As a new business or a business in the startup stage, your first thought was you can’t afford a reward program. In truth, however, you cannot afford not to have one for many reasons. Many companies face the question how to reward employees. Employees that are rewarded are recognized. Recognized employees are happy employees. And truth be told a happy employee is a long term employee that is also highly productive and efficient.
Starting an Employee Rewards Programs
The question of the hour has been how to reward employees, but before that question can be honestly answered you must first ask what is the plan, and which of the many ways do you want to ways to reward employees, can be tricky if not handled appropriately. Before a company can begin just giving a reward or even posting a notice that it is coming there needs to be a plan of how to reward employees. This plan needs to answer the who, what, when , where, and and how of the rewards program. For example what are the criteria in which the reward has been based, what one must do to be selected, and even something as minor how often will the recognitions be awarded. Are there any disqualifiers to be incorporated?
Ways to Reward Employees
Ideas for Reward Employees Brainstorming ideas for rewarding employees in an important step in the implementation of the new process. You don’t want to over reward to the point it is no longer an incentive for the hard worker to become rewarded. Employee recognition could include any or all of the following ways in which to begin the rewarding of employees .
1. Foster intrinsic rewards
An intrinsic reward is not one that can be handed out. It is the good feelings that one feels from doing their work. It is the sense of pride that they have in doing a good job. By including this into your workplace you are creating an environment that encourages these feelings. Letting people know that their work is worthwhile and that they are doing a good job is a huge reward in itself that they can wear with a head held high.
2. Say "thank you" frequently
One of the easiest and most overlooked ways in which to recognize an employee or a group is by saying “Thank You.” You will be amazed at how quickly this spreads throughout the job site becoming a positive chain reaction. Once more and more people are saying to others the improvement in regards to workplace relationships you will see more motivation, boosted morales, and improved teamwork begin to blossom.
3. Nurture self-esteem
Developing an environment in which you give people specific, realistic, and positive feedback that is based on their efforts, accomplishments, as well as their potential, their self-esteem will naturally go up. You will then be encouraging the employee to be more confident, to set more challenging goals, to better overcome setbacks that might arise, and to better self-manage their tasks.
4. Involve the staff and employees in designing the company recognition program
You don’t need a lot of money, actually you don’t need any money to implement a meaningful recognition program. The fact that their boss took the time to present them with a little token means more than the cash value that it holds. By involving them in the designing of the program will also give them a sense of pride as their opinions and ideas were asked for and listened too.
5. Reward the whole team
For team based accomplishments it is important that the entire team be rewarded. Otherwise rather than a positive you create competition and resentfulness between team members that will not have a pleasant outcome.
6. Recognize behaviors as well as outcomes
By recognizing small behaviors shifts or positive changes, you have given yourself a means of correcting bad behaviors in a reverse mannerism. It will encourage a poor performer to performs better.
7. Reward everyone who meets the criteria
This way an in-house contest or push can have many winners rather than just one. It is a means of saying thank you to all who met the specific criteria that were set without a room full of losers that didn’t actually lose.
8. Employee reward ideas require specific reward criteria
To prevent the talk of favoritism, luck, or corruption in the employee rewards programs the criteria the reward is based upon needs to be clearly defined. This way everyone on staff knows why the person chosen was chosen.
9. The employee recognition award with no advanced notification
By creating the right recognition ideas and providing positive employee recognition with professional flexibility, you can do wonders for your team's productivity. By offering these little incentives you are strengthening your team. With a great team under you your business will succeed with no worries.
10. Going above and beyond on a project or task
Every now and then a big project or task will surface that requires an excessive amount of attention and detail in order to ensure the client is happy beyond normal recognition. It never fails your company has one or two go to people that step up when the others will not. These team players deserve a little extra something to show you know and notice their extra efforts. Good suggestions to reward these situations must be thoughtful while not creating them to be isolated from their peers. This is a perfect time in which to reward free Uber or Lyft ride credits.
11. Employee of the Month Ideas
No matter how hard companies that use this means of reward employees there is always those that feel it is rigged for only for the elite groups. It is often hard to ensure it to be otherwise. A good way to ensure the team knows it is fair is by having the nominations and winners selected by the masses.
12. The Wall of Fame
The Wall of Fame is an area in which employees aspire to become a part. For the Rookie Wall, they must be employed three years of consecutive employment with no lates, call-off that were excused and no loss of workdays. The only exceptions are for days missed following a robbery. From Rookie move the staff into other categories adding stiffer basis and job length.
When it comes to ways in which to begin rewarding employees one must also take into account the various levels in which to incorporate as well. These would be like a team or group reward, the project award, the best partners reward, and the individual employee recognition. Adding dates and important aspects to the Workly calendar to not forget even the smallest of the important new rewards systems.