‘Less is more,’ ‘a little goes a long way’ - it doesn’t always have to cost a lot to keep your employees happy, motivated and engaged with your business. Despite the overall economic picture improving, times can still be tough. So, how can we reward our employees on a budget? Here we share some of our suggestions for rewarding your employees; ideas that are simple to understand, easy to implement and have a positive impact, all while keeping the costs down.
Job mobility
You give employees the opportunity to take part in other activities aside from their regular job. Perhaps you have someone in Finance with a creative flair. Giving this employee the chance to use their creativity will make them feel recognised and appreciated and your company still gets the required productivity from them.
Celebrities of your company
Think the Oscars but for your star employees. Create an awards ceremony for all employees complete with a red carpet and ‘paparazzi.’ Awards can be given for all sorts of things such as excellent customer service or consistently hitting sales targets. Or even making the office an enjoyable place to be. Employees’ hard work is publicly recognised, which is highly motivational, and they will have a special night to remember. This would also be beneficial to the company’s reputation – who else has an employee awards ceremony?
Playtime
So long as all deadlines have been met for the week, why not let your employees spend some time on a Friday afternoon doing some leisure activities they enjoy; playing sports, reading, craft, playing video games. This way, employees are happy that they can do something they enjoy and they feel that you as their employer has recognised and expressed an interest in their hobbies outside of work. Employees will be spending time with their colleagues that is not solely focussed on work, which could work wonders for building relationships and making teams stronger.
Managing rewards online
There are a few high street names who operate online rewards solutions, which means you can flexibly manage rewards. You can put money for each employee into the online ‘money box’ and employees can choose what they would like to buy from the store. This could be very cost effective in terms of return on investment as instead of receiving a meaningless cash bonus, employees feel they are getting a more personalised reward.
Unlimited holiday
The idea of allowing your employees as much holiday as they want is controversial. But, with the right guidelines in place it could work really well. For high-performing employees, having the freedom to choose how much time off they want could be very motivational for them. This concept has been adopted by many companies and often they find that employees take less time off than when they are offered a set number of holiday days.
