What Incentives Do Employees Want?
Delivering employee incentives can only be effective if the incentives available are satisfying to employees. Here are a few popular employee incentives according to a new
Wicke's For Business article.
Travel Packages: Sending employees on a trip for a job well done on a big project, or as part of a bonus is becoming an increasingly popular option for employers. It creates a memorable experience for employees and carries a fixed cost for employers.
Gift Cards: Gift cards to popular retailers such as
CVS/Pharmacy,
Boston Market and
Crutchfield carry the same flexibility of cash but have better trophy value. Employees are more likely to use the gift card on a special occasion, rather than cash bonuses that often get rolled in to paying bills and household costs.
Social Rewards: Giving public praise and socializing employee rewards is a great way to reinforce desired behavior. Public praise does not only reward one employee for a job well done, but it shoes other employees what management is looking for in employee performance.
Demistifying Employee Recognition
Making sure your employees are recognized for a job exceptionally well done is important in any organization. Recognizing employees keeps them happy and more likely to stick around longer. Here are 4 ways to recognize your employees in a meaningful way to ensure your organization reaps the benefits of a recognition program.
Make It Specific: Recognize employees for specific actions, like exceptional work on a specific project or event. Giving specific praise helps employees set goals and understand desired behavior more clearly. Specific recognition also allows peers to make note of exactly what it takes to get publicly applauded for good work.
Make It Peer-to-Peer: Not all recognition has to come from a boss to their subordinate. While this is the most traditional type of employee recognition, peer-to-peer recognition can be equally meaningful. If one employee did another one a favor, or someone helped somebody else out on a component of a big project, peer-to-peer rewards are a great way for an organization to allows employees to say thank you to each other.
Make It Simple: Recognizing an employee, whether the recognition is coming from management or a peer should be ridiculously simple. There should be no hoops to jump through and (virtually) no forms to fill out. An easy way to enable employee recognition across all levels is to give each employee a "points" budget, that they can then give to other employees through an internal system (like your intranet). This allows employees to take full ownership of their recognition and giving, and receiving employees the ability to cash in the points for what they would like. Some employees can take an extra day off, while others can select a small denomination gift card to retailers like
Boston Market,
The Cheesecake Factory or
AutoZone.
Make It Part Of Your Culture: Build employee recognition into your employee handbook, your mission statement and/or your organizational values. This will engrain the practice of recognizing each other into every brain in your office, making it a part of everyone's routine.
For more information on employee recognition at your office check out this article from Forbes.
How to Foster Employee Loyalty
Compensation: Compensating employees can take many forms, and in order to foster employee loyalty compensation should extend beyond a paycheck. Standard payment is important, however finding innovative ways to compensate employees will help maintain loyalty among your workforce. Using spot rewards, like small denomination gift cards to popular retailers like
CVS/Pharmacy,
The Cheesecake Factory and
The Limited is a great way to show employees you noticed extra effort on a specific project, or appreciated them staying late one night.
Environment: Creating a comfortable environment where goals are clearly stated and communication is clear between peers and from managers to their team is key in creating a culture of loyalty. Working hard and having fun as a team will form relationships and camaraderie that foster loyalty, job satisfaction and improved productivity.
Employee Recognition the Right Way
Everyone knows how valuable it can be to practice employee recognition across an organization. The key is to execute an employee recognition program the right way, if your employees don't feel recognized or are not comfortable with the recognition method, your organization is not going to get the ROI it is looking for by way of increased productivity, increased job satisfaction and high retention rates. Here are 3 key ways to make sure your employee recognition program is working for your organization and its employees.
Who Is Engaged at Your Office?
Following the release of the 2013 Gallup "State of the American Workforce" study revealed some astonishing things about how much work employers have to do to engage their employees, since a whopping 70% indicated they were either not engaged or actively disengaged at work. The study also revealed which employees were more likely to be engaged at work. Did you know millenials and traditionalists (people at the beginning and end of their careers) are most likely to feel engaged in their jobs? Only 28% of Generation Xer's and 26% of Baby Boomers indicated they felt engaged at work. These numbers are indicative of a lapse in engagement in the workforce. Whether you engage employees in a health and wellness program (see who can lose the most weight), or a safety program, or provide professional development training and executive access, make sure your employees are happy. Disengaged employees cost an estimated $450-$550 billion per year in lost productivity. Keep your employees happy by providing perks and creating a company culture where team comes first and exceptional accomplishments are recognized. When an employee reaches a goal provide a reward like a summer Friday afternoon off, or small denomination gift cards to popular retailers like AutoZone, CVS/pharmacy or Boston Market, allowing employees to choose their own reward. Engaging employees at work will keep them with your organization longer and help improve your bottom line.
For more information about engaging employees and the new Gallup "State of the American Workforce" Study check out this article from Loyalty360.
