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 ones. Here are a few suggestions to use as rewards. One suggestion is inexpensive, one is a little more costly, and one is yet more expensive. As I said, the level of reward will depend on your budget and what the reward is being given for.
- Have a print company print you up some form letters (in duplicate) and give a handful to each member of management. The letter can be formal or informal. I have used a simple form with spaces for the employee's name and the date with a big green thumbs up in the background. If a member of management notices an employee go above and beyond or handle a difficult situation with a client exceptionally well, they can present the employee with one of the form letters on the spot. Since you had the form letters made up with a carbon copy, the management team member who presented the letter can forward a copy on to you. Once an employee receives a certain number of these green thumbs up letters you present them with a gift certificate to an area restaurant or grocery store.
- Another example is to have tokens such as poker chips custom made. You can have custom poker chips made with your company logo on them for a very reasonable price. With the poker chips you can go several different directions. You can make each poker chip represent a certain number of points. With these points the employee can "purchase" a half of a day off, a company polo shirt, a round of golf, etc. In this scenario you must come up with a list of "purchasable" items prior to launching the reward program. If you are in the retail business such as a grocery store, these poker chips can have a monetary value towards purchases made at your store.
- Rewards can also be given to a group of employees. If you are the manager of employees at several locations, having the locations compete can do wonders for motivation. Nobody likes to lose a competition. One example of this is to reward the staff of a particular office with lunch to be delivered to the office if their error rate is the lowest among the different locations, or if the cleanliness of the office is top notch. Once you have employees competing to show you who is the most productive, you will be amazed.
- A final suggestion is the one that will put the biggest dent in your budget. Therefore, the standards that will qualify an employee for the reward must be increased. There are travel companies out there that are in the business of providing unlimited mini vacation packages for an annual or lifetime fee. For instance, I came across a company that, for just under $4000 (one time), will make many two, three, or four day vacation packages available to you to use as incentives for your employees. I feel the money spent in this example is well worth the reward or return you, as an employer or manager, will get from the employee.
Once again, these are only a few examples of how you can reward your employees. Get creative with your ideas. Most of the time the cost of the reward is irrelevant to the effectiveness of your program. The simple fact that employees want to be recognized one way or another is enough.
Again I must emphasize the importance of maintaining the reward program once you start it. I will leave you with a bit of advice I was given by the General Manager of a large nationwide company that I worked under. I have never forgotten this piece of advice. It has served me well in both my professional life and my personal life as a father.
"IF YOU MONITOR IT, IT WILL GET BETTER!" - Anonymous