by Raven Lebeau

Created on: March 23, 2009   Last Updated: January 29, 2010

With access to infinite resources, motivating employees would be simple.  People offered the opportunity to earn large material rewards will of course work hard. In the real world, however, resources are limited. Employers are struggling just to keep paying their employees and to continue offering benefits. When you are unable to spend money on incentives, handing out large bonuses and giving raises are not options.  The following are ideas for motivating employees without spending money: 

1. Give recognition.

People who do quality work like to have that work acknowledged. Recognition can be the simple, informal act of saying, "Thanks for a job well done," or it can be made more official. A written letter of commendation or a printed certificate of achievement will often make an employee feel valued.

When you recognize an employee's work, be sure to go into plenty of detail. Describe what it is the employee did well and why it's important to the company. An employee who feels that his or her work truly makes a difference is more likely to continue performing well.

2. Offer paid time off. 

This reward method only works if you can genuinely spare the time. Using paid time off as a motivator is especially effective for business that have a light workload due to the slowing economy.  By granting additional paid time off to some employees, you ensure that the people still working are genuinely busy. When employees are occupied and feel like everyone around them is busy too, they are more likely to feel like part of a productive team.

By rewarding the most effective performers with additional time off, you are providing incentive for quality work. Everyone enjoys having paid vacation time to relax at home or catch up on personal business. Using extra vacation really costs you nothing, provided that the employees were underworked in the first place.

3. Allow creative license.

Many employees enjoy being able to take ownership over their work and include some amount of self-expression. Instead of offering bonuses, try using creativity as an incentive. For example, you could let your top salesperson pick the next ad slogan or let your most talented customer service representative create the layout for your company web page.

4. Give additional responsibilities.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but employees often feel rewarded when they are given more complex work. People in general also appreciate being recognized as experts. A good way to recognize

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