Many employers are strong believers in taking
care of their employees and recognizing their contributions in order to achieve
the company’s core values. Let’s be honest: We love a great reason to celebrate
each other as professionals and as human beings… quality work, strong sales
from referrals, work anniversaries, birthdays, marriages, interns, veterans, positive
client feedback, babies, charity events.
Much of this celebrating involves food
and/or team building activities. I can’t tell you enough, it’s an investment
that pays off in spades: improved employee morale results in better customer service,
lower turnover, higher productivity.
Do you have to spend a lot of money to
run an effective recognition program? No, but you do need a little creativity
and a sense of what motivates your employees. Before you spend the next week
scratching your head over how your employees would like to be recognized, why
not ASK THEM DIRECTLY? Believe me, I’m very appreciative when my husband asks
me what I want for my birthday, because if it was up to him, I’d end up with a leaf
blower.
As you get a good feel for putting
together a rewards/recognition program your employees would appreciate, you’ll
find that many of these things can overlap to create a steady stream of
positive vibes throughout the year. And don’t think that implementing any of
these will change things overnight! Remember what I said earlier, this is an
investment and it will take time before you see any noticeable changes.
Here are some suggestions for you to
consider, some of which have been implemented at Scherzer International with
great success:
Company
apparel/gifts – Love
that swag! I send my husband to his work daily with an insulated lunch bag
sporting my employer’s logo and not only is it useful, it’s been a conversation
starter at his office. You never know where the next client referral will come
from!
When designing company swag,
pleeeeeaaaaase make sure the design has cool vibes emanating from it. We’re
talking religious-painting-halo-vibes-cool. It should make people WANT to be
seen with/wearing it.
The best ones I ever saw were the
t-shirts and baseball caps made exclusively for the employees at the Los
Angeles County Coroner’s Office. They were participating in a 5K charity run
and it was amazing to see people inquire about where they could get a shirt or
hat. The design was simple, but very straightforward. You guessed it, they were
black with a white chalk body outline. The designs for the general public are
less morbid but still quite popular. I know, most companies wouldn’t want to be
associated with death, but hey, kudos to the Coroner’s Office folks for making
the best of a service everyone’s dying to use at one point. (Oooooh, sorry
about that, couldn’t resist.)
Employee
discounts – If you sell
goods that your employees can use, offer great discounts to them at cost or a
little bit above. Have extra inventory that you need to move out? Offer them to
your employees before you donate. It gives employees a chance to use the
products and show them off to family and friends which increases the company’s
visibility.
Charity
work – This works best
when some paid time is set aside to do charity work. Team building for the
betterment of humanity–it doesn’t get any better than this. Additionally, this
is a wonderful way to toot your company’s horn when you have everyone wearing
company swag at a charity event. See what I mean about overlapping your
efforts?
Charitable
donation – A thoughtful
donation to a charity of an employee’s choosing in honor of their loved one’s
passing can make a huge impact and lets the employee know you care.
Charity
gala guests – If you or
your company is affiliated with any charities, it’s a great idea to invite
employees to any special galas as a way to appreciate their contributions and
to help them appreciate the impact of community involvement.
Monthly/annual
lunches – This is when
we have team building exercises (fancy word for games) and bond over food. In
November we have a potluck style Thanksgiving-themed luncheon. It saves the
company some money and encourages hands on participation. That is what I call winning!
Just make sure you have a paper/online signup sheet that asks for what is
needed like appetizers, main dish, sides and desserts. Without one, you might
end up with eight different cakes. Well, that might not be a bad thing, eh?
Casual
day/themed weeks – You
can have hat day, sports day, work out day, beach day, Halloween dress up day…
anything fun that could make people smile. Just keep in mind that some themes
might be tacky or downright offensive. And even if your employees see nothing
wrong with a theme, the general public might when they see social media content
posted by your company and/or your employees on their personal accounts.
Steer far away from polarizing themes
like politics. Especially politics. Halloween can be a harrowing time with
unfettered creativity. Remember that uproar this past Halloween caused by a
dozen or so teachers who thought it was a good idea to dress up as Mexicans and
a border wall? Yeahhhhh, don’t allow stuff like that. Let your employees ask
themselves: Will this costume potentially create an avalanche of bad reviews on
Yelp or Glassdoor?
Coffee
shop/local park meetings
– Anywhere that can provide a nice change of pace and environment. If it’s a
beautiful day, meet up at a park or coffee shop and soak up the fresh air or
lovely aroma of coffee. A relaxed setting helps get the creative juices
flowing! You know that boxy font used to imprint every credit card? It’s called
Farrington B and it was first drawn on a napkin at a hotel, not in a conference
room or cubicle.
Holiday
decorating/employee competitions
– Look on Pinterest and you will see some VERY amazing office holiday displays.
