Employee recognition rewards are key to keeping your business functioning smoothly. With workplace promotions in place your employees are more likely to be productive and are more likely to make sure everything about the business operates smoothly. If you're company's budget is tight, you may need to adjust your methods of rewarding employees. But no matter what, you should definitely keep up the rewards.

If you are evaluating your employee rewards program or implementing a new program, you should keep track of employee rewards news and trends. Many of the new employee rewards systems are surprisingly inexpensive to implement and maintain. Some of the new trends include:

1. Workforce rewards that come from the employee’s participation in a health and wellness program.

2. Employee reward programs that recognize individuals at simple workplace social gatherings, such as potluck dinners.

3. Employee rewards that are environmentally friendly.

Action Steps
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Read white papers on employee reward programs

Various companies offer their ideas on implementing and sustaining employee recognition rewards. Some of these are available as white papers while others are short articles. As you skim through this information, you are sure to find ideas you can use.

I recommend: Maritz has a lengthy selection of white papers available on employee rewards news and trends. Once you are on the web page, use the filter feature to find information on increasing employee engagement. You can also find information about employee rewards news and trends at BNET.

Sign up for employee rewards newsletters

There are free newsletters available to keep you current on employee rewards news and trends. If you wish to change your awards presentations each time, this is a good tool to mine for new ideas.

I recommend: Sign up for the Baudville newsletter. It can keep you in touch with news and trends in employee incentive rewards and provide you with a number of ideas for employee gifts. You can also sign up for the newsletter from Successories. It has a number of interesting articles on employee rewards, as well as tips on managing your workplace rewards system effectively.

Find blogs that discuss employee rewards

Often blogs give you ideas that people have actually tried successfully. Take time to not only read the blogs but the comments as well, to pick up simple ideas you can implement into your own employee reward programs.

I recommend: Awards Network has an active blog with all sorts of ideas for employee reward programs. You can also find information about employee recognition rewards at BlogCatalog.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Employee rewards don't need to cost a fortune. More companies are looking for simple, yet meaningful, ways to reward their employees. One suggestion is to take time off with your employees to celebrate their hard work and dedication. It can be as simple as a surprise popcorn and soda pop break accompanied by heartfelt thanks from you.

Retaining talent is one key to growing a successful business. To do so, you need to reward them for great performance. By giving your employees special rewards, you can:

1. Foster a positive, productive workplace.
2. Encourage loyalty and a sense of ownership in your business
3. Surprise employees without creating a feeling of entitlement.
4. Keep your customers happy — because happier employees do better work.

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Have employees take stock

Employees care more about the success of their employer when they own part of the company. Stock options, which allow an employee to purchase a certain number of shares at a certain price, have been the historic model for employee ownership; aside from stock options, you can also offer employee stock purchase plans (ESPP, which give employees a discount off the current stock price) or restricted stock (which retains value even when the stock price drops).

I recommend: To set up an ownership plan, hire a financial services company such as Charles Schwab, Mellon Investor Services or CitiGroup/Smith Barney. Work with your accountant to determine how these plans will affect your taxes.

Give them bonuses when your company does well

Bonuses come in many flavors: profit-sharing (typically divvied up as a percentage of each employee's salary), gain sharing (rewards for productivity gains), task bonuses (at the end of an assignment) or spot bonuses (given when an employee deserves special recognition). Companies that provide bonuses generally create bonus funds worth about 2.5 percent of total salaries and wages.

I recommend: For advice on how much of a bonus to give, use Archer North's performance-related bonus scheme. Not sure which bonuses will inspire employees? Turn to a consulting firm that specializes in designing bonus programs, such as Archer North, Fox Lawson & Associates, LLC, Compensation Resources Inc. or Personnel Systems Associates. (And if you don't already have an accountant, visit CPADirectory find a CPA near you to consult with on bonus plans, as the tax repercussions aren't always clear.)

Send them on a trip

If employees deserve special recognition — for instance, as a reward for beating their sales quotas — consider a travel package.

I recommend: Travel companies offer special deals that are perfect for rewarding employees. Recognition Rewards Enterprises, for example, offers sports getaway packages and cruises, while Vacation Together offers ski packages in the U.S. and international trips for both individual employees and groups.

Schedule playtime

Employees are often motivated by competition or contests that allow them to earn non-monetary rewards. Sports-related rewards are popular. If you listen to water-cooler talk around the office, you'll know which sports everyone likes.

I recommend: Sports rewards can take different forms, from travel to sports events — such as these packages from Premiere Sports Travel, Corporate Sport and Target Sports Incentives. For smaller rewards, or gifts to go along with travel packages, try autographed sports items (Steiner Sports and ItsAlreadySigned4U.com) or engraved Louisville sluggers.

Let employees choose

Instead of trying to select an appropriate reward for your employees, you can instead let them do the choosing.

I recommend: Companies such as Loyaltyworks, Zlimit, Select-Your-Gift and Bright Rewards provide special reward catalogs featuring products from HP, Canon, Whirlpool, John Deere and other big brands. Employees can skim through the catalogs and select their own reward — which they either receive immediately or once they reach a goal that you've set.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Make sure the reward fits your workplace culture and values.
• •  Reserve rewards for special occasions; employees who constantly expect rewards won't appreciate them as much when they do arrive.
• •  Money sometimes makes the best gift, but instead of cash you can hand out gift cards or savings bonds.
• •  Consider using time as a reward, such as a three-day weekend or a shorter workday.
• •  Remember that rewards must be accounted for on tax forms.

