How to Reward Employees

• Jennifer Kaufman
• Friday 15 November 2013

Rewarding your employees with a corporate incentive program is one of the most effective ways of keeping morale high and encouraging them to work at their best. Today, we're going to take a look at some of the most effective programs that various industries use.

Limited Corporate Incentive Program

There are two major kinds of programs that corporations can use. The first type is a limited corporate incentive program, in the sense that only a small portion of employees have access to it. Rewards for making the most sales to customers is a common example of this type, but it can also be used for situations such as the longest time without an incident, the highest number of good customer reviews, and similar situations. These programs are ideal for any business where the majority of employees are focused on performing the same task, but they begin to fall flat as your business expands.

To properly implement a limited program, you should make clear and obvious the goals that you want your employees to reach. More importantly, they should want to reach these goals. If they're already working hard, they may not want to put in a great deal of extra effort just to take home a t-shirt or box of cookies. In other words, your rewards should be proportionate to the amount of effort your employees are putting in. This isn't really about the reward itself - the most important detail is the fact that your employees feel rewarded, and that's where the true benefits are.

General Corporate Incentive Program

A general corporate incentive program, on the other hand, is one that will apply to your entire business, even if you have employees working in many different fields. These employee awards are a little harder to manage, since the goals of a limited program may have nothing at all to do with the functions of any given section of the business. Consider rewards that are offered by department; if the group as a whole reaches a certain level, everyone gets a particular reward, while the best-performing employees within the department get an additional reward as both thanks and encouragement.

In late 2012, contributing writer Steve Faktor posted some commentary on Forbes about the corporate personality types and what truly helps motivate them. This should also be studied before you start your program; different personality types typically enjoy different rewards, and knowing the personalities of employees will help your corporate incentive program be as effective as possible.

Inc.com has also taken notice of this issue, listing a variety of important details about the various plans that your company could offer. One thing to take away from this information is a major detail of any incentive program: the amount of human involvement needed. Individual recognition requires someone paying attention on a regular basis and can be quite difficult for any larger corporation to manage. If you have a difficult time watching every employee (or too many levels of management), consider sticking with department-based rewards and having lower-level managers quietly indicate which specific employees deserve special mention and rewards.

Smaller corporations will usually do better with simple recognition - in fact, for many people, a simple acknowledgment of all the work they're doing is a reward in and of itself. Reward and recognition programs don't need to be expensive as long as they fulfill your goals. Remember, your goal should be to make your employees feel worthwhile and important. All other considerations (including the value of any physical rewards) are ultimately a secondary consideration.