This can be a perfect team building experience that can span over the course of
several weeks as anticipation builds. Encourage your employees to be
resourceful/frugal in the materials utilized if at all possible. Emptied shipment
boxes were very scarce in October around here. Don’t be too draconian about the
use of some office supplies for that. It’s supposed to be fun, and telling
someone not to use a paper clip to hang up string lights sounds petty, you know
what I mean?
Birthday
cards – Have cards
signed every month. Then designate a day to pass those cards out and order some
cake!
Wellness
perks – Flu shots, yoga
classes, these go a long way to keep employees healthy and balanced which means
better productivity. Some companies even subsidize gym memberships. If your
company isn’t in a position to do that, consider paying for Costco memberships,
which brings me to my next point…
Costco
warehouse memberships –
I sometimes think these things are more highly valued than flexible spending
accounts simply because there are more opportunities to utilize the savings in
an immediate way. You can even buy gym memberships at a highly discounted rate.
Scholarship – A simple gesture of making a tuition contribution
is a fantastic way of recognizing an employee who works extra hard, especially
if they are going to graduate with new skill sets that will benefit your
company.
Dog
days – There are fewer
things around here (besides babies) that will get everyone to smile when we
have a doggy visitor. One of our employees sometimes brought his little pug who
napped quietly on his desk while another employee brought his high energy pup
for short visits to say hi to EVERYONE. And not one person could resist
smiling, either. Just keep in mind some employees might be allergic to dogs.
Pet
bereavement day –
You’ve heard all those stories about people who wouldn’t leave their pets
behind during a natural disaster or decline to stay in a homeless shelter because
their pets weren’t allowed. It makes sense to acknowledge the loss of a family
member. Ever have a pet pass away? You’re a mess! How productive can you be at
work anyway when you lose your fur baby?
Time
off – Reward an
exceptional employee with some time off which is to be used within a week. Fifteen
minutes here and there won’t appreciably impact productivity. But to leave a
little early to get a headstart on traffic means a little more precious time
spent with family.
“Caught
you Caring” cards –
Instant recognition for “catching” someone in the act of… being great! Just
have some cards handy that you can fill out what you observed on the spot for
exemplary work, professionalism, kindness.
Social
media shout out – Did
your employee help facilitate a big project? Receive compliments from a client?
Pulled someone from a burning car? Adopted five cats? It can be anything as
long as the employee doesn’t mind being identified online. It’s just a fun way
to feature individuals to give more personality to your company.
Share
client praise – These
are like little nuggets of gold, aren’t they. It feels great to provide a
quality product or service that impresses a client enough to give great
feedback. Why not share the love with everyone?
VIP
parking – It can be
issued for the week, month, however long you decide. This is a very easy and
convenient gesture to thank a deserving employee.
Peer
recognition – Give employees
a forum to recognize each other. We use TINYpulse.com as a means to not only
send each other “cheers” but we also use it to administer surveys and send
comments/suggestions anonymously. Though not 100%, we have very good
participation rates throughout the company, especially when we have concerns
that motivate us to speak up… sort of like during this past midterm election
season. Whoops, no politics. Sorry.
Traveling
trophy – It circulates
around the office every month for a contest won by a team or individual. One of
our employee’s young son won a contest once by a landslide during a luncheon. I
suspect his cute game face was too strong for us to resist.
I do want to leave you with these caveats
when acknowledging employees:
Try to avoid putting overwork as an
activity to be admired. There are times when work is overwhelming and everyone
needs to put in the extra overtime, but try to reward the team effort and the
dedication to get that big project done instead of emphasizing the exhausting
and morale-sucking workload. The end results are the same as far as
productivity, but it’s the emphasis on the right aspects of the work. We want
to admire each other’s work ethic, not necessarily the task accomplished.
Reward employees for going above and
beyond, not for fulfilling a basic job expectation. Some rewards programs can
actually demotivate an employee, believe it or not. It depends on how you
implement the rewards program. A research paper published in 2013 by Harvard
Business School assistant professor Ian Larkin along with professor Lamar
Pierce and doctoral student Timothy Gubler from the Olin School of Business at
Washington University in St. Louis suggests that sometimes rewarding employees
can backfire.
The study focused on an awards program
where the idea was to improve attendance and punctuality. Employees with
perfect monthly attendance were entered into a drawing for a gift card to a
local restaurant or store and then a higher value gift card drawing every six
months for all employees with a perfect attendance record during that time
period. Attendance and tardiness dropped, but only when employees were eligible
for the drawing. Upon even closer examination, the stellar employees with good
attendance and high productivity suffered a six to eight percent decrease in
productivity which was an indicator they might have been wondering why a reward
program was being implemented for a behavior they were already exhibiting. See
the difference?
So those were just a few ideas on rewards
and recognitions. As you can see, a lot of them don’t require any money or very
little of it. It just takes time, effort, and consistency but it’s well worth
it!