Last Updated on Feb 28, 2020 by James W
Your employees work hard for their money, but they need more than just money to know that they are appreciated. Many companies have elaborate employee reward schemes in place to build moral. You may not be able to afford something elaborate. That’s OK. All you need is some way to show your most valued employees that you care.
A Plaque
Bronze plaques are a unique way to express how you feel about your employees. A plaque can be given for just about any kind of performance achievement. For example:
- Production: Giving an employee a plaque based on excellent performance is not new, but it’s still one of the best ways to honor hard work. Set a benchmark for production in your company. For employees that meet or exceed that benchmark, offer a plaque.
- Safety: Safety is becoming increasingly important in the workplace. Increased safety means decreased medical claims and decreased worker’s compensation costs to you. Reward those that have an exemplary safety record. Encourage all employees to compete for this kind of plaque.
- Creativity: Creativity is often what keeps a business alive. Giving a plaque for the most creative or unique production process can encourage employees to come up with increasingly innovative ideas about how to improve the workplace. Not only does the plaque boost employee moral, it may even create additional profits for the company.
- Customer service: Customer service is very underrated. Most companies are pathetic in terms of customer service. After the sale, it’s common to find otherwise good businesses fall apart at the seams when customers return merchandise or need service. Reward employees that don’t read from a script, and that come up with innovative and unique solutions to customer service problems.
Public Recognition
Many employees do like public recognition, whether they admit it or not. This is especially true if the recognition is somewhat random. Reward good employees by having an “employee of the month” contest. The best employee can receive public recognition in the form of his picture on a wall. Alternatively, you could mention his name during a company speech, promotion, or ceremony.
Private Recognition
Private recognition may work even better, depending on what you’re rewarding the employee for. For example, if you own a construction company, a nice way to give an employee recognition, without making it too public, would be to take the employee and his family out to dinner, out for drinks, or pay for his lunch for an entire week.
Another way to reward employees using private recognition might be to buy a season pass to some sporting event, send the employee on a weekend getaway with his spouse, or buy the employee a vacation. You could even just give the employee a week’s vacation with pay.
Not everyone in the office needs to know what a stellar job the employee has done. In fact, some employees don’t like public recognition, so private recognition may be your best option to keep things low-key while still rewarding hard work and dedication to the company.
Author Bio:
Robert M. Smyth is a human resources director. He loves sharing his tips for employee loyalty programs on recruitment and career blogs.
