Rewards gap leaves workers feeling overlooked

Gift Card & Voucher Association research suggests small rewards still carry real emotional and practical value for employees, but access to those benefits remains uneven across contract types and sectors.

In polling of more than 1,000 UK employees and 250 business leaders, 72% of workers said receiving a gift card from their employer made them feel more positive about their work, while 88% said even a modest £50 reward made a meaningful difference to everyday life. Employers, meanwhile, said gift cards are most often used to show appreciation, boost morale, and support retention, with many organisations shifting towards digital delivery and more personalised distribution as workforces become more dispersed.

The headline gap sits in who actually receives that recognition. Almost two-thirds of full-time employees, 63%, said they had received some form of reward in the past year, compared with just 36% of part-time employees. Sector differences are equally stark. Only 32% of workers in local or central government and 36% in education said they had been rewarded, compared with 85% in technology and 81% in construction.

That divergence matters because recognition is increasingly being treated as a business variable rather than a cultural extra. At a time when many employers remain under pressure on wages, hiring costs, and retention, modest non-cash gestures are being used to fill part of the motivational gap that larger pay awards cannot always cover.

Hannah Shimko, Managing Director of GCVA, said: “Recognition shouldn’t be a privilege reserved for certain contracts or sectors. Our research shows that employees who receive rewards feel valued and supported, and that translates into higher motivation and loyalty.

“Yet too many part-time staff and public sector workers are missing out. This is a moment for employers and policymakers alike to reflect on who is being recognised and who is being overlooked. Rewarding staff is not just about perks, it is about creating cultures of appreciation and inclusion. Gift cards provide a simple yet personal way to show staff they matter.”

The research also feeds into a wider policy debate. GCVA says many employers do not fully understand how the existing £50 Trivial Benefits Allowance operates, and it is using its “It’s Not Trivial” campaign to push for greater clarity and longer-term reform. Under current HMRC rules, trivial benefits must be non-cash, cost no more than £50, and cannot be tied to specific services performed by an employee. That means the compliance detail matters as much as the headline generosity.

GCVA argues that a clearer and better-understood framework would help employers use small gifts more consistently, particularly in sectors where morale support is valuable but budgets are tight. For now, the survey points to a simpler conclusion: recognition may be modest in monetary terms, but where it is absent, the signal can be much larger.