Keeping Workers Happy During Holiday Shifts
For many small businesses staying open on the holidays is a key way to compete with major retailers. In doing so, this often causes obvious strain on employees and employee relations. It is essential to the success of the company that these difficult situations are handled properly, and that employees needs are kept in mind. There are some pretty simple ways to say "thank you" to employees. When assigning holiday shifts, keep flexibility in mind. Things like allowing employees to request certain shifts or switch off holidays among employees can go a long way toward boosting morale and making workers feel appreciated. Another way to say "thank you" is by giving small denomination gift cards, as a token of appreciation. Giving small gift cards is like a small bonus, and the trophy value makes employees feel like they have done enough to earn something as a reward. This motivates employees beyond the holidays, and into the new year. Be sure to be sensitive to your employees this holiday season and it will benefit your organization long after the holidays have ended.
To read more about employee rewards and holiday shifts check out the Fox Business article.
Employee Engagement at a Low
According to a new Gallup poll 71% of employees indicated they do not feel engaged, or feel actively disengaged at their jobs. Employees that do not feel engaged are often far less productive than employees who feel engaged and connected to their position within their company. This staggering statistic is indicative of employers needing to make more of an effort to engage their employees at work, and recognizing their hard work. Tom Agnew author of "The Enemy of Engagement: Put an End to Workplace Frustration--and Get the Most from Your Employees" identifies three causes of disengaged employees: poor communication about goals and performance, resource constraints that make it more difficult for employees to do their jobs, and employees who feel that they do not have the authority to do their jobs effectively. In order to engage employees it is important to keep open communication lines, and ensure that employees know when they are doing their jobs well. Giving small spot rewards such as a small denomination gift card to useful retail outlets such as CVS/pharmacy lets employees know that an employer is noticing their work, and empowering them to do their jobs to the best of their ability. Do you think your employees feel engaged? How do you think you can engage your employees better?
For more information on employees engagement from Business Finance magazine click here.
What do Twitter, LinkedIn and Employee Recognition have in Common?
Timeliness!
Incentive Magazine recently published an article called
“Forget Employee of the Month and Focus on Employee of the Moment”, where they discussed the rise of importance of immediate rewards for brilliant performance. In the past year, our connected sociability brought a 250% increase in tweets per day, 100% growth of LinkedIn users, and Facebook’s increases logins to 250 million each day, indicating a rapidly growing culture of immediacy. How does this effect HR professionals? Razor Suleman’s Incentive article announces that it’s time to institute an “Employee of the Moment” strategy by launching a social networking campaign to:
Imagine Getting Paid to Reward your employees
Google Wallet, the much anticipated mobile wallet system is now paying people to shop. After an initial slow adoption to the new service, and consumers still being slow to use mobile technology for financial reasons, Google Wallet is now offering shoppers $10 to use their service in select stores in 5 cities throughout the United States before the holidays. Google employees will also travel to major metropolitan areas throughout the nation to help consumers use the new mobile application. In today's economy that could mean a lot. For employers among us, it could mean hundreds, if not thousands of dollars saved on bonuses, or delivery of holiday gift cards. It could mean saving even more on postage, and credit card processing fees. It could mean all of your employees experiencing the ease of mobile commerce and appreciating their employer even more for delivering their holiday gift directly to their mobile phone. For consumers, it could mean one less day packing your lunch one week, or being able to grab coffee on your way to work instead of dealing with whatever caffeine is available at the office. Or for the more responsible among us it could mean ten more dollars spent on holiday gifts.
As we head into the holiday season, imagine getting paid to fight the lines at the mall, or your employer doing so.
You may not have to break the bank to reward your employees this year
A new MarketWatch survey release this week indicates that employees don't need much to feel rewarded during this holiday season.
