Virgin Incentives— All about giving more memorable rewards

Employee recognition has long been a cornerstone of effective management. But today, as the talent competition escalates, the ways organizations show that they value employees have become more important than ever.

Incorporating a rewards and recognition program helps increase employee engagement, leading to many benefits for the company, like increased productivity and retention. In one survey, employees cited personal recognition as the top way their manager or company could get them to produce great work.

Virgin Incentives is an emerging and trusted provider of gift cards and experience days. The company is a reward and motivation specialist and the team prides itself on delivering innovative, high-quality reward and recognition solutions to the challenges facing HR, Rewards, and Marketing professionals looking to inspire, incentivize and delight their employees and customers.

The following excerpts are taken from a conversation with Jess Hankers, Head of Sales at Virgin Incentives UK and the US

Walk us through the journey of Virgin Incentives right from its beginning to the point where it unwaveringly stands today.

Our journey started as Cloud 9 Living; it was a family-run business offering consumers various experiences across different states. The experience categories included adventure, driving, flying, getaways, tours & sightseeing, spa, and water-based activities. After 15 years of Cloud 9 setting the bar for experiences, we acquired the company and as part of the Virgin family, we rebranded Cloud 9 Living to Virgin Experience Gifts in the US. From Hotels and Holidays to Voyages and Virgin Galactic, we’re so proud to add Virgin Experience Gifts to the list of remarkable Virgin companies operating stateside. With coast-to-coast coverage, people can now find experience gifts at the ready!

We communicated the exciting announcement to all our customers and aligned our US team, partners, and processes to those from our UK market where we have been operating since 1988 and are the market leader in gift experiences.

In line with the Virgin spirit of quality and innovation, we launched our US B2B arm, Virgin Incentives.

Q. What are the various types of corporate reward solutions your company offer?

For employees, it’s always a great feeling to be recognized, valued, and rewarded – we make that happen, with flexible solutions based on an unrivaled range of experiential rewards, gift cards, collection vouchers and eVouchers. From culinary tours to once-in-a-lifetime fighter jet flights, if you’re looking to reward your US employees & customers with a wonderful new incentive, look no further than Virgin Incentives. We offer over 3000 experiences across the US and these never expire. We take pride in ourselves for offering people new experiences that they can enjoy with friends and family, whenever it suits them.

 Q. Do you have any recommendations on how the business can recognize hard-working employees more effectively?

Communicating regularly and openly with employees is key to boosting morale and employee engagement. Set clear goals and KPIs on what you can do to achieve this. Think about what the end reward should be like and what type of output you’d like to achieve from your employee engagement program.

Plan fun and exciting strategies which keep everyone engaged along the way. In addition, set up a reward and recognition program to further engage your employees. Employee rewards don’t have to be pricey, challenging, or complicated. They just have to be worthwhile, thoughtful and ultimately make your employees feel special and rewarded. Cash rewards are often incorporated into the paycheck and, from the employee’s perspective, can easily be forgotten or spent on items such as fuel or food. Alternatively, non-cash rewards, including vouchers, gift cards, and fun experiences, give people lots of choices and a great deal of flexibility.

By gifting experiential rewards, businesses are acknowledging that one size doesn’t fit all and are making sure that each employee’s reward package works for them. Furthermore, non-cash rewards can be used for team-building experiences, such as escape rooms or a cocktail-making master class. Experience rewards are about making space for discoveries and quality time together, with amazing stories for people to share.

Q. No doubt Virgin Incentives is charting new territories in this segment. Given how frequently circumstances change, what plans for transformation are you pursuing to remain relevant now and in the future?

We have ambitious and exciting plans to grow. We’re going to further invest in our people, enhance our technology platforms and continue to innovate and evolve our products. We’re expanding our product range to include new and fun experience categories. We recently launched new experiences  across various categories. We’re also going to start offering corporate customers lots of fantastic promotions and incentives, so they can get involved and consider us for their future reward & recognition scheme.

Helping organizations reward employees & customers with experiential benefits

Jess Hankers is the Head of Sales at Virgin Incentives for both the UK and the US. 20 years in sales and after 16 years of being with the company, you could say she is passionate about experiences and is incredibly proud to work for a brand that puts its employees at the heart and cares about its customers. Outside of work Jess is a mum, she likes to travel and make new memories by spending time together trying new things.

“Virgin Incentives are employee engagement and corporate rewards specialists.”