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WorkStride Takes The Focus Off “Points” And Puts It On Communication

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WorkStride is a new software platform powered by CorporateRewards that powers employee engagement and performance programs across the enterprise. The WorkStride platform supports a range of programs: recognition, incentives, safety, wellness, and training. Below is our recent interview with Tom Silk, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at CorporateRewards:

tom-silkQ: CorporateRewards is an employee engagement software and service company. Tell us something more about the company and your history?

A: CorporateRewards began in 1999 as a consumer business called Giveanything.com. Our patented 16-digit reward code currency, which can be redeemed for gift cards to hundreds of retailers, started to draw the attention of companies looking for employee rewards and sales incentives. Once we realized the power technology had to engage and motivate employees beyond rewards, we shifted our focus to the design and development of full-fledged recognition and incentive programs. Today, our WorkStride platform supports a range of programs: recognition, incentives, wellness, safety, and training. We talk about these programs and other issues on our CorporateRewards Blog.

Q: Why is workplace culture such an important topic right now?

A: Great companies realize that creating a magnetic culture attracts highly skilled, motivated, and engaged employees. With the economy improving and social media making it easier than ever for people to move between jobs, it’s vitally important to form a connection with employees beyond salary and benefits.

Culture is also a huge competitive advantage. Your competitors can lower their prices to beat yours; they can steal your technology and replicate it; and they can even poach your customers. One thing they can’t do is recreate exactly what it’s like to work at your company. A great culture bleeds outside your doors to your customer interactions and service levels, and that’s where you’ll beat the competition even if your products are similar.

Related: ChannelEyes Reinventing Channel Communication For Leading Companies

Q: How do you think the recognition and incentives industry is changing?

A: The traditional model of lifetime employment is dying. Managers need to engage their employees through communication and recognition daily, not just on a five-year service anniversary, which is becoming a rare milestone.

Employers are also realizing that simply handing out points and gift cards is not the way to truly engage employees. Managers need to clearly define goals and expectations, recognize employees for meeting those goals, and facilitate collaboration among their teams. Our industry needs to rise to meet these needs by providing the tools to truly engage with employees on a daily basis, whether or not money is changing hands.

workstride-program-screen

Related: Communication Platform For All Your Needs – Startup Mailbird

Q: WorkStride is a new software platform that powers employee engagement and performance programs across the enterprise. What are main benefits of using it?

A: The recognition and incentive industry was built upon the idea that companies have to give employees “stuff” to motivate them. CorporateRewards is challenging this model with WorkStride, which emphasizes the non-monetary side of employee engagement with tools for social sharing, event management, onboarding, survey creation, training, and the ability to share win stories across the organization.

WorkStride is the only software solution that integrates recognition, incentives, and retail value rewards, providing a seamless user experience across multiple initiatives. Although WorkStride is a SaaS-based platform, it was designed with ultimate flexibility in mind so each client program can be configured to their exact needs, with no workarounds or compromises in functionality. It also integrates seamlessly with third-party software such as HRIS, CRM, and talent management systems, as well as via single sign-on with existing company websites.

Q: How can software help with increasing employee engagement and building culture?

A: Recognition and incentive platforms need to be more than just places to earn and spend points; they need to facilitate relationships and communications between management and employees. A good platform will allow employees to read about their peers’ achievements, congratulate them, share wins, and communicate with team members about the great things that are going on around the company. At a small company these things might happen naturally in real life. However, at larger organizations where some team members might not even work in the same office, it’s important to have a central place for these interactions to happen.

WorkStride-incentives-feature

Related: MetaMoJi Apps Will Help You Work Smarter

Q: What advantage does CorporateRewards have over its competitors?

A: Our main advantages:

  • Configurable software solution:
    – Our customers can have their program built to work exactly the way they need it to, with no workarounds. Many of our competitors use restrictive off-the-shelf SaaS software that limits functionality such as user types, approval workflow, and the types of reports available. If a change is needed it often must be made for all companies using the platform so it could take months to implement a simple request or fix.
  • Comprehensive, scalable platform for enterprises:
    – The WorkStride platform can accommodate programs and initiatives for all parts of the organization—HR, sales and marketing, operations, etc. with no need for separate software packages, URL’s, or logins. Your company may start off needing a recognition program, but soon grow to need other programs to train, incentivize, and reward employees. With WorkStride, all of your programs can be bundled in the same interface and software. Most of our competitors specialize in just one area; if they do have multiple offerings they are often on separate platforms. Our software adapts to where your organization needs to grow.
  • Dedicated support services:
    – WorkStride’s software is supported by an experienced in-house team of web designers, software developers, QA testers, account managers, and customer service professionals that are just a phone call away.


Q: Tell us something more about WorkStride’s reporting module?

A: WorkStride is built to record any and all data that passes through it, including program statistics such as cost per recognition and received awards and site analytics such as time on site, logins, and page views. All of the information is presented in a user-friendly and visually appealing way, with colorful callouts and graphics. Every report offers multiple filters, which are unique to your organizational requirements and can slice and dice the data in a myriad of ways—by department, manager, award initiative, etc.

The client can also use program activity for true analysis by integrating data from other sources into the program. For example—sales data can be imported from a CRM system into order to validate entries in an incentive program and to perform ROI analysis based on lift per promotion.

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