Gift cards -- the quick and easy substitute to finding a "real" gift for a birthday, holiday or other occasion -- have invaded the workplace. Corporate use of gift cards and debit cards has increased exponentially in the past decade.

And why not? Gift card proponents will tell you that they are easy to administer, provide freedom of choice to recipients, and require minimal effort in terms of a structured recognition program. But the fact is the very features that are used to promote gift cards are also reasons why they don't work well in incentive programs.

"Hedonic luxuries are more motivating than cash and cash equivalents," says Columbia University Professor Ran Kivetz. "They generate more buzz -- more word of mouth. I have found empirically that these types of rewards are less effective than more pleasurable luxuries."

Gift cards violate some widely held tenets of effective incentives:

• They state the retail value

• Their perceived value is the same as the cost to a program sponsor (or may even cost more if service charges are added)

• They often are spent on necessities, are "regifted" by a recipient to someone else, or never get redeemed

• Trophy value is lost because recipients don't show off gift cards
  .
  .