If you are just getting your business started, you know it can be difficult to give expensive employee rewards no matter how much you would like to do so. The same is true if the economy slows down. However, you still need to keep promoting employees and rewarding them. Making the most of employee rewards means making employee rewards systems affordable for you as well as meaningful for your employees.

The key to making the most of employee rewards is to make sure they fit your business. What may be perfect for every other business may not be right for yours. Nor may it be right for your employees. For any employee motivation reward to have value, it must be meaningful to its recipient. As you design your employee reward program, keep these things in mind:

1. Set a budget for employee recognition rewards.

2. Choose employee gifts from reputable employee recognition vendors.

3. Find ways for everyone to celebrate workplace promotions.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Give employee rewards to celebrate your business's profitability

This is the prime example of when employees should receive awards. If they have met or exceeded sales goals or other expectations that directly affect your profits, reward them. If you have to cut back somewhere else, do so, but don't cut back here because the employee loyalty and dedication you build with profitability rewards is priceless.

I recommend: Celebrate a successful sales campaign with employee recognition rewards from Successories. You can also get help with rewarding employees from CorporateRewards.com.

Set up employee recognition rewards for safety in the workplace

This is especially important if you have a business that employs skilled labor in a shop. The safety of your employees is important, but any breach in safety protocol can cause a loss of work that can cost you money. It's in your best interest to promote and reward workplace safety.

I recommend: Visit the SafetyAwardStore.com for ideas for safety employee rewards to give in recognition of safety in your workplace. Awards Network also has a number of safety employee incentive rewards. They offer employee reward programs in a variety of formats, including online redemption.

Create customized employee rewards

Think outside the box. Ask your employees what would be meaningful to them. They may appreciate an extra day of vacation much more than a certificate or wall plaque. Once you do decide on unique rewards to your business, you may be surprised to find they may cost less than more traditional workplace rewards.

I recommend: You can design your own workforce rewards in the form of vacation packages from PerksandPats.com. Elite Corporate Gifts and Rewards has a large selection of employee promotions you can use as workplace rewards. Or you can give your employees gift cards so they can get something they would truly enjoy.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Once you begin giving employee rewards, you should try to be consistent with them. Design a set of guidelines to determine if someone is eligible for workforce rewards from you.

In an ever changing and global workplace, it’s vital to find the balance between motivating employees, quality service and generating profits. Although there are many reward programs in existence, the ability to recognize the contributions of workplace staff can take on a broad range of tactics. Compensatory incentives and non-monetary rewards are popular trends that promote a business culture that understands the significance of teamwork and resourceful performance appraisals. As an employer seeks to improve company morale, productivity and job satisfaction, here are a few employee rewards key terms that are fundamental.

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Employee rewards and recognition

Employee rewards are systems often set up by a company to reward an employee for individual or group achievement and often comes in the form of bonuses, stock options or cash payout. However, recognition is acknowledging skill, decision-making or individual behaviors exhibited by a particular employee or department. An employer may use rewards such as casual dress day, employee of the month parking or a plaque to recognize work-related actions.

I recommend: US Legal provides an in-depth description of both key terms and explores how each relate together.

Job satisfaction

Job satisfaction is the sense of accomplishment, pride and gratification a worker or employee enjoys pursuant to job performance or workplace culture. It's also a major key in impacting organizational goals, productivity and morale.

I recommend: Visit BNET for a definition of this term.

Non-monetary rewards

Non-monetary rewards are rewards that focus on appreciation and acknowledgement of employee input, contribution to company goals or individual performance without offering money as an incentive. Many workers value and sometimes prefer recognition of their personal work-related behaviors and actions more than cash gifts.

I recommend: Review the concept of non-monetary rewards discussed in an article by Sherry Ryan of the Weyerhaeuser Company, posted on San Diego State University's College of Education website.

Employee motivation

Employee motivation is a system or set of techniques an employer utilizes to encourage employees to meet and exceed individual and company goals and objectives. Workers are not subject to a one-size fits all approach, some are inspired to achieve goals when employers offer more responsibility while others are triggered by monetary rewards. It's vital to find the right types of employee motivation to create job satisfaction for employees.

I recommend: Self-Growth.com provides a more in-depth look at employee motivation and ways to improve how companies approach its workplace staff.

Incentives

An incentive is the use of a reward, perk or gift other than salary to motivate workers to meet or exceed company expectation and goals. Incentive is a method to compensate employees to aim and reach a targeted goal. Many companies use free tuition, an in-house company fitness center, on-site day care facility, trips or vacations to promote company loyalty and encourage a high level of work related effort.

I recommend: PerksandPats.com explores a variety of incentives to compensate and motivate employee productivity and performance.

Performance appraisal

A performance appraisal is a system to measure individual productivity, tasks or goals to calculate merit pay, bonuses or job promotions. There is a distinct difference between compensating an employee for accomplishing work-related characteristics such as punctuality, initiative or work quantity/quality and achievement of team-related, departmental or collective productivity goals.

I recommend: Archer North and Associates provides a performance-related bonus method that gives an insightful example of how to calculate monetary compensation within the context of performance appraisal.

Performance appraisal

A performance appraisal is a system to measure individual productivity, tasks or goals to calculate merit pay, bonuses or job promotions. There is a distinct difference between compensating an employee for accomplishing work-related characteristics such as punctuality, initiative or work quantity/quality and achievement of team-related, departmental or collective productivity goals.

I recommend: Archer North and Associates provides a performance-related bonus method that gives an insightful example of how to calculate monetary compensation within the context of performance appraisal.