Anyone who has built a successful business knows that at the core of a well-run company is a good workforce.
However, creating one of those can be somewhat of a challenge.
On Hiring and Performance
Collecting good resumes and having a stringent interview process goes only so far. You might have a set of employees with excellent qualifications, but all of this means nothing if you are not getting their best out them.
Employees rewards programs might not seem like something that you want to have to deal with, but there is strong evidence that indicates the benefits may be greater than you realize.
Building a Corporate Culture
Rewarding your employees with things like service awards is about more than just motivation. Anyone who is working at your company is there to do a job, and get paid.
But how can you transform this into a group of people who are passionate about their job, and more importantly, the company for whom they work?
Creating a community within your company does more than just improve the mood in the office. When people feel more connected to the with whom they work, and the company that employs them, they are more likely to excel at their tasks, and give their all at the office.
A good corporate culture not only increases productivity, but it helps with employee retention, and improves a company’s image.
Increased Productivity
Even if it the corporate culture is still a work in progress, rewards will produce immediate results. There are a couple of ways in which you can introduce employee incentives.
The most important thing to remember is that you want to do something that will help to increase productivity, while not letting employees get distracted from their work.
One way to do this is to create a company-wide competition.
You can base it on results or, if you want it to be more relaxed, something fun like a weight-loss competition or a March Madness sweepstakes. The benefits of such competitions are two-fold. They help to mold that company culture that you are looking for, but they also motivate people to produce better results.
Another employee incentive can be to give people service awards for good work. If people remember that their hard work was rewarded in the past, they are more likely to repeat their actions in the future.
Good Publicity for Your Company
Social networking site LinkedIn recently gave each of their employees an iPad Mini, something that was well publicized both on news sites and on social media.
Word of generosity spreads fast, and generates free PR for a company, which provides more business for you, plus a greater pool of willing applicants for you to hire. Obviously it is unrealistic to give out free iPads regularly, but there are ways that you can recognize your employees publicly using resources such as social media.
For example, a picture of a person holding their award for Employee of the Month will fast spread through social channels.
Fostering a Community
We are long past the Ebenezer Scrooge way of managing our employees.
The boss is no longer the enemy.
A company is a community, and it must be so in order to succeed. If you want to bring your company to the next level, consider a rewards program to improve your corporate culture.
So, what do you do to reward your employees? How often do you reward them? Or have you forgotten how or when to reward them? And how’s that working for you? I would love to hear your thoughts!
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Robert Cordray is a freelance writer with over 20 years of business experience
He does the occasional business consult to help increase employee morale
Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Web
Image Sources: media02.hongkiat.com
Related articles
- Understanding the Importance of a Corporate Culture (menatalks.com)
- LinkedIn rewards all employees with iPad Minis (news.cnet.com)
- Understanding the Importance of a Corporate Culture (bizoperations.wordpress.com)
Several months ago, we did a weight loss competition within our IS Department – about 20 out of 27 participated. Each employee participating was provided a $10 pedometer, and based upon an honor system reported steps each week. We gave two nice prizes – one for percentage or weight lost and the second one on number of steps. The prizes were nothing compared to the synergy created among the team.