Everyone deserves to feel valued, especially by their employer.
In an ideal world, an employer would be able to give everyone glorious large bonuses and hold luxury company dinners every month, but this is an unrealistic expectation and not possible for most companies. Finding great ways to reward your employees doesn’t have to be hugely expensive.
Simple and kind, thoughtful gestures will go a long way to express your gratitude for your employees. If your employee feels valued and appreciated they will undoubtedly work harder and experience more enjoyment from their job, creating a great situation for both employees and employers. So what are the best ways to reward your employees and improve your employee loyalty?
Praise
The great thing about praise is that it doesn’t cost a thing. Praising an employee is a meaningful and super simple way to show that you care, and everyone will appreciate this.
A private conversation, or a handwritten thank you note explaining how much you appreciate an employee’s efforts will create a long lasting dialogue about performance while keeping your employees on the right track and will improve engagement. Stay away from using generic emails, as this will potentially reduce the gesture and make it feel more like an obligation than actual recognition. Managers should believe in creating a recognition culture at their company.
Showcase
Your greatest employees are the pillars of your company. Managers should ensure they provide them with the opportunity to lead by example to reinforce the idea that their accomplishments are exemplary. Acknowledging employees as leading specific areas, such as human resources, sales or customer service, will ensure they feel valued. Another effective way to showcase your employees is to award employee of the month and announce your reasons to the team as this will inspire other employees to compete for this award.
Responsibility
If you believe you have a highly capable employee, why not give them some added responsibilities to show you really notice and appreciate their abilities. Giving your employees the chance to take the lead on important tasks, or allowing them to make their own judgement without your involvement will show them you truly believe they are capable of the task. Allowing your employees to have more responsibility demonstrates you take their career goals seriously, and they are worth your consideration to progress to a more important role within the business.
Gamification
Gamification is a great way to reward your employees simultaneously. Using gamification, like point scoring or friendly competition, to add an exciting new level of interest to routine tasks will boost your employee engagement and set an enjoyable, competitive environment for your employees. To reward your employees will result in such a fun way will make them feel less like they are being pushed to work hard without recognition.
The reward could be something as simple as a cinema ticket, gift cards or a free lunch. Your employees will appreciate the effort you took to making their work environment that little more exciting. Research all the various software solution to help you provide a gamified experience that is socially safe and stimulating to employees.
Events
These events do not need to be extravagant. Try and organise a break room celebration every few weeks. This could be anything from monthly birthdays to company anniversaries. Provide catered lunches during an important business time to show your employees you appreciate everyone coming together and contributing to the occasion.
Flexibility
If an employee has gone above and beyond in their duties for the day, make sure you award this. If an employee has exceeded what you originally expected from them, why not let them have a short day. Or, if someone stayed late the night before finishing a big project, let them know they are able to come in an hour or two later the next day so they are able to catch up on their sleep.
You may even feel comfortable allowing them to take an extra day off if they have done an exceptional job and surpassed their goals. Helping your employees to create an ideal work and life balance is massively rewarding because you are allowing them extra time to spend with their loved ones and pursue any hobbies or passions.
These strategies can all be implemented immediately. Employers who make the extra effort to show their employees a good amount of appreciation will see boosts in productivity, an overall increase in job satisfaction, and much greater employee retention.
