If you want to grow your business, you need to keep your employees engaged. After all, employees are your greatest asset, and when they feel supported, they produce better business outcomes.

But, achieving true employee engagement can be challenging, especially as hybrid and remote work models become more prevalent and some in-person interactions are limited to company offsites or the occasional in-office meetings. 

According to a recent report from Gallup about the state of the global workforce, 65% of the U.S. workforce (the majority) is not engaged in their job. Ultimately, this lack of engagement leads to lower job satisfaction for employees and higher attrition for employers, costing businesses heavily to backfill roles, around three to four times a position's salary, according to recent data from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).  

Fortunately, there are ways to curb attrition and boost employee satisfaction, and using virtual credit cards (VCC) is one of them. 

Let's explore three ways you can use virtual cards to keep your employees engaged.

1. Use virtual cards to manage an employee recognition and rewards program.

With an employee recognition program, you can recognize your employees' accomplishments, make them feel valued, and reward their hard work.  

Traditionally, these programs include:

• Awards
• Shoutouts
• Gift cards
• Team outings
• Bonuses
• Gifts for birthdays and work anniversaries 

With virtual cards, you can tailor a program to fit your company's needs and culture while enhancing existing initiatives. 

For example, you can:

• Give your managers a virtual card to spend on team-building events and outings. 
• Send virtual cards to employees participating in these team events and outings; they don't have to incur expenses they can’t afford. 
• Use recurring monthly virtual cards to purchase awards for top performers or gift cards for birthdays and work anniversaries.

No matter the direction you take, this project will take time, collaboration, creative thinking, and, most importantly, funding. Why not empower your human resources and leadership team with the payment capabilities they need to build a successful program?

Whether for supplies for a company event, awards to celebrate top performers, personalized cards to praise team members, or team lunches, with employee virtual cards, you can empower your team to make payments safely. 

At the same time, you streamline purchasing, eliminate the hassle of sharing corporate cards and keep your employees from footing the bill and submitting yet another expense report. (A killer for employee morale.)

‍Because the truth is many employees can’t cover business expenses or wait for reimbursement. Instead of asking employees to cover the cost, use virtual cards to make it easier for them to pay for what they need and reduce the amount of work that goes into filling out expense reports. 

2. Use virtual cards for professional development and training. 

Another approach to boosting employee engagement and retention is upskilling and reskilling your team. According to LinkedIn Learning, three of the top five factors people consider when pursuing new jobs reflect their desire to stretch, grow, and develop new skills. Additionally, a survey by Napa revealed that 58% of respondents would likely leave their company if they weren’t supported with professional development and career advancement opportunities.

Why not show your commitment to continuous improvement and equip your employees with the skills they need to grow and succeed in their careers? 

With virtual cards, you get a hassle-free way to send unique virtual card numbers from your existing corporate card, so employees can sign up for the training they want and purchase the learning materials they need anywhere, anytime.

In the meantime, you and your accounting team gain complete control and visibility over the budget, purchases, spending limits, and transactions, which can be automatically allocated to the correct general ledger account. You can easily set, distribute, and track training budgets for the year or quarter and for individuals or teams. 

If these “Professional Development” virtual cards aren’t fully used by the end of the desired period, there is no need to move money back to your account since you only gave credit line access, and funds won't be available for spending once a virtual card expires.

Your employees can use virtual cards to pay for:

• Online course and certification fees; 
• Additional course materials, books, and resources; 
• Professional association memberships; 
• Industry conferences and workshops; and
• Learning subscriptions like Coursera, Skillshare, or Masterclass. 

Ultimately, investing in your employees will not only increase the value of your team and your business, but you’ll also ensure they can envision a future with your company. 

3. Use virtual cards to support your remote employees with home office equipment. 

Let’s face it; remote work is here to stay. Despite many companies encouraging employees to return to the office, the work-from-home and hybrid work models persist, with many employees at home or in the office at least two to three times a week.

This trend is expected to continue according to Upwork, which projects 58% of Americans will be fully remote by 2025, a 22.9% increase from pre-pandemic times. Therefore, you need to ensure your employees are well-equipped to focus and produce their best work wherever they’re working. 

You can do this by investing in home office equipment for employees, like ergonomic furniture, standing desks, and computer monitors, or implementing a monthly stipend for office supplies. Choose a level of investment for supporting remote employees. 

To do this, leverage virtual cards. Especially if you have employees scattered across various states or countries, providing a physical corporate card is simply not an option. Asking employees to use their own credit cards isn’t a great option either. reimbursing employees is a hassle, and tracking the office equipment spending for each individual is time-consuming. Instead, you can instantly assign a virtual credit card per employee, wherever they are, and use an “office equipment” tag alongside a budget to keep track of spending. 

Benefits of leveraging virtual cards for your employee engagement initiatives.

Employee engagement is crucial to business success, and using virtual cards can help. 

1. You can easily fund your employee engagement program without roadblocks.
2. You can instill trust in your employees and empower them to make purchasing decisions.
3. You can reduce friction and tedious payment processes for your finance team so they can spend more time on needle-moving tasks.

Implement a virtual card solution in your business.

Ready to go virtual? Create your first virtual credit card here.