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There are many ways to reward employees and many reasons to do so. You can use employee reward programs to simply recognize exemplary performance. Recognizing an employee's performance can assure that an employee whose performance is consistently above average remains at that high level. Also, an employee who is "on the fence" and just needs a little push to become the employee you know he or she can be, can become motivated by reward programs.

The absolute most important thing to remember when initiating such a program is to follow through. Nothing is more frustrating to an employee than constantly going the extra mile, maintaining a flawless attendance record, displaying outstanding customer service, or lending a hand to co-workers whenever the team needs them to only find out that the "Employee of the Month" certificate that has been given out for the past 7 months has now been derailed. Once you start the program, maintain the program.

You must also have clear guidelines outlining the qualifications for an employee to be eligible for a particular reward. For instance, if your reward program is designed to give a $50 gift certificate to the employee who receives a certain number of positive feedback reports from customers then you must state right from the gate if certain other actions may disqualify that employee. If an employee, we'll call her Sue, receives twenty letters of appreciation from clients in one month but she is late to work three out of five days per week, will that make Sue ineligible for the gift certificate? Some disqualifications such as this one is a no brainer but I am sure you get the idea. At the outset of this particular reward program, if it states in the guidelines that habitual tardiness will disqualify you from the program, then Sue may not only be your best team member to handle client concerns, but now she becomes your best overall employee. That is a perfect example of how a rewards program can make a marginal employee an exceptional employee. The first time you, as the administrator of the program, strays from the guidelines or forgets to give out the gift certificate just one month, the program loses its validity and therefore becomes ineffective.

There are many different tangibles you can use as your reward. The company and/or department budget will determine what you can offer. My suggestion is to be sure the reward will be in your budget every month. Rewards can range in value from a few dollars to a couple hundred big

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