Ever wondered what’s in someone else’s Taco Shop? Wondering whether a catalog of gift cards is enough for employee rewards? Whether you’re satisfying innocent curiosity or looking for inspiration to overhaul your own program, we’re happy to share.
Let’s share some data and chat about the psychology of gift cards. Along the way, we’ll find the perfect blend of motivation and engagement through rewards.
HeyTaco rewards & redemptions: What the data tells us
We analyzed over 17,000 rewards and 88,000 redemptions across thousands of HeyTaco teams. Community identity, food, and gift cards dominate the average employee reward system.
Let’s break it down so you can use these insights to build a more impactful, engaging Taco Shop.
Employee rewards by type
On average, each team offers eight rewards in their Taco Shop. Individual custom rewards lead the pack. We’re very excited with how collaborative employee rewards programs are represented, though.
🧍 Individual (Custom) Rewards: 63.1%
🤝 Team (Collaborative) Rewards: 23.8%
🎁 Gift Cards: 13.1%
Breakdown of individual rewards (without gift cards)
As we wade through the facts, you’ll find that gift cards are still a crowd-pleaser. We’ll focus on those later. This breakdown highlights the most popular custom goodies for employee rewards and recognition.
🍕 Food & Drink: 10.1%
👕 Swag (shirts, mugs): 8.0%
💛 Charity/Donation: 6.0%
Honorable mentions:
🙌 Recognition Only
🌴 Time Off
🎟️ Experiences
🏡 Home/office perks
🧘 Wellness
To cap it off, 56.8% of HeyTaco users are offering a broad mix of PTO, jokes, team customs, and other culture-specific nods. Supporting work-life balance, workplace happiness, and community belonging are all on the menu.
🌮 Takeaway: Teams use individual rewards to reflect company values, inside jokes, team personality, and creativity, not just compensation.
The taco/gift card exchange rate
The median redemption price is 90 tacos for a $25 gift card. The average is 95 tacos, suggesting an exchange rate of 1 USD ≈ 3.6–3.8 tacos.
Extreme cases range from:
Most generous: 25 tacos for $25 → $1.00 per taco
Most conservative: 1,000 tacos for $25 → $0.025 per taco
🌮 Takeaway: Your taco-to-dollar ratio shapes how people perceive the value of recognition. A well-balanced exchange rate encourages healthy participation while keeping tacos meaningful. Use our taco value calculator to find your optimal taco-to-dollar exchange rate.
Most common rewards
From a night at the movies to coming together for a cause, HeyTaco users are most likely to choose these rewards.
| Top individual reward trends | Top team reward trends |
|---|---|
| Amazon, Uber Eats, Visa/Mastercard gift cards | “Tacos for Charity” — donations to causes that teammates care about |
| Swag (sticker packs, hoodies, mugs) | Group PTO |
| Team rituals like Taco Tuesday | Team lunches and other shared perks |
| Experiential rewards like movie tickets | Symbolic and values-based entries like “Donate a Meal” or “One Tree Planted” |
What this tells us:
- 🍕 Food & rituals are powerful team glue
- 💛 Giving is both a personal and collective motivator
- 🎁 Gift cards remain the go-to practical choice
- 👕 Swag connects people to their team’s identity
Ready to make appreciation an everyday habit?
Try HeyTaco free for 30 days. No credit card required.
Try HeyTaco freeRedemption behavior: What people actually choose
Even when teams offer both gift cards and non-monetary options as employee rewards, gift cards dominate redemptions. Why?
Subconsciously, we like being able to anticipate how a reward will make us feel. That’s why employees often default to what’s practical, familiar, and easy to use.
This may apply even more in work contexts where not “wasting” a reward feels right.
💨 Fast fact: Despite all the creativity, only ~39% of rewards have ever been redeemed. Promote your Taco Shop! Celebrate redemptions and refresh your catalog seasonally. Don’t forget to use rituals like Taco Tuesday to create momentum. And as always, ask employees if there’s anything specific they’d like to see on offer.
