by Craig Burr

Created on: December 16, 2010   Last Updated: December 24, 2010

Rewarding your employees is a great way of letting them know that you recognise and notice their good work. This also works as a great method of keeping your employees motivated at the work place. Many companies do not reward their employees due to not wanting to break the bank, without understanding that many things can be done so that this doesn't happen.

♦ Time off

Everybody loves to have time away from work to have some fun, so why not use this to your advantage. This could either be a full day or an hour every morning for a week. This is a great way of building a good relationship between you and your employees. If the company employees work on a shift pattern, then the employer will need to address this matter and find somebody suitable to stand in.

♦ Public recognition

If an employee does a good job, then a good way of rewarding them is to spread the word. Don't bring it up at the next team meeting, but instead call a spur of the moment meeting and discuss what they have done that has pleased you. Take their picture and place it on a bulletin board. This could be done either fortnightly or monthly to recognise who has done a good job within your company.

♦ Responsibility

If you feel like an employee really deserves something great, then look in to giving them a bit more responsibility. Promote them to a higher position to make them feel like they play a bigger part in the company. This is one way that is sure to keep them motivated and feel like their work really is getting appreciated. 

♦ Praise

Something as simple as writing a hand-written note to the employee can go a very long way. It is very important that this letter is hand-written to make the employee feel a little bit more appreciated. Employees love getting hand-written notes from their employer and some even go to the extent of framing them.

♦ Gift cards

This is a great way of rewarding your employees. Buy a handful of gift cards for local stores and hand them out once a month to your most recognised employees to show your appreciation for the work that they have done for the business.

Other little things that can be done to show your appreciation is to add a gold star under their name badge. It could be that 5 stars means a promotion of some sort. Gift them personalised mugs, t-shirts etc, or even greater discounts. 

Take some time to have a good think about what motivates your team of employees and try to think of rewards that include this. If you are not an employer, but actually an employee then it is good to bring up some of these things with your manager.

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