4 Ways to Reward Your Valuable Employees

Employees are the backbone of any successful company. As the old saying goes, “your business is only as good as your weakest employee”. So, it’s essential to invest in your workforce and implement ways to reward employees into your company culture.

While offering training courses to staff and ensuring they have a voice are two ways to invest in staff, 83.6% of employees surveyed said that rewards and recognition directly affect their motivation.

Offering rewards is becoming a popular way of incentivizing employees and showing that you as an employer value them. There are several employee reward ideas that we’ll discuss later on in this article.

What is an employee reward program? 🏅

An employee rewards and recognition program is a way of recognizing and showing employee appreciation for staff efforts. It’s usually a system developed by business leaders to encourage and motivate staff by offering (usually performance-based) rewards as part of their greater workforce management strategy. 

What is workforce management? Workforce management is a strategy used to optimize your workforce’s productivity and efficiency.

When done properly and communicated well, businesses that implement reward schemes usually see an increase in staff morale, productivity, and company loyalty.

Rewards can be anything from gift vouchers to experiences and time off. Schemes often have different levels of rewards but business leaders must have a budget in mind to develop a robust strategy. 

But before reward programs can be put in place, business leaders should have an idea of what the goals are, what staff behaviors they want to encourage, and the KPIs that will set the criteria for rewarding staff.

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Why is rewarding employees important? 🤔

Employees receive a salary for their work, so why do you need an added rewards program?

The truth is, employees with the same job title and pay grade don’t always produce the same results. There are many factors that reduce productivity, such as mental health, issues in someone’s personal life or simply just a lack of employee engagement. Employee engagement, or the level of enthusiasm and commitment an employee has towards their work, plays an important role in their performance. But, one of the biggest factors in poor motivation and performance is feeling undervalued.

To get the best out of someone they need to feel as though their efforts are noticed and valued. When employees feel like they are valued members of the work environment, they’re less likely to leave. So, it makes sense to recognize good talent through a rewards program.

Rewarding employees motivates them to do well and creates a supportive workplace culture.

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Ways to reward valuable employees 🎁

Human capital management HCM takes a holistic approach to supporting employees through their working lifecycles, helping to get the best out of them. By incentivizing high-performing staff—rather than disciplining underperformers—leaders can nurture satisfied, loyal employees who strive to do well.

Regardless of the size and scale of your business, there are various ways to reward employees, which we’ll look at below. 

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1. Provide monetary rewards

Monetary rewards, such as bonuses and reimbursements offer employees a direct financial benefit. As many employees are financially motivated, offering a monetary reward scheme can be very effective. 

Other than bonuses and reimbursements, companies can offer profit sharing, variable pay, or stocks as a way to incentivize good performance.

Gift cards also make a great reward, especially if they’re for local coffee shops, restaurants, or experiences that people wouldn’t usually be able to afford. This makes it more of a treat.

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2. Offer recognition often

Rewards don’t have to cost anything. Employee recognition could come in the form of an internal email, either privately or shared with the network. It could be a social media post or a recorded video from the CEO, for example, or even a shout-out on the breakroom noticeboard. 

Employees like to feel appreciated. Praise or recognition for good work shows that as an employer, you're paying attention and thankful for the work they do.

Recognition doesn’t always have to come from the top down, though. Peer-to-peer recognition can be a powerful tool in terms of motivating staff as it builds team bonds and helps to promote a positive workplace culture where everybody’s successes are celebrated. 

How to get started 👉 Spread the love with Workplace Gratitude! In this experience, everyone will receive personal, anonymous recognition for their hard work on the team during an interactive presentation that will bring the whole team closer together. 

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3. Give workplace benefits

Workplace rewards allow you to implement a meaningful rewards package on a budget. Employee benefits include: company discounts, flexible working, office parties, time off, or special treats such as ‘donut Fridays’, a virtual happy hour, and more!

Other employee recognition ideas for individuals or teams could include:

• Thank you lunches🍴

• Company swag like apparel or merchandise. Make it extra personal with individual employees' names and your company logo!

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4. Utilize technology so remote employees are in the loop

Remote workers can often feel out of the loop when it comes to feeling part of an office community. It’s important that recognition for the work of home-based workers is effective too. Whether this means your reward systems are accessible to home-based workers or you use remote team meetings to shout out good work, it’s all positive.

You can even reward employees with virtual team building events like online poker games or a virtual escape room. They reward employees and improve remote team relationships at the same time! 

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What components are there of a successful employee reward rewards program? 📝

To run a successful employee rewards program, HR teams and business leaders must consider the following components:

• What employees want: Gather employee input to find out what makes them feel valued.
• What rewards would be relevant, affordable, and worthwhile?
• How to tailor employee rewards to remote workers.

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Final thoughts 🎉

Finding good talent is a difficult task. So, when you do recruit people who you value in your business, it’s important to let them know. Staff who feel taken for granted are generally less happy in the workplace than those who feel their efforts are acknowledged, even in the smallest of ways.

Receiving appreciation and feeling valued are basic human needs and people who feel part of a supportive culture will thrive more than those who don’t. Reward schemes might seem like an unnecessary additional expense on the face of it. However, when you weigh up the cost of recruitment, employee turnover, and the productivity loss of underperformance, the benefits start to outweigh the expense. 

Balancing low-cost, or even free rewards with tangible rewards and team building experiences can help you build a hierarchical set of rewards in a cost-effective way. This will still show you’re invested and care about the people in your business.

Your business is nothing without your employees. Add Confetti team building, DEI, and professional development experiences to your employee appreciation program today!