Ways to Reward Employees (Without Giving Them Cash)“This post originally appeared on OPEN Forum, an online community providing small business owners with information and advice to help them do more business.”When it comes to rewarding your employees, cash is king—but only for a few hours. Money is not a long- term motivator. However, a little creativity and variety regarding your reward and recognition program will go a long way toward keeping teams. Use any or a combination of these reward and recognition ideas for work teams. Ideas for Creating a Customer Loyalty Program. Customers are the bread and butter of any small business. Professional Staff Program; Offices. Office of the Vice President; Benefits; Compensation; Disability Services Office; HR Administration and Information Systems; HR Operations; Labor Relations; Marketing, Communications, and. Sure, employees love a check—who doesn’t?—but finding ways to engage with them rather than pay them off will result in more loyal, harder working employees. Here are 1. 01 ways to say, “I appreciate you and all your hard work,” without breaking your budget. Let your team work when they want to work. The flexibility can be worth a lot more than cash. Maybe they won’t need daycare services for their child, for example, if they can make their own schedule. Saying thanks about something specific may be the ultimate reward. If you do it selectively yet authentically, a thank you note may be pinned above your employee’s desk for years. Lunch with colleagues is fun, breaks up the routine and keeps employees in the office. It’s an all- around win for anyone who likes to eat. Reward your team with a break from work by having a . Have everyone bring in their baby photo, then have everyone guess who’s who. Swap desks with your employee for a day, as a reward. They still do their work of course, but with their feet up on the desk (and yours in the cubicle). This is an old- school reward that has been around forever .. It's a great form of public recognition. Staff meetings, group email, departmental bulletin boards. 50 No-Low Cost Recognition Ideas. 20 Informal Ways to Reward Individuals. Hold up an applause sign at the next staff meeting after you mention your employee's successes. Hand out the 'Bright Ideas' award for innovative thinking. Casual Friday has turned into casual every day. Change things up by allowing flip flops as a fun way of recognizing success. An extra day off from work always helps, and is even better when employees can pick the day and get paid to boot. Take your employees for a tour of one of your vendors or suppliers' facilities. It’s a cool way to learn more about who you work with, and can be as fun as a field trip was in grade school days. Create a formal letter recognizing your employee’s achievement. Sign it and use the company’s seal to give the letter something extra. If you really want to do it right, frame it too. Any celebration is that much better when there's yummy cake. Get all your employees together in the same room. Then invite in the employee you're recognizing and give him or her a standing ovation. Replace that burnt coffee pot with a selection of gourmet coffees. Breakfast from the Boss. Bring in a catered breakfast for your team, and designate yourself as the main waiter, serving all your wonderful employees. Rent a nice car for a week and give it to your employee. Have the local historian take your company for a tour of your town or city. Share the history of where you are today and what used to be there. Create a scrapbook as your company grows over time. Each month start off a scrapbook page with the employee you're recognizing. Their names will be part of history, literally. Reward employees with your own custom phony money (or use Monopoly money) and allow them to redeem it for gifts at the end of each quarter. Create a wall of fame for each recognized employee. Be sure to write below their picture what they did that you're recognizing them for. Get a football helmet from each employee’s alma mater and put it on their desk. Every time they do something great, give them a helmet sticker .. Set up one amazing office in your building (yes, better than yours). Each month, for an entire month, give the employee you're recognizing the office to work out of. We did this at my first company and it always brought fun, laughter and recognition. Get a big trophy and give it to the employee you are recognizing for the week. At the end of the week, they must return the trophy but they need to add one thing to it. At the end of the year, you'll have a trophy with 5. It looks hysterical and has lots of memories. At the end of the year, retire the trophy and put it in your reception area. Have their car professionally detailed while they're at work. If you want to save a lot of money, do the detailing yourself. Tell your local paper about your employee’s success. Also tell the paper in the town where your employee lives. Run a press release too. Then, when it gets printed in the paper, get the article framed and give it as a gift to your employee. Let your employee ditch one project they like the least, and you do it yourself instead. Name an office, lounge, conference room or any room in your office building after the employee. Be sure to put a plaque right outside the room. Have a massage therapist come to your office for the day and give every recognized employee a chair massage. A chiropractor