When an employee leaves your organization and is archived in your Awardco platform, they lose the ability to spend their points. For organizations who tax employees on points awarded, or even for those who do not, they often feel an obligation to deliver the value of remaining points to the employee. The Point Auto Redemption feature for archived users can help deliver that value. This article will outline what this feature is, how it works, how to set it up, and include a general FAQ section at the end.
Point Auto Redemption
If an employee is archived for the pre-determined amount of time, their remaining eligible points will be automatically redeemed for a virtual prepaid card and sent to the secondary email attached to their account. Points can only be auto redeemed so long as:
- A secondary email address has been provided
- Points are eligible to be spent on a prepaid card
- They meet any card minimum and maximum denomination requirements
If any of the above requirements are not met, points can either remain in the user's account or be returned to the company account.
Collection of Secondary Email Addresses
Secondary email addresses must contain a personal email address as the employee will no longer have access to their work email. Awardco strongly recommends sending secondary email addresses through the user file in a ‘Secondary Email’ column. If secondary emails are not known for all employees, we recommend sending all known addresses. Those who do not have a secondary email address included in the user file will be prompted to provide one on their first login after the feature has been enabled.
Eligibility to Redeem for a Prepaid Card
Currently, the only redemption option for which remaining points of an archived user can be redeemed is a prepaid card. If your organization does not have prepaid cards as a redemption option, users won't be able to redeem archived user points. The Point Auto Redemption feature only applies to points that can be spent on prepaid cards, and points that meet the minimum/maximum redemption requirements for prepaid cards. If the archived user has a point balance below the minimum requirement or above the maximum limit for the country listed in their account info, point auto redemption will not trigger because the entire amount of points cannot be redeemed, and the points will remain in the archived user's account. Below are the daily prepaid card limits for each country according to the country the archived user has listed in their account info. If a user has more points than can be redeemed in one day, additional redemptions up to the daily maximum will occur each day until either all points are redeemed, or the remaining points are below the threshold.
- U.S. (1-1,000 USD)
- Japan (500-100,000 JPY)
- India (500-10,000 INR)
- ALL other countries (5-1,000 USD)
If a user was previously archived and meets all requirements but the trigger date has passed, once the feature is turned on their points will automatically redeem the next evening so long as the users were archived within 30 days. If the users were archived over 30 days from the trigger date and the feature is turned on, their points will remain in the archived user accounts.
When the points are redeemed automatically for a prepaid card, the archived user will receive an email in the inbox of their secondary email. The email is a transactional email template that is exactly the same email that users receive when they redeem points manually for a prepaid card.
Setup Process
To set up this feature, we need to know the number of days after a user is archived to trigger the auto redemption of their points. We strongly recommend adding a few days to the frequency that you drop off your user file (e.g., if you provide your user file weekly, have this feature trigger eight or more days from the employee being archived. That way if an employee is accidentally archived, a new file can fix the mistake before their points are auto redeemed. Points will be redeemed and a prepaid card sent on the trigger date regardless of if that day falls on a holiday or weekend.
FAQ
1. Once a secondary email address has been collected, can it be changed?
Employees can change their personal email address within their profile at any time by going to the "My Profile" section.
2. Where can I view secondary email addresses?
Secondary email addresses can be viewed by navigating to the Admin page by clicking the “Enter Admin” button, clicking the “Reports” in the left navigation menu, and opening the report titled “Users.” This report will pull both primary and secondary email addresses listed in the platform. If a secondary email address does not appear for a user, they do not have a secondary email address connected to their account and will not have their points automatically redeemed if they terminate.
3. Will all employees be prompted to enter a personal secondary email address?
Employees will only be prompted to provide a secondary email address if their organization is using the Point Auto Redemption feature, if they have not previously provided one themselves or one has not been submitted for them through the user file.
4. Do employees have to provide a secondary email address?
If the Point Auto Redemption feature has been enabled, all employees will be required to enter in an email address containing an ‘@’ symbol and ending in ‘.com/gov/etc.’ if an email has not already been provided for them in the user file.
5. Can the primary and secondary email match?
Primary and secondary emails can match. Not all employees within an organization will be assigned a work email. This means that both their primary and secondary emails will often be the same. However, the secondary email must NOT be a work email. If it is, the points will automatically redeem for a prepaid card and be sent to the email provided, whether it is active and the user can access the inbox or not.
6. When will employees receive their virtual prepaid card?
The Point Auto Redemption feature can be set to redeem points for archived users as soon as two days after the user has been archived. Once the points are redeemed, the virtual prepaid card should be received in the user's email inbox the same day.
7. How do orders that are automatically redeemed appear within the platform?
Virtual prepaid cards automatically redeemed via the Points Auto Redemption feature will appear in reporting and in an individual’s order history just as if they purchased the card themselves.
8. If an employee inputs a fake email address or duplicates their work address as the secondary email address, will the points remain in their account?
Points will be automatically redeemed, and a virtual prepaid card will be sent to whatever secondary email address is attached to the archived user's account. It is up to the employee to provide an accurate email address or update the address provided for them if needed.
9. How many days after a user is archived is best practice/recommended for point auto redemption?
Best practice is to set the number of days that points will be auto redeemed after a user is archived to be one day longer than however frequently your organization’s user file is sent over. For example, if your user file is sent over every two weeks, set the point auto redemption feature to trigger every 15 days. The minimum number of days that points can be auto redeemed after a user is archived is 2 days.
10. How many days after a user is archived is best practice/recommended for points to be archived (return to the Company Account) should points not quality to be automatically redeemed?
Best practice is to set the number of days that points will be archived (or returned to the Company Account) at least two days after the trigger for the Point Auto Redemption feature. For example, if archived users’ points are auto redeemed 15 days after they are archived, designate the archive user points feature to return points that don’t qualify to be automatically redeemed to the Company Account at least 17 days after the day users were archived. The minimum number of days that points can be archived (or returned to the Company Account) after a user is archived is 7 days.
11. Non Point Auto Redemption Countries: What occurs if Point Auto Redemption is turned on, but a country the employee is in doesn't have a prepaid card redemption option?
The points will not auto redeem and will either sit in the account or return to the company balance if the archive user points feature is turned on.
12. If there is NO secondary email, what does Point Auto Redemption do?
Nothing. Points remain in the balance and no Virtual Prepaid Card is delivered because the Secondary Email field is blank. Points remain in employee wallets when no secondary email is listed, usually until the next most common automation (archive removal) triggers.
If you have any questions, please contact Awardco Admin Support.