In the past, most companies had the employee of the month award that did more bad than it did good. Even though it was originally intended as the way of rewarding the best members of the staff, it usually resulted in favorites winning every time. Not only did this kind of raising individuals on the pedestal antagonize them, but it also created a degree of tension within the company. Furthermore, the fact that the contest was fixed 9 out of 10 times, it no longer meant anything to most of the company.
Unfortunately, while most businesses did recognize this, they abolished it without finding a replacement. This is mostly a bad thing since a good employee reward system can do a world of good. Here are a few advantages of a good employee reward system.
Rewarding Behavior vs. Rewarding Results
First things first, you will have a difficult task ahead of you, when you start setting the criteria for these rewards. On one hand, you can just look at the results and the goals of the company and reward your employees accordingly. However, sometimes business will go slow and it won’t be their fault. Your staff members may be giving their best, but various outside factors may make reaching the optimal results difficult. This is why you might also want to try and reward positive behavior and not just reached goals. Positive attitude, meeting deadlines and taking responsibility for their actions are values that command respect. Even if you’re not in situation to show your gratitude financially, you need to show appreciation for them when you can.
Keep it Special
As we already determined, rewarding your employees is a good thing, but doing this too often might reduce its effectiveness. You need to keep this reward exclusive and not hand out gifts for just showing up on time or simply because it’s Tuesday. Make sure to recognize whenever someone truly did something for the good of the company and hand them the reward for it or wait for a special occasion to bequeath everyone in the office. For example, during holidays, you can distribute exclusive gift cards for Christmas. In this way, your employees will be able to see that you care for them on a personal level, as well. This just goes further to strengthen their loyalty to the company.
It Doesn’t Have to Cost Much
There are only two reasons why bosses from all over the world withhold from this practice. They either don’t care or don’t want to spend money on anything they deem unnecessary. The first case scenario simply can’t be helped, but for the latter one, there might be cure. First of all, one needs to understand that this kind of practice has an incredible ROI, since it boosts productiveness incredibly high. Second, these gifts or rewards don’t have to be expensive. For example, you can give them a handwritten note of thanks, have a lunch with them or give them tickets to a basketball game. In a lot of cases, a simple “thank you” can do the trick. Depressingly enough, even this is something a lot of people never get from their employer.
Conclusion:
A lot of office managers will never forget to follow the latest technological trends, go on various courses and take every technical step to improve their way of doing business. On the other hand, it wouldn’t be surprising if the employees and their morale took the last place on their list. This is a critical error and the one that can be extremely pricey. This is why it might be a good idea to work a bit on developing a good employee reward system for your office.