10 Rewards and Recognition Ideas for Employees

“Our employees are our biggest assets” – that’s what the majority of the companies state about their workforce in their websites, social media platforms and so on. Unfortunately, more often than not, they badly fail to keep their “assets” motivated and happy. And this drastically impacts the productivity of such organizations.

Have a look at these noteworthy stats:

1. About 69% of the employees are willing to work harder given that their efforts are appreciated.
2. Around 58% of professionals believe that leaders should use effective employee recognition programs to enhance engagement.
3. As per the result of Gallup’s research, lack of recognition is the biggest reason for the low employee retention rate.

Thus, it will be absolutely safe to say that employee recognition programs are key to productive and encouraged employees in any organization. Let’s dive deeper and know more about the same!

Employee Recognition: Meaning

Employee recognition involves formal or informal acknowledgment of an employee’s effort, behavior, and contribution towards the accomplishment of the goal of the organization. The workplace is becoming highly dynamic in nature, and to cope with the same, one of the best tricks is to appreciate the genuine efforts of your employees.

There are numerous ways to express your gratitude and appreciation towards your team members, such as a bonus, a shout-out, or even a simple thank you. Know that your words of appreciation will motivate the employees to deliver their best every single time.

Impeccable Advantages of Employee Recognition and Rewards:

• Boosted morale: A strategic and result-oriented employee rewards platform works wonders in boosting the morale of your employees. And high morale always results in creativity, satisfaction, and improved productivity.
• Enhanced productivity: When you appreciate your employees genuinely and offer positive feedback to them, it results in enhanced employee engagement. This, in turn, results in heightened productivity. So, taking time out to praise your employees is indeed worth it.
• Improved employee retention rate: Employee retention should always be on your priority list if you wish to accomplish success in the long run. The expense of employee turnover is much higher than you can actually imagine. A lot goes in posting a job offer, screening, interviewing, negotiating and so on. Your employees are your biggest asset, and you need to work on retaining them. Employee recognition and rewards increase the employee retention rate of an organization significantly.
• A sense of purpose: When you recognize the true efforts of your employees, it gives them a sense of purpose. Your employees will be able to understand how their contribution is valuable for the overall company. A few words of appreciation at the right time can help them understand their value as an integral part of the company.

Different Types of Employee Recognition and Rewards Programs:

• Formal recognition: This is quite common in large companies. It involves a charted out and structured program that decides how to nominate an employee and confer an award upon him. Generally, companies prefer organizing an elaborate award ceremony to publicly recognize an employee’s hard work.
• Peer-to-peer recognition: This methodology notches up the entire employee recognition game. When they motivate each other, team spirit and unity increase manifolds.
• Informal recognition: This type of employee recognition technique is used to encourage employees when they accomplish a specific milestone. It often takes place in an informal setup such as a few hours in the pub, or a pizza party, or even a day off.
• Micro recognition: Micro recognition involves providing instant feedback to any genuine behavior or specific task of an employee. It encourages the employees to adhere to the core values of the company.
• Bonuses: Bonuses are offered to the employees in the form of monetary rewards. These types of rewards are extremely popular among the employees and help in maintaining a healthy competitive spirit among them.

Top 10 Effective Employee Recognition and Reward Ideas:

1. Offer balanced feedback: While providing feedback, always balance your positive or negative words with developmental feedback. Let your employee know that there is always a scope for improvement and learning.
2. Centralized SaaS-based technology: Having a centralized SaaS-based technology can make your employee rewards programs more effective. Keeping your employees motivated will become much easier when you have a clear idea and strategic design in front of you. An employee recognition software uses pure Science to keep the entire process organized. With it, one can pay attention to even the minutest details regarding the program.
3. Wall of fame: Create your very own wall of fame and put up the pictures of your top-performing employees on that wall every month. Make them feel proud of themselves!
4. Flexible work options: Let them complete their work target from their home, coffee shop or office cubicle. Such flexibility can immensely enhance the level of productivity of the employees.
5. Freedom to choose gift cards: Allow your employees to choose from a set of thoughtful and rewarding gift cards. The freedom to select a gift card of their choice can indeed have a long-lasting impact.
6. Accept anonymous feedback from employees: Start accepting anonymous feedback from your employees and begin working on areas where there is a need for improvement and correction.
7. Meet and greet with CEO: A special meet and greet event with the CEO or the president of the company can indeed boost the morale of the employees. Even video conferencing can do the magic.
8. Social recognition: Appreciate your employees publicly on social media platforms. Let them exhibit their hard-earned appreciation on platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook etc.
9. Good, old performance-based awards: Do not undermine the efficiency of performance-based awards. Titles like employee of the month/year are still effective enough to keep your team agile and productive.
10.  Appreciative badges: Offer instant gratification to the employees in the form of appreciative badges. These can be offered once a specific challenge is completed within the given deadline.

In a nutshell

For every business enterprise and company, having a robust employee rewards and recognition program is of utmost significance. Appreciation and meaningful rewards indeed work wonders when it comes to employee retention and productivity. Your positive words, grateful gestures and encouraging tonality make your workforce elated, determined and hardworking. So, come up with a modern, effective and purposeful employee recognition program and witness the change for yourself.