Why gift cards work
Gift cards aren’t just popular because they’re easy and familiar. Here are three more reasons why some rewards lineups essentially turn into employee gift card programs.
They feel like flexible cash, but better.
Gift cards beat cash because they let people indulge in guilt-free spending. Give an employee cash, and they may feel pressure to spend it on bills.
Most gift cards are seen as indulgences, and people feel comfortable using them to buy a treat.
They support autonomy, a key driver of motivation.
Employees like spending without the pressure of practical responsibilities, but they still want some control.
Gift cards let them choose something they genuinely want or need.
They’re universally appealing.
Gift cards avoid the risk of offering rewards that feel irrelevant or inaccessible in diverse workplaces.
A massive array of retailers, delivery services, restaurants, and subscription services makes them available. Most employees can choose something they truly value.
🌮 Takeaway: Gift cards succeed because they are useful, flexible, and still feel like a reward. For many teams, they’re the lowest-friction path to high perceived value.
Why gift cards aren’t enough
Gift cards can make recognition too transactional. When overused, they can even backfire. Here’s why rewards programs often work better.
Gift cards can reduce intrinsic motivation.
The overjustification effect occurs when we lose intrinsic motivation, that is, when we feel motivated to do something because the act itself feels good.
Long-term engagement drops when people start doing things for the reward rather than because they enjoy or value the work.
Expected, performance-contingent rewards can hurt autonomy.
The autonomy gift cards provide are limited to the exact items they purchase, not how they’re recognized.
If someone expects a gift card every time they do a good job, it begins to feel controlling rather than empowering.
They’re one of the least memorable employee gifts.
We’ve forgotten most of the gift cards we’ve used in this lifetime. The psychological effects of their autonomy, flexibility, and wide appeal are short-lived. Heck, we stopped relying on them at HeyTaco, too.
In contrast, non-monetary rewards like a team lunch, a specific compliment from management, or a charity donation often have a stronger emotional impact.
🌮 Takeaway: Gift cards can anchor a reward strategy, but they shouldn’t be the only reward. A culture of recognition grows through variety, surprise, and meaning.
How to boost engagement with non-monetary rewards
Many employee reward ideas are convenient. But the best redemptions are also motivating and culture-bolstering.
Here are several strategies that work:
| Strategy | Rationale |
|---|---|
| Surprise moments | Spontaneous PTO days, shoutouts, or snacks spur positive emotional spikes without undermining intrinsic motivation. |
| Tangible experiences | Team lunches, offsites, or charity days build closer bonds and stickier memories compared to cash. |
| Social proof | Share real stories: “Here’s what your teammates redeemed last month!” builds curiosity and trust. |
| Scarcity & exclusivity | Limited-edition swag or seasonal rewards increase excitement and perceived value. |
| Personalization | Include inside jokes, milestones, or core values to make rewards more meaningful and culturally relevant. |
| Blend rewards | Combining the practical and the emotional doubles satisfaction; for example, a $25 gift card paired with a team lunch voucher. |
HeyTaco: Helping admins & people leaders curate rewarding experiences
Ask anyone about best practices for employee recognition programs, and they’ll rattle off timely, inclusive, and personal ideas like they were born into the program.
Keep this in mind as you build and promote your Taco Shop, too. It’s a cultural lever, not a list of presents. People will solely gravitate toward practical rewards like gift cards unless you curate moments and meaning into the experience.
Recognition grows in impact when you align rewards with your team’s values, goals, and vibe. More than half of all teams using HeyTaco know that rewards are a tool for reinforcing rituals and building relationships–let’s increase that!
Review your Taco Shop quarterly. If it’s stale, so is the motivation. Refresh your shop today with a moment-making custom or collaborative reward!
Ready to make appreciation an everyday habit?
Try HeyTaco free for 30 days. No credit card required.
Try HeyTaco free
