Every business wishes for its employees to effectively engage with customers, help them out, take pride in their company, and boost sales. Do you know what ensures this behavior? Of course, it all starts with hiring the right people, but there’s more to the story. You must make efforts to create a positive and rewarding work environment!
Are you sure you are praising your employees? When was the last time you appreciated them personally or in front of the whole company? Unfortunately, many managers can’t recall. Did you know a business with an employee recognition program has recorded a 60% increase in employee engagement? Their customer retention rate is 18% higher as well! Offer them a reward like a company-sponsored Charter Spectrum cable plan, free movie tickets, coupons to famous restaurants, club membership, or some monetary reward.
It’s time you work on an employee rewards program if it’s not in place already!
What’s an Employee Rewards Program?
Wondering what’s an employee recognition or rewards program? It’s a formal process of identifying and recognizing milestones achieved by your employees/team. This program specifies which achievement will be recognized, the legibility, requirements for each achievement, and how the process works.
Two common forms of such a program exist. First is the performance-based recognition, and the other one is a service recognition program. Each program is meant to promote employee loyalty and of course, recognize their efforts.
Why Do You Need An Employee Rewards Program?
Every human being has the desire to feel respected and valued for their contributions. Your employees are no different.
Let’s check out some convincing reasons to introduce an employee rewards program:
1: Improves employee engagement
A study revealed that 80% of the companies have some form of a recognition program. It affects the employee experience by 89 percent, employee relationships by 87 percent, and employee engagement within the workplace by 84 percent.
2: Boosts productivity
When the efforts of employees are not recognized, they start feeling unhappy about the work conditions. They will likely waste time, use the company’s resources for their benefit, and take extended breaks. With a workplace recognition program, you can increase your business's productivity by making your employees feel they are noticed and supported.
3: Reinforces the core values of your business
If the employee rewards program is tied to your core business values, employees will boost business activities. Let’s say your core value includes offering extraordinary customer services. The program might reward employees who go the extra mile in rewarding customers.
4: Promotes fairness and improves morale
Never recognize employees without setting clear requirements for earning recognition. If you do so, your staffers can suspect favoritism. This could hurt employee morale. On the other hand, a structured employee reward program can motivate your whole staff to outperform to get recognition.
Ways to Recognize or Rewards Employees
Motivating your employees doesn’t have to be hard. Here are some cool ways to recognize their efforts:
Organize a contest
When you would like to encourage sales, consider organizing a “pass the buck contest.” For instance, set a sales goal for the whole team to sell an item in the morning, when one agent makes a sell, give them $50. When another one sells something, pass that $50 bill and so on. The employee who makes the last sale of the shift gets to keep the money.
Reward acts of kindness
What are these random acts of kindness you ask? When an employee goes the extra mile to help a customer. When one employee covers the shift of another when they call in sick. Or anything else they do selflessly to make someone’s life easier.
Create a kudos board
In the break room, set up a bulletin board where you post the accomplishments of your coworkers on the board. This is an excellent way for the managers to notice the small contributions their employees make each day.
It feels good to have your name written on a kudos board. You would be inspiring others to outperform and have their names written on the board, too.
Employee loyalty program
Companies have a customer loyalty program in place. Why not create an employee loyalty program as well? Assign points whenever an employee achieves a sales goal. For instance, give 1 point on making a sale of $50 or more.
Keep this program going for a month or so, and let your team claim prizes depending on the points they have earned.
Conclusion
An employee reward program can prove to be quite an asset for your organization regardless of its size. A good company is always willing to listen to what its employees want and value. Remember, success starts with your employees and ripples to your customers. Why not build a culture that rewards its employees even on minor achievements? A motivated workforce can turn into your organization’s biggest strength, you know!
