U.S. Postal Service Lets Employees Pick Rewards
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has enacted a major change in its employee recognition and rewards program, letting employees choose rewards from a variety of vendors as opposed to managers handing out gift cards or other awards.
Under the new program, called eAwards, employees can access the Web sites of GiftCertficiates.com, Rymax Marketing Services, IncentOne and Global Sports Access to redeem a dollar-value award given by their manager.
“What’s impressive is that you have a large government organization that has had a reward program for a long time and has had the presence of mind to say ‘How do we make this effective?’” said Tim Barefield, CEO, GiftCertificates.com. “There’s the common myth that government agencies aren’t concerned about efficiency, but I’m impressed with how they’re running this program.”
Omaha-based GiftCertificates.com is offering its SuperCertificates in the eAwards program. The company partners with several retailers and merchants such as The Gap, Barnes & Noble and Blockbuster. The vendors provide employees with more than 33,000 retail outlets including Staples, Pep Boys and The Sharper Image to choose from. Employees can also get tickets to sporting and entertainment events or order products from catalogs.
The USPS earmarks $200 million ach year to reward its 78,000 managers and 779,000 employees. The four vendors also generate tracking reports so the USPS can better track where the money goes.
If, for example, a USPS department continually gives out incentives to employees for safety but has had increases in accidents, the reporting provided from each vendor can track that activity, said Clifton W. Wilcox, compensation specialist at USPS. As a result, the USPS can look at its rewards holistically and recognize what correlates and what doesn’t, he added.
“We aim to help simplify the whole process,” said Rick Gordimer, spokesperson, Carlstadt, NJ-based IncentOne. “Right now with so many different locations, not everyone’s doing the same thing so we wanted them to be able to order and get rewards quicker.”
