Click Here to Download The Ultimate Buyer's Guide to Employee Discount Programs
Employee discount programs are helping employers mitigate the effects of inflation on their employees. A new ebook can help employers make informed decisions about whether or not such a program can make a difference, and how to vet and identify a discount program best suited for their organization.
About a 4 minute read
It's not just your employees...we’re all feeling inflation’s pinch.
We're shelling out more money for the necessities of life: food, housing, clothing and transportation. That’s before we can even think about the higher prices for everything else. It’s gotten so bad that Americans nationwide report they’re living paycheck-to-paycheck, with no savings, mounting debt, and no room in the budget for extras.
For HR professionals, widespread worries over personal finances make it hard to do things like recruit and hire. Worse still, it makes it hard to retain talented employees who don’t just want – they need – more to get ahead in life. For decades (but especially since 2020), businesses have been searching for the right balance between appropriately compensating their employees and maintaining enough profits to stay in business (after all, inflation affects businesses too). The pendulum has swung wildly from stay-at-home orders to the hiring frenzy of the Great Resignation to mass layoffs. What’s next?
It's no big surprise an increasing number of employers are looking for creative and cost-effective strategies to help their workforce counterbalance the impact of inflation.
We've written previously about the persistent effects of this historic increase in the annual inflation rate and offered some ideas for how to compensate employees even if you’re unable to offer a hefty cost-of-living increase. Among the most popular ideas is implementing an employee discount program. Such a program can help your team stretch their paychecks by giving them access to exclusive, private discounts on things like food, gas, groceries, cell phone plans, oil changes, etc. It can also be a tool that can help differentiate your company from competitors, especially when candidates are measuring every single benefit from one potential employer to the other. Wellness Initiatives (a class of employee benefits growing rapidly in popularity) feel most complete when they also support wallet wellness as financial health is an important component of overall health.
While a discount program won't solve all your retention and recruiting problems, a good one can add some pizzazz to your suite of benefits and help in your efforts to attract good candidates.
The best employee discount programs deliver a meaningful and engaging benefit for your employees AND are easy to implement, requiring little to no maintenance from you and/or your HR team.
Some discount programs are limited in how many types of discounts they offer.
For example, some focus mainly on offering tickets to sports, theater, or other special events. Other programs focus on what’s called online “affiliate” offers. These are online discounts that are also available to the general public. While these online deals have their place, if the program offers nothing but online deals, it will lack relevance, and employees will soon disengage and ignore your discount program. It’s not really an employee “benefit,” if everyone and their dog has access to it, right?
If you want to find a program that’s relevant, inclusive AND has the staying power to keep the interest of your employees, look for one that has a large, nationwide footprint that focuses on private, local, in-store discounts at places your employees eat, shop, play or travel.
Why does that matter?
The short answer is: a network with privately negotiated discounts is unique because it offers far more value the general public will never see. These types of discounts really catch the attention of your employees.
In addition to having private discounts, it’s also critical to offer local, in-store offers at popular restaurants and retailers. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Quarterly Retail Report, 83% of all disposable income is spent at local brick-and-mortar stores, while just 16% is spent online. If your discount program has only online merchants, then it will be relevant for only a mere 13% of your employees' overall purchases.
When you’re comparing one program to the next, look for the number of physical locations within proximity of your employees. It can make all the difference when it comes to engaging your employees and saving them the most money. This is just one of the many criteria you should consider when selecting the employee discount program that’s best for your company.
Need a little more convincing? We have a longer, much more detailed answer ready for you to download for free today.
At Access, we’ve been in the business long enough to know which types of programs have real staying power, and which ones tend to be smoke and mirrors.
We’ve witnessed many programs come on the scene with a big splash, make grandiose promises, and quietly fade away. After over forty years, we know what it takes to build a truly effective discount program, and can show you how to recognize a good program from a bad one. We can pull back the curtain on all the tricks some programs use to mislead you. That way you can avoid many of the most common mistakes.
You can start by downloading this free ebook: The Ultimate Guide to Employee Discount Programs.
Soon, you’ll be an expert, knowing everything you need to find the right employee discount program for your company. It’s the quintessential go-to resource for anyone seeking a quick, yet thorough education on all things related to employee discount programs.
You’ll learn things like:
For many companies, adding an employee discount program could prove to be one of the most fun and talked about employee perks. Before you make the leap, take a few minutes to learn the “ins and outs” of employee discount programs.
After you’ve learned many of the secrets of employee discounts, you can begin your investigation with your eyes wide open. As you proceed with your due diligence, make sure you include Access Perks in your research. As America’s largest employee discount network, we’re confident you’ll find plenty to like about us.