British Gas has become the first UK employer to roll out a pre-paid card system that allows staff to spend their ‘reward credit’ at any retailer that accepts the Visa credit card.
The staff benefit, which was launched last week, has seen 2,000 cards issued to British Gas employees, allowing management to offer reward, bonus and commission payments directly on to the card.
Nicola Mayling, incentive and rewards manager at British Gas said: “We are constantly looking at ways to improve the benefits we offer and our research pointed strongly to a pre-paid card as the next step.
“Our staff have told us they want us to be innovative. We are pleased to be able to offer a leading-edge product that we know will increase our staff satisfaction levels.”
The Spree Card, from incentives supplier P&MM, uses the Visa pre-paid platform Qdos.
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Users are able to activate, check their balance and load their card either online or via a 24-hour Interactive Voice Response service. P&MM has also set up a working-hours customer service call centre to answer any queries, as well as a 24-hour lost and stolen card helpline.
More than 3,700 transactions were successfully processed within the first week of the card being issued to users, according to P&MM.
