Whether you’re rewarding your employees for coming up with a great idea, thanking them for their loyalty to your organisation or showing your appreciation for going the extra mile, staff reward schemes are an excellent way to improve your business’s productivity, quality, and service.
Reward schemes help to create a work environment that empowers staff to perform to the very best of their ability, and it’s been proven in numerous studies that engaged staff are productive workers, which means that there are many benefits to having motivated employees.
But there’s no point setting up a reward scheme and then leaving it to run un-monitored. So here are five ways you can get more from your reward scheme:
1. Think strategically
Reward programmes deliver better results when they are aligned with your overall business objectives. That means that your reward programme needs to be consistent with your company strategy, for example, if you want to differentiate yourself from your competitors based on customer service then your reward programme should reward behaviours and actions that deliver high levels of customer service.
Take action: Business strategies will change or be updated every few years, so you need to review your reward programme in line with your current business strategy. Look at the goals of your business strategy and decide how your reward programme can help you deliver those results.
2. Be creative
Too many organisations do what has always been done when it comes to reward schemes: long service awards and employee of the month awards with little forethought spring to mind. Reward schemes that are designed creatively encourage more people to participate in them, make staff feel more valued and engaged, and set the organisation apart from its competitors. There are a number of employee reward tools that improve employee engagement, such as gamification, and keep your reward scheme fun.
Take action: Investigate how you can add some fun to your reward scheme either in the way it is implemented, or the type of reward offered – such as a Morphing Trophy, whereby the employee of the week gets the trophy and at the end of the week they must return it, but they must stick something to it before they do so.
3. Learn what works – and what doesn’t
If you want your reward programme to deliver results, then you need to measure it so that you can learn what works and what doesn’t. Being able to quantify success to senior management will also help you justify the spend. Most reward programmes use multiple measures such as improved financial performance, improved customer service, or improved customer satisfaction.
Take action: Decide what measures work for your organisation and find out what your systems will enable you to measure. Potential of measures of success include engagement survey improvements, improved product knowledge, the number of innovation suggestions put forth, Net Promoter Score gains, and volume of recognition sent that is aligned with particular company values.
Case Study: Take a look at the Virgin Media ‘Shout’ recognition scheme in action:
4. Choose your rewards carefully
Choosing the right rewards is crucial to the success of your scheme as rewards that don’t motivate employees can result in disengaged employees who don’t actively participate. Gift cards and vouchers are always popular choices as they enable staff to choose their own gift, but you could also opt for voucher cheques or merchandise.
Take action: Determine what types of rewards employees want to receive by asking them in meetings and through anonymous surveys.
5. Try new things
Technology is having a massive impact on reward programmes. They improve the effectiveness of your programme while also being cost-effective. Technologies such as online reward platforms, mobile recognition apps and social recognition can enhance your employees’ reward experience as well as provide you with data to improve your scheme.
Take action: Review your employee reward scheme to take advantage of new developments. You can also trial new ways of engaging employees with your rewards by using new tools to communicate with them.
Kuljit Kaur
Kuljit is responsible for business development at The Voucher Shop, a division of p&mm ltd. Your one stop shop for corporate vouchers and gift cards for employee benefits, recognition or rewards.
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