How to Reward your Best Employees

06.08.2015

Happy Young Businesswoman Celebrating Success In The Office

Does your organization have a formal employee reward or recognition program? Do your employees know about it, and do they know what they need to do in order to be rewarded? Is it a corporate program, or did you get to design the rewards based on the likes or dislikes of your team?  Your reward program or structure may not seem like the most critical component of recruiting and keeping your best talent, but you don’t have to look any further than Marriott Hotels to see how a great employee recognition/ reward program can affect an organization.  From free lifetime travel deals for some employees, pre-shift dance sessions and reduced hotel rooms rates, their average tenure for a General Manager is an industry-leading 25 years.  So how do you tailor or build your employee recognition or reward program to increase retention, engagement and satisfaction?

1. Reward performance AND behavior

Start by asking yourself the question, “What do I want to reward my employees for doing/ accomplishing?” Determine what behaviors and performance are important to your company and could improve your organization. Beyond setting and meeting sales goals, what else does your company value? Do employees that come in early and stay late make a positive impact in your business? Or would leading process improvements from ideation through implementation benefit your organization? Create a strategy for performance and behavior that aligns with company goals, then determine what rewards would motivate your team.

2. Give rewards that would inspire your employees  

Most organizations believe that additional compensation is what their employees want, but some businesses have found that additional vacation time and team events when a group meets a goal drive more employee engagement than a cash bonus. How do you know what your employees would want out of a reward program? Ask them. A simple, anonymous survey of your team/ employees will determine what they really want.

3. Establish attainable benchmarks  

Once you’ve determined company objectives, designed a strategy to align with a rewards program and secured rewards, promote the program. Give employees examples of how the rewards can be reached. Give them a timeframe to meet the goals, provide a tangible reminder of the benefit of the program, and start rewarding.

4. Follow through-Increased productivity-Lower Turnover  

It seems like the most basic advice; follow through with the rewards program you designed. However, it is so easy as a manager or business owner to get overwhelmed with completing your daily tasks that managing a rewards program gets pushed to the back burner. But here are three reasons you should make sure your employees feel rewarded:

-Better Teamwork

-Lower Turnover

-Increased Productivity

If you’re on the fence about creating or revamping your employee rewards structure, a SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Survey found that companies who do not regularly reward their employees have a 22 percent higher turnover rate.

In addition to reducing turnover, promoting teamwork and increasing productivity, having employees who feel appreciated aren’t as likely to go to the competition. With hiring and finding the right talent being cited as the biggest concern for Twin Cities businesses this year, your competition is looking to woo your best talent. While you’re building or revamping your employee recognition program, it’s also a good time to see if there are other day-to-day perks that you can add to your culture to make work more enjoyable. For example, would you consider installing a game room or having free food more often? Those are two perks according to a Forbes survey that rank highly among employee’s favorite workplace features.

If you don’t have a way to reward your best employees, or if your reward program goes unused, follow the four simple tips above to get your employees engaged, drive productivity and keep the competition from poaching your best talent!