Employee discount programs offer great benefits to employees

The use of employee discount programs as a tool to recruit, retain and motivate the best employees is becoming more common among corporations. As the costs of health care and other common benefits continue to rise, some companies have had to find more cost-effective ways to attract and retain good employees. Increasingly, organizations are seeing the value of offering employee discounts to workers for products they buy anyway to be as good as any other incentive program available.

Corporate discount programs are designed to give a company’s employees access to great corporate benefits for the products they normally purchase. The solutions are good for corporate reputation and employee retention and motivation because they are usually customized for the specific corporation. While some merchants work with many corporations to offer discounts, a company’s unique mix of deals and vendors gives it an edge over competing employers.

The benefits to the end user, or the employee, are really what drives the success of this effective corporate benefit. Recognizing this, many employers rely on a specialized service provider to develop and implement their employee discount program. There are some leading companies that create custom employee discount solutions tailored to the wishes of each corporation. Leading solution builders use the latest technology to give employees access to a web portal they can use to efficiently search for merchants and discounts.

Another benefit for corporations of outsourcing the provision of employee discounts is that major service providers typically maintain relationships with hundreds of leading merchants and brands. This means that they can offer the widest range of merchants and products and the biggest discounts. Some merchants offer employee discounts of up to 50 percent off the regular price on certain products and services. This ability to select from a wide variety of offerings adds value to corporate incentive programs from an employee perspective.

At a time when fuel prices and consumer prices are relatively high, the ability to save hundreds or thousands of dollars simply by working for a particular employer may be appealing to some employees. In addition, the programs suggest to employees that they are valued and important to their employer. Employees are happy to brag to friends and family about corporate perks that make their job or company seem more respectable.

Employees are entering the workforce demanding more than ever that employers care about them as people and take care of them. With opportunities to find cost-effective, value-added, and efficient discount programs, it’s no wonder corporations are moving quickly to add this employee perk to their benefits packages.