Whistle reported on May 27, 2022 that US people managers in its research spent an average of $774 a month on non-payroll disbursements. The category included gifts, small expenses and rewards, rather than gift cards alone. [S01]

A spending estimate with a defined scope

The supplier extrapolated that average across an assumed 16 million US managers to describe an annual market of roughly $150 billion. Multiplying the stated inputs produces $148.6 billion. This is an extrapolation from the supplier’s research, not an independently measured national expenditure total. [S01]

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A spending estimate with a defined scope

Manager-reported issue

Share reported by Whistle

Staying within budget

56%

Delay in receiving funds

47%

Employees preferring cash to cards or items

47%

Tracking expenditure

46%
The data behind the story

Problems managers reported with small disbursements

Shares reported in Whistle’s May 2022 research account.

%
Source: [S01] Whistle research account

Supplier-reported research. Sample size, fieldwork dates and weighting were not disclosed in the article. Categories are not parts of one total.

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Problems managers reported with small disbursements (%)
CategoryManagers
Budget control56%
Funding delay47%
Preference for cash47%
Tracking expenditure46%

What the evidence can establish

The published article does not disclose sample size, fieldwork dates or weighting. It also reflects managers’ accounts of employee preferences, rather than a separate poll of employees. The percentages are useful as a description of the supplier’s findings, with those limits kept visible. [S01]

The operational question is broader than which reward to buy. Small amounts can still create substantial administrative work when funding, approval and reporting happen in separate places. A programme can therefore be inexpensive per recipient while remaining awkward to run.

For a gift-card buyer, that suggests evaluating the surrounding process as well as the catalog. Budget ownership, a record of each disbursement and a clear handover to the recipient are measurable operating requirements. The survey does not show that changing the reward alone will improve retention or performance.