’t necessarily have to follow these in this particular order, but they’re a useful checklist for when you’re running out of ideas.

1. Celebrate personal milestones with a voucher
2. Add a personal message
3. Take the time to thank the person
4. Address the person by their first name

Types of reward vouchers

Nearly every store, entertainment venue, and restaurant offers gift cards, which can make choosing a voucher challenging.

So, with that in mind, we’ve listed examples of reward vouchers within popular categories of interest.

Educational vouchers

If you offer discounts on courses as part of your benefits package, how about treating your teams to vouchers for something they're interested in learning?

Employees could spend educational vouchers on:

• An e-book
• A newspaper subscription
• A learning platform subscription
• Language courses
• Coding courses

Health and beauty vouchers

To promote workplace wellbeing, you could reward your teams’ efforts with a selection of health and beauty vouchers that encourage self-care.

Employees could spend health and beauty vouchers on:

• Activewear
• Yoga lessons
• Skincare and cosmetics
• Wearable tech
• A subscription to a fitness app

Fashion and accessories vouchers

For fashion-conscious employees or those who are interested in the latest homeware trends, lifestyle vouchers are an excellent option.

Employees could spend fashion and accessory vouchers on:

• Footwear
• Clothes
• Jewellery
• Homeware
• Perfume

Food and drink vouchers

Foodies will love vouchers for meals out and new dining experiences. Also, treating your employees to vouchers for the bar they drink at is a great way of encouraging them to get together outside of the office.

Employees could spend food and drink vouchers on:

• Dinner at a restaurant
• Drinks at a cocktail bar
• Healthy meal kits
• Chocolate gift boxes
• Coffee shop treats

Days out and entertainment vouchers

Everybody wants to make the most of their weekends and you can help your employees switch off by giving them a voucher they can put towards a day out.

Employees could spend days out and entertainment vouchers on:

• Visiting places of historic interest
• Tickets for theme parks
• Cinema tickets and snacks
• Theatre trips
• Experiencing attractions

4 ways to make reward vouchers part of a bigger employee experience strategy

While reward vouchers are an excellent way of motivating your employees, they’re most effective when they form part of a wider employee experience strategy, such as:

1. Taking care of your employees’ mental and physical wellbeing

When employees are happy and healthy they produce their best work. After all, giving someone a reward voucher won’t motivate them if they feel overworked and stressed.

Taking a proactive approach to wellbeing may require some investment, especially if you want to give your teams access to an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) or flexible benefits, such as healthcare plans. 

However, if these options are out of your budget, introducing lunchtime walks and creating a flexible working policy is a great place to start — and could even reduce absence rates from sickness.

What makes an employee reward and recognition scheme wonderful?

A good staff rewards scheme should include scope for personalisation and a diverse range of reward vouchers. If these elements are lacking, rewarding becomes another box-ticking exercise, and this can negatively affect employee experience.

Using Perkbox’s recognition and reward feature, managers are given points by their Perkbox admin, which they can then reward and recognise their employees with. Their team members can then go ahead and choose a reward that interests them. Our Rewards catalogue covers a range of interests and preferences to ensure that there is something for everyone. 

For extra special occasions, employees can receive a custom reward that doesn’t have to be monetary in value — it could be an extra day off or finishing early on Friday.