The most productive employees are happy employees and they’re definitely the most loyal. When it comes to looking after employee happiness, it doesn’t need to be complicated, in fact, it can be pretty simple and the basics are where you need to start. The majority of people will respond to good salaries, more time off, a positive company culture, praise, and other employee benefits.
When it comes to making your employees feel well looked after and appreciated, simply providing them with incentives, rewards and benefits can prove that you care for their well-being and appreciate the effort that they put in. It will also help with staff retention and improve the environment they’re working in.
It can be difficult to know exactly what to offer your staff and what will actually work so let’s have a look at some of the employee incentives that are known to work:
More Independence
Yes, your staff will seek guidance from management, however, they don’t tend to respond well to having a short lease and the feeling that they are constantly being watched. Most employees will feel like they offer more value and become more productive if you give them the responsibility of looking after their own workload. Advise them of targets and deadlines for work to be completed, but then give them the independence to complete the work according to their preference. This works great for boosting morale and ultimately staff retention. This isn’t about letting your staff do what they like, it’s about them completing tasks the best way they can.
Recognition And Rewards
Who doesn’t like to be recognised for the hard work they’re putting in? A great way to show your staff that they’re appreciated is to host a yearly awards event. Offer your employees the chance to nominated their colleagues and enable them to recognise a good worker too. You can then open up a voting scheme where they can all vote for the person who should receive the reward each year. Martin Awards offers some great options where you can have the reward engrave with whatever you need. You could even hold an evening where the rewards are given out each year, it can be something that your staff look forward to each year.
Bonus
Another great way to reward your employees is to offer them the chance of earning a yearly bonus. When you hit company targets and achieve what you set out to do for that financial year, rewarding your employees to show that you appreciate the efforts that they have put in to help you reach your goals goes a long way. It works particularly well if you do it around times such as Christmas as people always tend to need the extra cash this time of the year. If your employees are aware of the targets that need to be met in order for them the achieve their bonus can also increase productivity too. If you hit your targets and beyond you could always offer an increased bonus to the employees who have contributed the most.
These are three employee incentives that work well for any business, do you have any others that have worked for you that you could share in the comments?
