It’s all too easy to get caught up in the daily grind that you forget to stop and recognize the work your employees do. Yes, happy employees are productive employees.
Recognizing those who work for you will pay off in the long term in the form of job performance, retention, and morale. This is why it’s worth considering implanting employee rewards and recognition program.
By singling out your high performers for recognition, you’ll be making sure they know just how valuable they are to the company. The good news is you don’t have to spend a fortune on recognition.
Getting Started With Employee Rewards and Recognition Programs
Getting started can be as simple as handing out a plaque on an employee’s 5-year work anniversary to something far more detailed. To begin with, the following steps when you want to implement such a program:
- Make sure top management has given you their full support. Gather a planning team together.
- Determine the context in which recognition will be given – why is the program needed? What factors will determine the recognition (i.e., service; achievement; financial results)? How many funds are available to spend on the recognition program?
- Research your resources.
- Decide on the recognition strategies (who’s going to dish out the recognition? What criteria are going to be used to determine eligibility for rewards? How often will recognition occur? How will the recognition be accomplished?)
- Document all decisions for future reference, including decisions made and the employee rewards and recognition programs’ details.
- Once implemented, seek feedback on the program and make adjustments as deemed necessary.
Ideas for Employee Rewards and Recognition Programs
You don’t need to spend a great deal recognizing and rewarding your employees. Here are some inexpensive ideas.
- Flexible hours – this is one of the greatest perks employees can enjoy.
- Send a handwritten, personal note – ask a top manager to send a personal thank you note.
- Fun in the workplace – hold regular events to boost morale and essentially productivity.
- Networking – introduce employees to chief suppliers or customers or even someone in senior management who can help them grow.
- Recognising events – celebrate births, weddings, and birthdays with employees by providing them with free food or discounted venue.
- Reward efforts as well as success – even if an employee’s ideas aren’t the very best, you want them to keep coming up with ideas. An award for the “best idea that didn’t work” can actually boost motivation.
- A free pass – offer a certain amount of free days off to your employees to use as and when they like without having to fake a sick day.
- Cream and sugar – many employee rewards and recognition programs include coffee carts or even barristers’ onsite serving free beverages to employees. Have a coffee morning where employees and management get together to discuss issues.
- Offer to swap – offer your best workers the chance to choose their own projects or tasks or trade with a colleague.
- Applauding efforts – if an employee has done something extremely worthwhile, have the entire team stand up and applaud them, literally.
- Keeping employees fit – free or discounted gym memberships help employees let off steam and stay in shape. Healthy, fit employees are very productive.
- A wall of fame – set aside a public space in the office and place photos of employees who have accomplished something quite special along with the details of how they earned their space on the wall.
- Stoking passion – employees don’t just want to like what they do, they want to be passionate about it. To help your employees feel inspired and valued through employee reward and recognition programs, encourage them to make decisions themselves and try not to compromise their creativity, enthusiasm and hard work.
Keep your employees happy, and they’ll take good care of your business. Being productive employees doesn’t only mean they’re letting the company make money, they are in fact, also making themselves money by keeping their jobs and providing for their families.