Movie tickets, flowers, gift cards, thank you notes, gift baskets, or an experiential gift such as a hot-air balloon ride or a ski lift ticket—the expressions of employer appreciation toward outstanding employees are nearly endless. These types of gratuities or perks are also usually less expensive than pay raises, stock dividends, or bonuses.
Some employers, especially startups and smaller companies, are indeed cuffed when it comes to budgeting a sizable outlay of capital for employee incentive campaigns. At the same time, they do not want to let the chance of motivating their staffs slip through their frugal fingers. Employees who have set a shining example for other staffers by exceeding expectations at work pose a strategic opportunity to influence coworkers when rewarded for their feats.
However, according to research cited in an Entrepreneur magazine report, employers relying on these almost trite methods of expressing appreciation—without breaking the bank—may be missing the bulls-eye when it comes to hitting the motivational target.
They may also be missing a chance to set an all-important paradigm for employee incentives, that of contributing to strategy, mission, and brand.
Foremost, it is the feeling of appreciation and engagement that actually instills a will to keep raising the bar of performance among employees. A one-time shot of indulgence on the company’s card is not as likely to have the desk life of something more genuinely engaging that still leaves the employer’s budget intact.
According to studies, there are two types of criteria bases for rewarding employees that coincide with an employer’s overall strategy, mission, or objective: performance and behavior.
Performance can be less amorphous than behavior. For example, an employee sitting at the top of the chart when it comes to employee sales of products or services is obviously deserving of a reward for performance that provides other salespeople an incentive to sell just as well. This company’s overall strategy might solely encompass sheer sales volume.
On the other hand, behavior worthy of reward is more multiply layered than performance. It emulates a cognizance on the employee’s part of a company’s image, its expectations, its brand and ultimately, its results.
But, first, an employer must identify those behaviors that emulate the company’s mojo, so to speak—its spirit. Is it coming into work a bit early to step up the pace on an important project and staying late to finish it? Is it devoting time outside the workplace to research solutions related to customer relationships, a legal case, budget conundrum, a new design, or an unforeseen complication? Is it, indeed, modeling and providing a new service to clients that symbolizes a company’s will to go out of their way toplease their customer base?
Again, whether it is performance or behavior, there are budget-friendly rewards of appreciation at hand which fall under the umbrella of engagement, the long-lasting means of appreciation:
Engage the standout employee in the power circle—whether intermittently or regularly—as in the case of strategic meetings, product-brainstorming sessions, or inner-office procedures and morale. As a supervisor or director, bring the employee out to lunch with the specific, stated purpose of tapping that employee’s brain.
Help the stellar employee set time aside to coach other co-workers, perhaps even train some of them so that they, too, are empowered and engaged. A show of appreciation in this manner proves to the worker that their employer genuinely recognizes and utilizes the employee’s value to the company or organization.
Meanwhile, all those tried-and-somewhat-true gestures of appreciation noted at the top of this article can’t hurt as the frosting on the cake of appreciation. Taken more literally, schedule a timeout from work for everyone to enjoy some cake in the break-room to honor exemplary performance. But make sure the principal reward expresses true gratitude, engagement, and a vested role in company strategy at the same time.
It’s always pertinent to remember that for an employee, being the pulse of a company’s heart and soul, and recognized for it, is not something that vanishes into thin air…like that free balloon ride!
