Rewarding employees – one of the keys to success
How employees perform their activities and how the results appear highly depends on the recognition they get for it. Employee compensation is greatly regarded by managers and employees alike, as it increases the motivation force among the company members, thus leading the company towards great achievements. The recognition employees get for their work should match the contribution and result of each and every one.
Rewards and recognition may be granted to employees publicly or in private, and they should be made according to each employee’s likings and interests. For example, some companies hand out hard-to-get tickets to a particular concert or show they know the employee is a fan of; others give spa days or paid lessons to a sport the employee plays. There is an infinite number of ideas of how to reward a subordinate as to motivate him or her to work harder and better, but it must be taken into considerations the fact that each employee is unique by nature and even though in the company all employees act as a team, they are in the end individuals.
According to MetaForce, the rewards need not be expensive or hard to get by managers. Many of the rewards and recognition acts consist of verbal acknowledgement, given in private or publicly. Some employees are not very fond of the public appraisal of their work, while others take great pride in being “applauded” by their supervisors in front of their fellow colleagues. In order to ease the implementation of rewards and recognition in a company, MetaForce recommends the following easy-to-do ideas:
- Send thank you cards (make sure they are written in a thoughtful and sincere manner).
- Tell the employees what were the reasons for choosing them for a particular project. Acknowledge their qualities and professional skills.
- Send a complimentary email to the owner of the company talking about the employee that had a major contribution to the company’s project in a period of time. Make sure you cc: the employee.
- Thank a specific employee or department in the company newsletter, pointing out the contribution to the company’s system of values.
- Take the employee to lunch and use that opportunity to thank him personally, while rewarding him for his or her work.
- Reserve a few minutes in a meeting to read emails or letters that specifically praise the good work of an employee.
These are only a few recommendations on how to best reward a faithful employee. Some companies like to adopt more unusual ideas to compensate the efforts and results of employees. Among the wackiest ideas we find giving the employee a three-week vacation, or paying his/ her parking fees for a year, update his/her next airline trip to business or even first class. And by wackiest we mean rather expensive rewards that can only be given by big companies that can afford spending money on these actions.
To put it in a nutshell, employees that work hard and bring valuable financial results to their company deserve to be rewarded, this leading to the employee being satisfied and happy with their job, feeling that their work does matter. It is all like a cycle: the employee works, his/her work is acknowledged, the employee feels motivated to continue to work as good or even better than before. It is all about giving thanks.
References:
- MetaForce (2004), Reward and recognition ideas for great managers
- Cannon, D. (2011), How to reward great ideas
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Tags: Human Resources performance, Rewards, Talent management
