There are those things that cost money that - in the end - are worth so much more than their monetary attachment; those things that reap substantial rewards that could be considered priceless. This is often the case for those employers that choose to put a rewards program in place. An employee recognition program uses prize incentives to help motivate employees to achieve specific goals and can be scaled to fit within any company’s budget. Prize incentives may range from jewelry and small electronics to big items like trips and gift cards. Whatever prize level the employer is most comfortable operating within is where they can stay - or this can be a starting point before launching into a bigger employee program as the company grows and prospers.
Companies that choose employee incentives as motivating ingredients for their workplace will typically work with a management company - a rewards program professional that can help put the details of the program into place and manage it as a third party “arm” of their client. Employers need to identify those goals that they want their employees to meet as well as the prize incentives that would best complement those goals and are, of course, within their budget. The most important and beneficial quality of employee recognition programs is their ability to be adjusted for each company so those organizations with limited means can keep their rewards program small and financially manageable and those with more money to invest can do so. A management company can help put all the pieces together so that your rewards program operates seamlessly no matter what your budget or prize incentive offerings.
What most people find is that the investment in a rewards program is nothing compared to the return on that investment. Employees who have the ability to participate in an employee recognition program have higher morale and are more motivated to achieve and succeed - resulting in higher production.
Popularity: 49% [?]
Share This
In the last post I talked about my concern with my company. I had put a lot of heart, soul, and - of course - money into starting my own business and I had worked hard every day to make sure that operations were as smooth as possible. Things were going along pretty well until the economy crashed and I - like everyone else - was thrown into a tizzy. My plans were put on hold - plans that included hiring additional staff and increasing salaries. My employees - who were already working so hard - were now called upon to work even harder and to do so without any help. Needless to say they were not happy and as the months went by I was noticing that the hostility in the workplace was directly proportional to the decrease in production. I had to do something and that’s when I looked into an employee program.
I found a company that had a great reputation implementing and managing employee recognition programs and I worked with them to put something in place for my company. I was relieved to know that I didn’t have to have a huge company with a monster budget to put an effective rewards program into place. I started with incentives that were within my budget but they were still attractive to my employees and they were anxious to be eligible to win them. We put goals down on paper - those goals that we wanted our employees to work towards - and we matched them up with incentives that we could give away to those who achieved the goals we set forth for them.
Our employee program made a huge difference. It was really something to see. Our employee morale was way up after we put our program into place. They felt validated and happy to work towards prizes that they valued. Best of all we could always make changes to our incentive programs as we got bigger and had a bigger budget.
Popularity: 51% [?]
Share This
There have been many times throughout my career that I thought I had hit the end of the road both when I was working for a company and now that I’m running one. In fact, now - as a business owner - I have faced many days where I was concerned that I would have to close my doors; especially now with the economy the way that it is. I did everything that I could to launch and run a successful business and I was happy with how things were going but then the economy crashed and I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. My employees, who were already doing so much in the name of a start-up business, were now called upon to do so much more. I didn’t have the funds to hire additional help and now that we were sweating every penny I didn’t have the money to raise salaries. These were lean times and my employees were feeling the heat. Things started to shift; I felt hostility in the workplace and production suffered. I had to do something to bring morale up and still run my business as cost-effectively as possible. The employee program that I put in place changed everything.
Employee recognition programs are used by companies of all sizes. This was the first thing that I learned about incentive programs that made me feel comfortable. I didn’t have to be a big company with a huge budget to make an employee program work; I could implement and manage a program within my own means and to me that was critically important.
I began the research to find a company that I could trust to put together a great rewards program. Once I did that, everything fell into place and I’ve never looked back. More in the next post…
Popularity: 35% [?]
Share This
Managing a company of any size comes with its own challenges to be sure. There are many things to deal with on a daily basis and making sure that employees’ needs are met is certainly one of them; a significant factor indeed. If employee morale is low then there’s the opportunity for production to be low. A solid employee base can make or break a company; there’s no denying it. Of course good management techniques go a long way towards making sure that a company is doing all that it can for the good of their employees and solid employee incentives can work in tandem with good management.
An employee incentives program allows a company to set goals and match the achievement of those goals with particular prize incentives. Employee recognition programs are effective across the board but the best thing about them is that they can be effective regardless of the prizes; meaning that a company with a smaller budget can still work within that budget - scaling prizes to match - and still get great results. Conversely, companies with larger budgets can adjust their prizes accordingly and still achieve success. In fact, companies can change their prize incentives as much as they want/need in order to work within their budget and still maintain a viable employee recognition program.
A rewards program should be one of the resources that a good management team uses to keep their company operating on solid ground. Companies will find - that with the right incentives company behind them - they can engage employees in something that makes them feel listened to and appreciated.
Additionally, a management team can make adjustments to their employee recognition program as they go - accounting for budget, changes in staff, goals that the company wants to meet, and much more. When done right, rewards programs can be effective throughout the lifetime of any company.
Popularity: 55% [?]
