Prepaid: It’s a rewarding experience | Incentive & Motivation

Incentivising staff and rewarding customer loyalty are two of the battles facing organisations in 2013. With product prices on the rise, but pay increases and promotions limited, employees are on the lookout for the best deal when it comes to groceries, fuel and employment. In recession, keeping staff morale and productivity high and retaining or recruiting staff can be a challenge.

It has long been acknowledged that incentives and rewards throughout the year can make an impact on staff satisfaction; ensuring workers feel valued and recognised for their hard work. Despite this acknowledgement, research commissioned by CorporatePay uncovered that 54.8% of employees receive nothing over the course of the year, with 100% of these respondents saying small incentives would make them feel more motivated and valued. Looking ahead to an economy that is still struggling, it’s imperative that organisations give due attention to this important matter, as staff retention is a big money saver in the long term, not to mention a great credential to boast about. 

For those lucky enough to receive incentives throughout the year, these range from extra holiday days, to cash bonuses, prepaid cards or gift cards. Incentive and reward is an area that allows for a bespoke approach – with each boss or head of HR knowing what’s important to their staff. 

Prepaid programmes offer valuable benefits to such an organisation. The CorporatePay programme offers network-branded cards (MasterCard), which can be used at over 32 million outlets worldwide. A recent survey conducted has shown that over 80% of consumers would prefer a network-branded product as opposed to a single retailer product. This confirms that they want and enjoy choice. Employees are consumers too, and welcome the accessibility and freedom to spend their incentive in the manner they want to.

Staff incentives can be ongoing and the load can be repeated and altered as often as the employer requires – offering an annual incentive outlet, or a staggered one, loaded monthly or quarterly. The employee also has access to the platform and can view their own data to see the card balance.

For cost-efficiency, CorporatePay also offers a virtual product, further reducing the cost of deploying such a programme for organisations. Virtual cards are an electronic payment method designed to make payments easy, secure and convenient. There is no physical plastic, it’s an electronic solution that generates a unique card number, which can be accepted globally via the existing MasterCard network. With the rise of digital commerce this solution offers even greater appeal in its ability to serve people’s needs.

The beauty of a prepaid reward and incentive programme is its ability to adapt to the needs of the business, and also to the end-user, ensuring the outcome is as described and the programme lives up to its name – as one that rewards and incentivises.

www.corporatepay.co.uk/incentives