As a business owner, your employees should be one of your top priorities. If your employees are not happy, how can you expect them to make customers/clients happy?
In fact, according to recent insights, businesses that encourage employee happiness outperform their competition by 20 percent. Therefore, it pays to create a work environment that supports your employees and makes them feel appreciated. A common way of achieving this is by rewarding employees and recognizing their achievements.
Here are a few ideas on how to reward employees for their hard work and make them feel appreciated within your organization.
1. Office Outings
One of the best ways of showing employee appreciation is by taking your team out of the office and doing something enjoyable. You could take employees out to do things like:
Sports games
Local happy hours
Retreats or weekend getaways
Volunteer work
Team building activities
Classes
Spending time with employees outside of the office can often help managers and executives get to know their staff on a more personal level. Not only that, but employees also have an opportunity to bond and become closer, creating a positive work environment.
2. Free Gear
Some companies have absolutely nailed this employee reward already, but offering free promotional gear or "swag" can boost employee loyalty. For example, you can provide company t-shirts or water bottles and hand them out to employees.
Not only will employees enjoy the new gear, but they will also be promoting your brand. You can even encourage employees to wear branded apparel at the workplace.
3. Flexible Hours
Flexible hours are becoming increasingly popular after remote work dominated the workplace in 2020. In fact, according to a recent study, 90 percent of U.S. workers want their work to be more flexible.
This flexibility may not always work, but you can show your appreciation in other ways, such as half-days on Friday to make a long weekend. Many employers also introduce hybrid workplace models and “work-from-anywhere” days to give their staff a bit more flexibility.
4. Better Benefits
There's no way around it - better health benefits can be a significant incentive for employees. Offering top-tier employee benefits can not only retain current personnel, but also help your company attract a better talent pool.
A typical benefits package can include offerings like health, vision, and dental insurance, but larger, corporate-style packages often include:
Retirement plans
Supplemental insurance
Pet insurance
Telemedicine programs
Legal coverage
Flexible spending accounts
Consumer discount programs
While it can often be difficult for smaller organizations to obtain a robust employee benefits plan independently, a human resources outsourcing (HRO) organization can often provide access no matter the size of your business.
5. Event Tickets & Gift Cards
Sports games, concerts, and festivals are all starting to pick up again, and employees may want to start seeking out entertainment within their communities. Recognizing employees with tickets to an event can be a great incentive to keep up the hard work.
Giving out gift cards to local businesses is another great way to support the community and provide employees a product or service of their liking.
Rewarding Employees the Right Way
No matter what incentive(s) you ultimately decide to go with, it's important to make sure that your employees know that you appreciate them. Letting them know how much they mean to your business can go a long way in keeping employees happy.
If you are looking for new ideas on how to incentivize employees, or are interested in enhancing your current employee benefits offering, contact SynchronyHR today. As a human resources outsourcing organization, we can gladly help you go over some options.