Virtual Incentives set out an employee rewards approach combining prompt digital recognition, personalized reward choices and purpose-built administration tools in January 2024. The guidance addressed employers whose workforces were increasingly dispersed across locations and generations.

The company cited the 2022 Incentive Marketplace Estimate Research Study, which reported that 83% of US companies with annual revenue above $1 million used non-cash incentives. That figure referred to the study's defined business population and period, rather than all employers or a new 2024 survey.

For remote and distributed teams, Virtual Incentives discussed digital badges, progress tracking and immediate feedback as ways to recognize work when colleagues were not physically together. Gift cards and other virtual rewards formed the redemption side of that experience.

Personalization extended beyond selecting a popular retailer. The guide described using employee circumstances and previous redemption choices to make relevant suggestions. Its example was a manager recognizing a colleague who had bought a home with a home-improvement gift card. It also suggested that AI and analytics could assist recognition messages and the ordering of reward catalog options.

For buyers evaluating employee rewards platforms, the company highlighted communications tools, guided recognition workflows, customizable APIs, analytics dashboards and dedicated support. Those features were presented as factors for managing a program, rather than specifications for a newly released product.

The article advised employers to balance reward variety with company culture and the makeup of their workforce. Virtual Incentives positioned outside program expertise as one way to identify mismatches between the incentives a company chose and the preferences of the people expected to use them.