5 creative employee reward ideas

When an employee is recognized for their good performance on the job it gives them the incentive to want to do even better. Everyone likes to feel like they are appreciated. If you do not recognize your employee’s hard work, they won’t have any desire to continue working hard for you. Having some type of rewards system set up for employees who excel on the job is creating incentives for other employees to do better so they can get recognition and a reward.

In this still unstable economy, employer’s cannot always afford to give their employees a raise or bonus as a reward for a good performance review. Therefore, employers will need to be creative in finding ways to give their employees the credit they deserve as well as an incentive to continue with their excellent performance.

Below are five creative ideas to reward your employees for a job done well:

1. Extra Side Projects: Often some employees might find it interesting to do some extracurricular work in another department that might become something of a leisure activity. By giving your employees the chance to prove that they are capable of doing more than just sales or customer service, you are providing them with an incentive to pursue other interest. By assigning an employee with an extra side project, the employee is still doing their normal duties, while also helping the business out in another department that may be backlogged in their workload.
2. Job Swapping: Some companies offer employees the opportunity to swap jobs with another employee as a reward for doing well on their performance review. For instance, in the automotive industry, you could have one of your sales representatives swap jobs with someone in finance for a select period of time. By doing this, you give your employees a chance to see if the position they swapped too is something that they might be interested in doing full-time. Job swapping also makes your employees be more versatile and therefore become a more valuable asset to the dealership.
3. Training: Offer employees new incentives for promotion by giving them the training to work in another position within the company that pays higher wages. Employers can pay for their top performing sales representatives to attend out of town training seminars as a reward for doing well in their current position. This gives them the incentive to want to perform better and have the ambition to want to promote within the industry.
4. Employer Hosting ‘Happy Hours’: Employees love the opportunity to unwind at the end of the work week. What better way to reward your employees than to host a company happy hour?  Some companies have even brought the happy hour to the office by paying for a DJ, pizza, and sometimes even a beer keg to come to the office after hours. You can also schedule a happy hour party at a local restaurant.
5. Personal Perks:  Another good way to reward your staff for doing their job well is to give them something they can use. At the time of hire, have your staff complete a personal questionnaire which asks them to lists their favorite things and their hobbies and interests. With this information, the employer can purchase little ‘rewards’ to give the employee whenever he or she does well and deserves an incentive. Everyone likes to be given something to make them feel as if they mean something to their boss. By showing some interest in your employees, your employees will be willing to work harder for you.

Some concepts for employee recognition and rewards programs are:

• Deciding whether the rewards are going to formal or informal
• Be sure to make the reward is equal to the person
• And the reward is also equal to the person’s achievement
• Don’t let too much time pass before awarding the employee with their reward and be explicit in defining what the reward is for (you don’t want to recognize someone’s outstanding sales six months after the fact).

If you follow these tips for rewarding your employees and recognizing their abilities in a timely manner, you will soon start to notice that your employees have much more ambition and drive to work hard for you.