Everyone loves prizes and rewards are like prizes, only better! Rewarding your employees will boost your work atmosphere morale better than any prize ever should. What’s the difference? A prize is something an employee wins through a raffle. A reward is something an employee earns. Every employee is an important part of your business work flow. You don’t want to exclude anyone.
Who should you reward?
That should be easy to answer. Everyone! If you were to not reward one of your cashiers, but everyone else, that cashier would likely become quite the disgruntled employee and stop putting any sort of effort into their job which may discourage customers from shopping at your business.
When should you reward employees?
Realistically, when you feel it is appropriate. Honestly, the more frequent employees are rewarded, the more secure they feel about their jobs. When is it appropriate? Every day!
What should you reward employees for?
Everything! Reward them for taking care of the tasks that have been delegated to them. Clocking in and out every day, closing the register for the day and being right on, having a big sale go through, everything that happens within your company is important. While something like clocking in/out may seem like a meaningless task, it saves your accountant a lot of time when it comes to cutting paychecks.
How should you reward employees?
Reward with what you feel is appropriate. “Bonus” in store discount on top of their employee discount. Lunch with the manager, owner, or other person of importance (this can be useful in finding out how the employee feels about the work environment & any suggestions or ideas they might have). Team outings, do something unrelated to your business (paintballing, movie, volunteer, etc…) but do it during work time if possible. People don’t like working forty hours and then having to spend their personal time with their co-workers as well, no matter how well they all get along.
Check out this video that Jason from More Than Rewards made about employee reward programs!