Share This
Communication is key to any successful relationship; we’ve all heard that before. Yet what me may not have fully realized is the number of relationships that we engage in on a daily basis, beyond the romantic, how communication is equally important in all of them. Communication in the business relationship, for example, is just as critical to success. How often are relationships broken down in the workplace because management is unable to communicate effectively with employees and vice versa? Often there is misunderstanding when it comes to what is expected. Employees may think that one thing is expected of them, yet management may truly be expecting another. It’s like playing whisper down the lane and in the end, the message is almost always wrong. An employee program, however, gives companies the ability to spell things out for their employees - simply and clearly. Everyone knows what is expected of them; the meeting of which goals will result in their ability to choose from corresponding prize incentives. Employee recognition programs, in fact, are a great way to improve communication in companies of any size.
Employee recognition programs can be easily set up and managed for companies that are operating within any budget. Goals are identified - which goals are important to the company and which goals they would like to see their employees working towards - and prizes are offered in tiers to correspond to said goals.
Employees can then see, without a doubt, which goals are considered by company management to be most important and they can work towards those goals with the knowledge of which prize incentives they may be eligible to receive. It’s a great way to not only improve communication but improve employee morale and, by extension, production. Best of all, companies can make changes to their employee recognition program based on structural changes, sales goals, and, of course, budget.
Popularity: 48% [?]
Share This
In the last post I talked about my reputation as a numbers guy and how I had never been too adept at handling the human side of business. While I was always able to work to my strengths before, now I was in a position where I had to face my weakness because I was the owner of my own company. This wasn’t going to go away; I needed to be able to communicate with and motivate my own employees. The employee recognition program that I put into place helped me do that.
Working with an experienced, reputable company in the industry I was able to put into place something that would really motivate my employees - and would communicate, even when I was not able to adequately do so, how much we appreciated their hard work. The way that the employee program worked was like this:
As a mid-sized company we had hundreds of different goals on a daily basis. Obviously we wanted to grow business and make money but - in addition to sales goals - there were goals that had to do with delivering excellent customer service, keeping the workplace safe and accident-free, and more. We determined which goals were important to us as a company and really spelling it out was enormously helpful.
Once we recognized our goals we were able to match incentives with particular goals. This was the fun part where we could identify which goals were worthy of which incentives and choose the incentive prizes that were within our budget. The great thing about the employee incentives is that we can always make changes based on our budget and how the company grows in the future.
We were then able to communicate this program to our employees which helped me specifically because I had something exciting to share. This would mark a new era for me in terms of improving my role as owner and manager.
Popularity: 62% [?]
Share This
When it comes to doing business I am your guy. I know strategies and numbers and forecasts; I am able to predict sales trends and make adjustments accordingly, implement and manage plans that will see companies grow, and I always have an eye on the bottom line. While this is all well and good in business and has earned me a solid reputation in my industry, it does not tell the whole tale because as good as I am with numbers, I am not nearly as adept when it comes to people. In other words, I have a difficult time with employees sometimes and motivation is not my strong point. This was never too much of an issue in past roles because I was recognized as the bigger picture guy and others were in charge of communicating with employees - making sure that everyone was on the same page and satisfied with their jobs. Now, however, I had my own business and I was going to have to close that learning curve pretty quickly if I was going to be truly successful in my venture. The employee recognition program that I implemented was, by far, the biggest, most important thing that I did in helping to improve employee relations.
Incentive programs are nothing new and have been around for some time in a variety of ways. This, however, was something different - something structured, organized, and clear; in other words, something I could understand and appreciate. We worked with a highly reputable company that had the experience and expertise in putting together incentive programs for companies our size. We were able to choose the incentives that we wanted - determine the goals that we wanted to be met in order to receive those incentives - and the company that we hired handled and managed the whole thing. More in the next post…
Popularity: 55% [?]
Share This
In the last post we talked about how our company had come to a place that so many eventually do - where our production was way up but our morale within the company was way down. We had experienced tremendous growth very quickly which was great in terms of the bottom line and our growing reputation in the industry but our employes were bearing the brunt of the additional work and were feeling very much out of the loop in terms of communication. We had found all these great ways to communicate with clients around the world but we were having trouble communicating even the simplest ideas to our employees. They felt cut off and as if their ideas were being overlooked as well as their needs. We implemented our employee program about this time with the help of a great company that helped us put it together and manage it.
We rolled out big with our employee program, offering vacations and big electronics to those employees who met specific goals in terms of production and safety. It was a huge hit and went a long way towards repairing employee/management relations. Plus because we were always changing goals and incentives we worked directly with employees to learn what they considered to be appropriate goals and interesting incentives - thus improving communication on a daily basis.
The program was in effect - successfully - for about a year when the economy crashed. We knew we had to make some adjustments but - because the program was already in place and they had experienced our commitment towards honoring their work - employees were nothing but supportive when we adjusted the prize incentives to a slightly less dramatic scale to account for our minimized budget. We are happy that incentive programs can be adjusted according to our needs and we’re equally thrilled that we can continue to offer our employees merit-based incentives.
Popularity: 49% [?]
Share This