isn’t a bad idea either. Have your own annual Academy Awards ceremony (or name it whatever you like). This can be done in the summer to offset the annual winter holiday parties. Hire them a life coach to work on whatever they want. Just be careful with how you present this one. You want to make sure it's seen as a reward and not a hidden agenda to fix something. Pay for one adult education class of their choosing. Give them a subscription to any magazine of their choosing. This gift shows up monthly (or weekly) all year round, reminding them of your appreciation. Get them a catered lunch, in a picnic basket, and invite their spouse or significant other to enjoy it with them during an extended lunch break. Get each employee to write something positive about the person you're recognizing on a piece of paper. Either give them the box of collected sayings or frame them for the person. Give them a gas card (or public transportation passes) to cover a month’s worth of travel expenses. Give them a pair of movie tickets, and the time off to go see their favorite movie during the workday. Support the Girl Scouts. Have the company buy dozens of boxes of cookies from your employee’s daughter (assuming she's in the Girl Scouts) and give out the boxes to all the other employees at the office. You shouldn’t be eating that much anyway. The words “thank you” are powerful. And sometimes all you need to do is to say it sincerely. Get your employees tickets to see their favorite band in concert. Call the event in advance and see if you can get the band to give them a shout out during the concert. Take the thank you card to a whole new level, and write a card to the employee’s entire family explaining how much you appreciate your colleague. Put a gift in each of three offices and close the door. Then have the employee choose the door they want, and they get the gift behind it. Find out what your employee’s passions, hobbies or interests are. Then give them a gift in that field. Collectors are the easiest to do this for—they always love to get that perfect coin or stamp, etc. Create a video recognizing your employee. Post it on You. Tube for your employee and anyone they want to share it with. The all- time classic method of giving recognition. Add a handwritten thank you note for an important personal touch. Many employees sit for at least eight hours a day. Reward their exceptional effort with a new comfortable, supportive chair. Post a sticky note on their monitor, saying thanks and saying why. Simple, but effective, when it's authentic. I'm not a big fan of email blasts. But in this instance, I encourage it. Send an email to the entire company explaining how impressed you are by your employee for going above and beyond. Double the time of their breaks for a full week—double the lunch break, coffee break, any and all breaks. Give them the chance to win millions, and it only costs you one dollar. Have Their Home Cleaned. Who wants to come home from work, to work on the home. Hire a maid to clean their house for a full year! Allow your employee to bring their dog (or other pet to work). Be sure that a crate or cage comes along. A snake slithering around or a bird landing on your colleague’s head may not be well received. Photo: Getty Images 5. While not necessarily a healthy choice, they're super yummy. Bring in donuts for the team you're recognizing. If you have one, feature them in it. Recognize team players with a team jersey from their favorite sports team, and their name on the back. Have a gorilla, or whatever creature is available, show up at work with a singing telegram about how great the employee is. Videotape the song and response and post it on You. Tube or your website. Say it with Fruit or Cookies. Send the employee a bouquet of healthy, edible fruit or cookies. Have it delivered to their home, or in the office if they live alone. Name a Beer After Them. Microbreweries will often brew a small run of beer, slap a label with your employee’s name on it—Magnificent Mike Michalowicz Mead for instance. Or create a label and stick it over their favorite beverage. Buy an elaborate costume jewelry kind of crown (the more elaborate and gaudy, the better) and crown them during a morning meeting. Their Own Personal Assistant. Hire a temporary assistant for the day, week or month to help them with whatever work tasks they have, from filing to answering phones. There’s nothing like an old- fashioned ice cream party where the teams you’re appreciating make their own sundaes and desserts from a selection of ice cream and toppings. Buy or rent an old- fashioned freestanding popcorn popper. Break it out to pop popcorn only when it’s time to recognize someone, or show appreciation for a great effort by a team. If your business has music playing in the background all day, show your appreciation by letting the employee you’re appreciating select the music for the day. I personally suggest some Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and Judas Priest. Have every employee write up a gift, privilege or recognition they’d like (or just use this list) and then put each item into an Appreciation Jar. Have the employee being recognized select their method of appreciation at random from the jar. Buy one of the talking photo frames available at any photo store. Place a certificate of appreciation inside, and record a personal 1.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |