How to reward your staff – and increase satisfaction and retention
One of the biggest mistakes many business owners make is neglecting to reward their staff.
This can be a particularly costly mistake if your employees talk to friends at other businesses, and realise what they’re missing out on. Dissatisfaction can set in, and even lead to them looking around for a new job.
So, if you want to keep your staff happy – or even just keep them – it pays to make sure that you are rewarding them for a job well done.
Not sure how to go about rewarding your staff without giving out bonuses that break the bank? Here are four ideas to get you started.
1) Recognition
Sometimes rewarding your staff for their hard work can be as simple as recognising their efforts. It can be easy for great effort or results to go unnoticed, and this can be disappointing when people have worked hard.
So go out of your way to recognise the achievements of your employees. This can be as public as mentioning them in team meetings, company email or a monthly newsletter, or as private as a personal email or (better) a personal visit from you to say thank you.
2) Team days
Another great way to reward your staff this year is to hold team building days. This doesn’t mean a training day, as these are not rewarding. Instead, get you team out of the office doing something fun together.
There are so many things that you can do: activity days, Christmas parties, even just going out for a team lunch. If you need outside help, there are companies who will professionally organise this kind of event to make it really special.
3) Benefits platforms
If you want to really incentivise and reward your team, then to may be worth looking at creating something more formal, with a wide range of more personalised benefits.
Take a look at services like the Zest benefits platform. With new rewards that your team can adapt to their needs, you can all but guarantee they’ll feel more rewarded.
4) Choose an employee of the month
Our final idea is one that has been around for many years. Choosing an employee of the month will not just draw attention to a great team member, but it can also make them feel recognised and special.
Companies organise their employee of the month award in different ways, with some offering a certificate and others a prize. You can choose the winner based on a leadership decision or, if you want to be more democracy, let your team vote for their chosen person.
How can you reward your staff?
From a tiny gesture like a ‘thank you’ email to a full-on team building day out, there are many ways you can show your appreciation and reward your staff for their hard work.
So whatever your budget, put staff recognition to the top of your HR to-do list. It’s should be than worth the effort in employee morale and staff retention.
Photo by Daria Nepriakhina
