Experts explain clear benefits of employee and customer rewards

 Families across the UK could save a whopping £1,300 a year on their everyday spending if employers rolled out reward schemes to their staff.

 That was one of the revelations that came out of a webinar organised by leading corporate rewards and vouchers business Love2shop. An audience of businesspeople heard how rewarding their staff would lead to a happier, more productive workforce and a thriving business. 

 The Success Through Adversity webinar featured a number of expert speakers outlining how employers could help people within their organisations weather the worst cost of living crisis in a generation. 

 Increasing positive engagement through rewards 

 Love2shop offers several options for employers looking to reward and incentivise both staff and customers. For a relatively low cost and simple set-up, products such as the Everyday Benefits Card and the Love2shop Engagement Platform can help transform a business. This is in addition to the range of Love2shop gift cards, e-gift cards and vouchers that have been used by businesses for staff and employee rewards for many years. 

 Frank Creighton, Director of Business Development at Love2shop, explained how Love2shop has been used by millions of people for 30 years and can be a key tool for businesses looking for efficient ways to offer rewards. 

 “Vouchers, gift cards and e-gift cards help businesses of all sizes across multiple sectors attract and retain both employees and customers,” said Frank. “Love2shop has supported organisations from the NHS to care homes, professional services, manufacturers, financial services and every size of business from small to FTSE-100s.
 “They all have the same need: to reward, engage and incentivise people. Research has shown that if employees are rewarded, they are more likely to be engaged and productive and that is a win-win.” 

 Supporting employees through economic challenges
 Addressing the cost of living crisis, Frank explained that it was more important than ever to support their staff through what is a very worrying period. 

 “From speaking to businesses we know they are keen to support their people. Fortunately, we do have the products and services to help employers support their staff at this time,” he added. 

 Frank outlined how the Everyday Benefits Card could make a real tangible difference to people’s lives. It covers many leading high street and online brands included in the Love2shop platform. 

 He said: “It is a real solution for employers who want to support their staff during the cost of living crisis. The way it works is very straightforward. 

 “It’s a prepaid card that allows employees to load funds at a 7.5% discount. It can then be spent in 90+ high-street stores that are part of Love2shop. It also opens up access to discounts on selected supermarket gift card loads, which employees pay directly from their debit card and which can reduce the cost of their essential spending.  

 “With Christmas coming it can also help with one-off purchases. We have calculated the average family can save more than £1,300 a year via the Everyday Benefits Card. 

 “It can be used for everyday essentials, meals, days out or bigger purchases such as holidays and we can offer employers a free trial card if they get in touch.” 

 Keeping hold of talented employees 

 Love2shop recently published its Employee Value Report, a revealing snapshot of the level of worker happiness across the economy. It made for stark reading for employers. It calculated that across the UK 10m employees felt undervalued by their employers with eight out of 10 seeking a new job elsewhere. 

 “It is well worth a read,” added Frank. “It shows how rewards and recognition are now more crucial than ever. An engaged employee is more productive and will generate more profit.” 

Love2shop Engagement Platform is an online tool which offers a relatively low-cost way of implementing and managing an employee and customer rewards and incentive schemes. It’s flexible, so businesses can choose either an off-the-shelf platform or have one tailored to the specific needs of their business. 

 Many employers are concerned about both the costs and logistics of setting up a rewards programme as they believe it may be too time-consuming and expensive. 

 “They have to be able to show a return on investment,” said Jamie Clarke, head of the Love2shop Engagement Platform. “Our platform manages most of the administration and monitoring of a reward scheme for the client.  

“We offer a modular approach with a platform offering all the functionality required to get any incentive, loyalty or employee recognition scheme up and running super-fast with lower costs. It is simple to use and we can work with employers to tailor the platform should they need to.” 

 As well as employee engagement, Jamie talked about how Love2shop can also help with customer retention. He referred to Love2shop’s relationship with Brakes, which is one of the UK’s biggest wholesalers to the hospitality industry. 

Using the Love2shop Engagement Platform, Brakes customers were offered a blend of discounts, cashback, charitable opportunities and Love2shop rewards as part of the ‘Help for Hospitality’ campaign in 2021. 

 It was such a success it was awarded Best Channel Partner Programme at the 2021 Incentive Awards. 12 months later, Love2shop has just retained that award for their work with another client – Buildbase.  

 “Implementing a programme does not have to be complex,” added Jamie. “Once we understand your needs we can project-manage everything. We deploy modules to help you set goals and targets and generate automatic communications. 

“We also have mechanisms for data exchange. It means you can input raw data into the platform and it will crunch the numbers. It can take anything between four to 12 weeks to implement and ultimately these schemes pay for themselves – they deliver results and a strong return on investment.” 

 Those attending the webinar also heard from former England football international Jill Scott MBE. The ‘Lioness’ told the audience how critical reward and motivation was in sport. 

 Also speaking was Rebecca Stevens, a business psychologist and founder of Work Brighter. She has worked with hundreds of businesses and leaders across multiple sectors. 

 She told the webinar that creating motivation and engagement was a common topic when she spoke to business leaders  

 “People have intrinsic motivations, such as satisfaction and pride about a job well done and extrinsic motivations, such as a promotion or a pay rise. Extrinsic things can help reinforce behaviour and we need to move towards a positive reinforcement of the behaviours we want to see in a very personalised way.”

Referring to the Love2shop Employee Value Report, Rebecca said the finding that 75% of people believing that companies that offer rewards were more likely to attract a better calibre of employee did not surprise her, adding: “The reward strategy has to have an individualised aspect to really work.” 

 Concluding the webinar, Julian Coghlan, Love2shop’s Interim Chief Executive Officer, said: “Not only is reward and recognition a key element of any successful business model, it is also crucial to the morale and loyalty of individuals. We are here to help… we can offer a real benefit to your business in the current economic climate.” 

 Everyday Benefits cards and Love2shop Cards are flexecash products. flexecash is the prepaid card platform that issues flexecash Love2shop Cards. This facility is provided by Park Card Services who are Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority to issue electronic money. FRN: 900016.  

Love2shop Cards are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and as such we may need to complete an electronic identity check. 

Physical Love2shop vouchers, Love2shop e-gift cards and reward codes and Love2shop Holidays gift cards are not regulated by the FCA. 

Read our previous blogs…