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How Blueboard Rewards Drive Retention [2018 Research]

When was the last time your company rewarded employees with something that sparked passion? Better yet, do you even know what your employees are passionate about (both inside, and outside of the office)?

88% of employees are not passionate about their work. So what are they passionate about? They’re passionate about sports, the arts, going on new adventures, self-expression, etc. Passion is the driving force of why people do what they do, so it needs to be woven into everyone’s lives.

As an HR leader, you have a unique opportunity to cultivate passion in the workplace by fostering an environment that enables work-life balance and celebrates employee wellbeing. Supporting work-life balance allows employees to take that much-needed time to separate themselves from their work to discover and engage with the things that bring them happiness. As employees find fulfillment through these hobbies, relationships, or activities, they are better positioned to bring their whole selves to work.



An efficient work-life balance is hard to master, but it’s incredibly important for you to encourage a healthy work-life balance for your employees. Why? Because a lack of balance can lead to an increase in employee burnout, lack of attention to detail, health issues, and much more. Your employees deserve better.

Let’s change that:

Through our menu of experiential employee rewards, our team at Blueboard supports your path towards work-life balance, and ultimately stronger retention and productivity rates. We offer employees their choice from hundreds of hand-curated experiences like relaxing at a luxurious spa, sailing along the San Francisco shoreline, or helping the employee surprise their family with a trip to Disney.

After every Blueboard recipient completes their experience, they are invited to take our Post-experience Engagement Survey. This survey not only provides feedback to our Concierge team to further drive our business, but also informs how Blueboard experiences impact employee motivation and your workplace experience.

We’re excited to pass along our Post-experience Engagement Survey learnings, summarizing all employee survey data collected in 2018 across thousands of rewarded employees:


Employee Recognition
2018 Recognition Impact Analysis


Our surveys offer insight into your employee recognition program's long-term engagement impact, focusing on four key metrics that you can access in real-time through our administrative app.

After each completed experience, employees have the opportunity to not only rate their experience with their Blueboard Concierge, but also share how Blueboard rewards changed their engagement sentiment across priority metrics; including appreciation levels, motivation change, and whether or not Blueboard is a strong tool for building company culture and retaining top talent. Here’s how our 2018 results broke down:

Say thank you more with employee appreciation

97% of Blueboard recipients feel more appreciated

Why you should care:
One of the worst feelings in the world is when you’ve spent all of this time and energy doing something really amazing, and you get no acknowledgment for all of the hard work you’ve done. This feeling can make you feel empty and unmotivated to do as hard of a job the next time around. The sad thing is, people probably did appreciate your hard work, they just didn’t directly acknowledge or recognize you, which can create a disconnect.

Recognition not only makes employees feel good, but it’s a great way to motivate them to do even better. Employee recognition is an area that a lot of companies need to work on; in fact, 58% of people mark ‘give recognition’ as a way for their company leaders to improve engagement. Don’t you want to be a company that leads with a culture of recognition?

How Blueboard helps:
Blueboard empowers companies to recognize their top talent by offering a menu of experiential activities and adventures that can spark that passion.  Blueboard helps employees feel recognized in a more meaningful way, which in turn makes them happy and increases employee retention.

And beyond the recognition moment itself, one of the best parts about a Blueboard experience is the longevity it offers - the memories that stay with the employee and only grow stronger for years to come.  

Get the best out of your employees by increasing their motivation

95% of Blueboard recipients feel more motivated

Why you should care:
It seems fairly obvious that the more motivated your employees are, the better your business will perform. But here’s the scary reality: Gallup reports that only 13% of employees are engaged at work globally, and just 30% of US workers. That means only 13% of employees are doing their best work possible. Imagine if that number increases: your company goals would be met faster and more efficiently, your company won’t waste time and resources with employees who are randomly surfing through the internet, and employees will actually feel satisfied that they are making a difference.

How Blueboard helps:
When other people see their coworkers getting rewarded for a job well done, it motivates them to do the same. Blueboard awards scale motivation throughout the office as the award recipient goes on the trip and comes back with recognition stories to share.

This is where afterglow comes in it’s that spark of contagious happiness and motivation that lights up every time the recipient recounts their adventure (big or small).

How to further boost motivation? Spread recognition beyond the Blueboard reward, to socialize the reward recipients. Consider tying a blue balloon on their desk, or placing an empty picture frame on their desk with a note “for your Blueboard adventure” that they can fill after their experience. As awareness around your recognition program builds, motivation rates across the company will only continue to rise.

Boost Employee Retention


Create brag-worthy content to build a positive company culture

94% of Blueboard recipients feel Blueboard positively impacts culture

What exactly is company culture?:
Your company culture is the root of who you are as an organization. Company culture can be a huge reason why potential employees choose to join your company or not. It’s also something that everyone can affect - not just the leadership team - but every person on the team.

Why you should care:
Companies with a positive culture have a turnover rate of only 13.9%, while weaker cultures have a turnover rate of 48.4%. Prioritizing company culture not only saves you the trouble of onboarding new hires, but it also saves you money. It can cost up to nine months salary to replace and onboard a new employee, with an average of 42 days to fill the position.

How Blueboard helps:
Blueboard's employee recognition platform creates exciting moments that coworkers can’t wait to share with each other. We want the company to brag about how awesome their employees are and what awesome things they do. Celebrating recognition inside and out of your company shows your leadership’s investment in their people and helps to create a more positive employer brand.

This brag-worthy content isn’t a one-size-fits-all, it needs to be personalized for each employee - something that sparks their passion and lights their eyes with excitement. It can be time-consuming and challenging to curate experiences for every employee on your own, which is why we’re excited to offer our hand-curated menu of hundreds of unique experiences.

Meaningful recognition programs mean more employees stay

94% of Blueboard recipients feel Blueboard helps retain top talent

How Blueboard helps:
There’s no need to explain why companies should want to retain top talent - it’s a scary candidate-driven market out there. Research by Deloitte shared that companies who scored in the top 20% for building a “recognition-rich culture” actually had 31% lower voluntary turnover rates.

Blueboard experiential employee rewards are memorable, personable, and shareable. These rewards position you to show recognition in a more meaningful way, increase employee motivation rates and help to build a more positive company culture. Combined with our ability to cultivate and support employee passions, Blueboard rewards are a great tool for retaining top talent.  

What now?

If you’re looking for a meaningful recognition program that truly makes an impact on your long-term engagement goals, let’s chat. If you'd like to do some more research, these resources will definitely help!

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As of March 12, 2024, Blueboard has ceased its operations. To everyone that supported us over the years, thank you. 🙏