Many companies - large and small - have considered an employee recognition program at some point or another, and with good reason. Incentive programs are a great way to connect with employees, set goals as a company, make sure everyone is on the same page in reaching those goals and recognize the hard work of those who help you reach your goals. Further, an employee program can be one of the biggest motivators in your business - helping to raise morale and increase production. There are many, however, who may think that an employee program is beyond their financial scope - something that is reserved for larger companies with deep pockets. Incentive programs, however, are appropriate for companies of all sizes and with all budgets - the program needs only to be customized to suit the needs and the budget of the company in question.

While it’s true that an employee program can easily inspire employees to work hard towards specific goals, some programs are more successful than others depending on how the hosting company implements the program and manages it going forward.

So what makes a successful employee program now and in the future?

Structure. It’s important that the employee program that you choose is structured to suit your particular company and your particular employees. It must be organized and well thought out.

Management. Now and going forward, an employee recognition program should have solid management behind it in order to make the best use of its benefits. Those in charge of managing the program, for instance, can monitor its effectiveness and recommend changes if necessary along the way.

Appropriate Prizes. It should never be forgotten that the point of incentive programs is to motivate employees with the potential to win various prizes. Obviously a successful program includes those prizes that are interesting to employees - those that they want to win.

More in the next post…

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A successful employee program comes down to a few crucial features. For one, it has to be well organized. Employees need to be completely clear about the goals that are expected of them in order to be allowed to participate, progress and achievements need to be well documented and prize incentives - and what accomplishments they relate to - need to be clearly understood by those involved. Of course, all of this also requires ongoing, professional management. Prize incentives are also absolutely critical to the success of the program. There’s no use having employee incentive programs if the prizes that you choose are not interesting or motivational to employees. So it’s important to choose wisely and with your employees in mind. This, unfortunately, is what also tends to stop business owners/management in their tracks. They think that they don’t have the budget to compete and there’s nothing that they can include in their rewards program that will be good enough for their employees and still within budget.

This, however, is not the case. One of the truly great things about an employee program is that it can be completely customized to fit the needs and the budget of the company. That means that you can start out small if you want and work from there, adding additional choices to your prize incentives as your budget allows and scaling back when you have to tighten your financial reigns.

So what are some of the choices when it comes to an employee program that will help motivate employees and achieve your goals as a company but won’t break the bank?

Gift certificates to restaurants and stores. There’s no better way to help employees than to let them choose what is most important to them. Having a great dinner at their favorite restaurant or having extra money to spend at their supermarket can be a real motivator.

Small electronics. Televisions may be out of the question for your budget but that doesn’t mean MP3 players or cell phones are off the table.

Jewelry. Perfect for gifts or to treat themselves and not too expensive for your needs.

These are just a few of the ideas for prize incentives. Work with your management team to choose the prize incentives that work for your company.

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Whenever I heard about employee recognition programs, I immediately thought of them as price-fixed programs that my small company could never afford to implement or manage. I figured a rewards program was something that bigger companies - with larger profit margins - put into place. When I was looking at my employees’ benefit package, however, I looked again at employee recognition programs. I was looking for a way to compensate my employees for their hard work in a way that was over and above their salary and standard benefit package. I did not, however, have a lot of money to spend. My accountant was actually the one who recommended a rewards program and this time I looked at the details more closely.

As it turned out, an employee recognition program was the perfect choice for my small company because I could customize it to be whatever I needed it to be at the time. This eliminated my budget fears. I was pleasantly surprised that I could actually create a program that was tailored to a small company just as the bigger companies were creating programs that met their needs. Through an employee recognition program I could:

Honor the work of my employees in an affordable way - recognizing their accomplishments and motivating them to continue the hard work. It didn’t cost me much to offer a gift certificate or a small electronic device for reaching a particular goal, but it meant a great deal to my employees.

Choose prizes that were in my budget. I thought incentive programs automatically came attached to big, expensive prizes but it turns out that I can choose the prizes that make sense for my budget. If, down the road, my cash flow increases, I can certainly choose to add bigger ticket items to my prizes.

Have a unique way to improve morale. Just by implementing this employee program I could change the environment at work with very little effort and very little investment.

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