Why and How; The Ultimate Guide to Optimizing your Employee Discount Program

There is a harsh truth that employers and head HR of a company doesn’t like to acknowledge.

A simple survey shows that employees hardly care about the employee benefits the company offers. Be it life insurance, medical benefits, or disability benefits. On top of that, all these benefits are double-edged swords.

You wouldn't use them unless you had to. These benefits seem like an inevitable right that should have been otherwise state-sponsored.

In this scenario, an employee discount program enters the room as the savior.

What is an Employee Discount Program?

You know how everybody loves to get a discount on products and services while shopping.

Employee Discount Program does precisely that. Employee discount program allows employees to go for an exclusive discount while they shop for products or services. The products may range from grocery items to movie tickets. Since these are exclusive discounts, the best part is that only the employees are eligible for these discounts.

Why Does it Matter?

With your management already entrusted with crucial activities in the company's proper functioning, why should you invest further resources for the employee discount program?

These few points will clear the doubt you harbor.

Your Employees are Actually Interested in it

Unlike other benefits, like life insurance, medical insurance, etc., which companies generally shower, your employees are interested in your employee discount program.

They can recognize that they can save money. And that is the underlining fact.

They appreciate this particular benefit.

Hiring Dynamic Talent Becomes Easier

When you tell your new talent that one of the benefits of joining your organization is access to an exclusive portal that will provide exclusive discounts and are not available in the open market will be a unique selling point.

If you think about it, you'll realize the impact you can make while hiring a dynamic talent. You can make your talent acquisition more efficient with the almost exact amount of compensation previously offered to your prospect.

It Helps to Keep your Competitors at Bay

Losing a vital talent into the hands of a fierce competitor is the last thing you want.

The wound runs deeper if your competitor, by their exquisite benefits, lures your employee.

You can keep your competitors at bay by implementing a proper employee discount program.

The discounts available here at the program of Vantage perks are applicable on a wide variety of products ranging from automobiles to grocery items. A platform with benefits on a wide variety of products and services gives your employee ample freedom while going for a product and keeps them satisfied.

Employee Morale Elevation

Offers as perks and discounts help you make a statement that you care for your employee and appreciate their efforts. This helps in the making of a great working atmosphere.

Another approach maybe is to reward outstanding performance with added benefits and perks.

We at Vantage Circle have the platform of Vantage Reward, where you can show your appreciation for your top performers by alloting them Vantage Points.

So, Why a Point-Based Rewarding System?

In a point-based rewarding system, each employee is part of an employee rewards system where the employer can allot points instead of money to their employees as gifts or rewards.

The employees can redeem these points earned by them and use it to buy goods/services of brands from different categories – like merchandise, travel, lifestyle, etc. – available on the platform.

This form of reward policy in your workplace motivates your employee to be more productive, and you will be able to identify an increase in your results.

How to Make a Choice?

As you are now aware of the benefits of the Employee Discount Program, you are faced with yet another dilemma. Which discount programs should you go to?

Here a list of few things to consider while going through the various discount programs.

The Associated Products And Services

This is the first step taken by most employers. What products and services or brands are associated with the discount program, and will their employees recognize the brand?

It would help if you always were on the lookout for brands with a solid national presence like Samsung, LG, and Toyota.

Well-recognized brands display credibility, even if your employee doesn't use it too often.

Local and Indigenous Connection

According to Medium, online shopping represented only 6.4%( by value).

The rest was represented by brick and mortar offline shopping, like Brick and mortar businesses like restaurants, movie theatres, amusement parks, grocery stores, automobile stores, etc.

So it is vital for the discount programs you are considering to consist of these local businesses. You should identify the offline ventures in which your employees mostly spend their money and make sure those businesses are on your program.

The inclusion of those offline outlets will make your initiative much more effective.

Exclusive Discounts Means More Money Saved

The worst thing you can do is to masquerade public offers as an exclusive offer and calling it benefits.

This is how most employee discounts give supposedly "free discounts." They fill their platform with publicly available coupons and deals that we can find online. This, in turn, backfires on your plan.

The result is mistrust, low employee management, and will distort their views they had on your company.

It would help if you made sure the discount programs you are considering are entirely exclusive to your employees and are publicly available. This creates a sense of pride in your employees regarding the work.

Relevancy of Your Discounts

Whether your discounts are exclusive or public, the relevancy of your discounts will largely depend on how deep your discounts are.

You should be clear on specific points like the average discount offered on the product both publicly and exclusively.

One more critical aspect you should look out for is in what "sector" your client provides a discount. We understand the value of discount medical surgeries, theft protection, and other such crucial domain. But the underlining fact is that people generally spend a much lesser amount of money in these domains.

According to the Economic Times, a typical working family in India spends about 3% on life insurance and 4% on health care. A large chunk of the upper-middle-class budget is allocated to luxury products and services.

It is very clear from the data above that your discount programs must include luxury or recreational products. This relevancy in the products, like mobile coupons, vacation discounts, etc., promotes a positive environment in your workplace.

How Long is The Contract?

Everything, good or bad, will eventually come to an end.

Your contract with the firm providing the discount program does not serve as an exception.

It would help if you found out how long the contract will run. If you decide not to continue with their services, what will be the notice period? Upon completion of the period of the agreement, will it renew itself? These are some of the few questions you need to be wary of while considering.

Final Touches

Now that you have a fair bit of idea about why the employee discount programs are essential and how to make an informed decision, the last thing that you should do is to rush at it.

It would help if you did not assign a low priority to this decision.

It would help if you did not waste your employee's trust or time by providing them with benefits that are nothing but an advertisement.

The questions you ask and the decisions you take will have a deep impact on your employees' well-being and, ultimately, their productivity.

When you do your homework right, you will increase your chances of landing a great program, and along with, it a great partner.

This article is written by Iftekar Ahmed. He works as a Content Creator and Digital Marketer at Vantage Circle. When he is not playing guitar or solving puzzles, he is often seen fussing over foods he can't eat because he is on a perennial dieting spree. For any related queries, contact editor@vantagecircle.com