The Rewards of Recognition

There are many reasons to recognize employees for their hard work, good attitude and general loyalty to your company. There are definable results to prove that when employees are satisfied and feel a sense of pride in their jobs, they will provide a more positive experience for customers. Setting organizational goals and rewarding employees for meeting them is an effective way to motivate employees and make them feel accomplished.

The first step of creating a rewards program is to set reasonable objectives. These can include reinforcing company values or culture, increasing sales, improving teamwork, increasing customer satisfaction, exhibiting compliance with safety policies or even something as simple as staying with the company year after year. Once a rewards system is tied into these goals, it becomes a new challenge. Disengaged employees will begin working toward long-term goals that are in line with those of the company, with the understanding of what they have to gain personally from their success.

The next step is setting a budget and choosing how employees will be rewarded. Non-monetary gifts are definitely recommended. Cash is viewed as compensation and bonuses are often looked at by employees as something they are due. Merchandise awards are remembered longer and have a trophy value. It is typically considered taboo to discuss cash compensation, but making it public when merchandise is awarded to an employee is perfectly acceptable. This type of public recognition makes the recipient feel extra valued and reinforces the benefits of meeting goals and provides extra motivation for all the other employees.

Effectively rewarding employees from various departments and generations can be difficult, because they all have different preferences and priorities. A full recognition program with a large selection of non-logoed incentive items is often the best way to combat this challenge and provide rewards to employees that will create a lasting impression. Even though these products do not come decorated with a company logo, the employee has the opportunity to choose a product that they will keep and use regularly, making it more valuable and more memorable.

Creating a rewards program that features non-logoed gifts also has many benefits to the company itself.

1. They can be incredibly low maintenance. An online catalog is created with thousands of products to choose from. Employees are then able to pick a gift, order it through the website and it is delivered directly to them. The only thing the employer has to do is hand out the rewards points to deserving employees.

2. They give companies the ability to offer a really large selection of brand name products in different price points without requiring any inventory be stocked. The huge variety ensures that every individual employee will be able to find a gift they will value without any financial risk to the employer.

3. Products can be categorized into groups and labeled by years of service for anniversary programs or a point structure can be created. This would allow employees to collect points as they meet different goals and either cash out early to receive lower price point gifts or save up their points to get something more expensive. Either way, actual prices are not listed on the website so employees do not associate the monetary value with their gift.

Recognition programs have become increasingly important to businesses. They can be in the form of anniversary programs that reward years of service or gifts awarded for meeting team, individual or company-wide goals. Regardless of how your program is structured, just be sure it makes employees feel like what they are - the company's most valuable resource.