Before implementing any type of employee rewards program into your company’s culture, you need to first consider a few important factors.

Just as investing in asset management, technology upgrades, corporate security, product development, and marketing are all important areas of running a successful business, so too is the investment in creating and fostering the right corporate culture which motivates your employees.  Without a solid corporate culture, which engages your employees, may critically cripple your goals as a company.

Among the most valuable benefits to implementing employee recognition programs into your corporate culture include:
-  Drive employee engagement
-  Decrease attrition
-  Strengthen manager-to-employee relationships
-  Improved peer morale
-  Empower employees to choose their own reward
-  Reinforces existing corporate culture and company values
-  Encourages goal setting and rewards achievements

Establishing an employee recognition program cannot only improve employee engagement and retention, but foster innovation, which will lend itself to improving the bottom line.

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In today’s world, the companies who are staying ahead of the curve are moving a greater amount of resources and budget to bolstering the engagement of their employees through innovative rewards program solutions.    Properly designed employee rewards programs wrapped around existing business objectives can serve as a useful tool in inspiring your employees.

Recognize Your Employees - showing appreciation for employees who excel in their performance or stand out in the crowd can yield dramatic returns.  When the appropriate recognition is extended, such as direct from a manager, the employees feel the value they bring to the table, while inspiring those around the employee to perform at their best as well.

Offer The Right Reward - who are we to determine what is best to give someone who performs at their best as a reward.  Make sure you give them the option to choose for themselves.  Perhaps give them something to work for.  For example, perhaps a particular employee would like to get a certain handbag they have been eying in the department store for quite some time.  Each time they achieve their goals in the office, reward them points.  The employee is more likely to repeat the positive behavior to accumulate more points to eventually redeem for that handbag.

The key to retaining your valuable employees is in showing proper appreciation.  When employees feel valued, they are more likely to outperform even themselves.

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How much does it cost to say ‘thank you’?  Not much.

How much is the return after saying ‘thank you’?  Infinite.

Top companies from around the world are discovering the dramatic returns on the integration of a ‘thank you’ or ‘kudos’ culture into their workforce.  Recently, global giant Hewlett Packard initiated a pilot program within their workforce.  For HP employees who volunteer within their community each month receive recognition in gift cards as a way of saying, ‘thank you’.

The program has received such notoriety that the Harvard Business School studied the program and noted, “when organizations give employees the opportunity to spend money on others – whether their co-workers or those in need – both the employees and the company benefit, with increased happiness and job satisfaction, and even improved team performance.”

When developing an employee recognition program into your own company culture, it’s important to keep a couple of points in mind:
1.  Pay close attention - to the ebb-and-flow of your corporate culture and what the motivational drivers are with your employees
2.  Don’t underestimate the power of simple ‘kudos’.  They don’t cost much, and go a long way towards appreciation.

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As the Dow fell dramatically again this week, and the US sits on the brink of another recession, many companies are struggling with what to do next.  Last year, the Incentive Marketing Association (IMA) posted a resource article online about engaging employees for economic recovery.  One year later, the words still ring true.

As more companies are tightening their financial belts in an effort to stockpile as much savings, its important to not cut employee recognition and rewards program initiatives out of the budget.  ”A recent Saratoga Institute study showed that poor communication and a lack of recognition are the top reasons why good people left their organizations.”  Simply stated, rock star employees who remain unengaged now, will quickly leave your company the first sign of improvement.

Incentive Marketing Association estimates that as much as “85 percent of a company’s total assets are created by its investment in human capital, it is even more critical - in a post-recessionary economy - to engage every employee in the long-term success of the company.

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International sandwich shop, Pret a Manger, has recently been ripping up the newswires about their creative style in making their customers happier - by engaging their employees.  The executives at Pret have discovered that the happier their employees are, they happier their customers will be.

Fully embracing a culture of engagement, Pret has cultivated an ‘out-of-the-box’ environment where pay scale, promotions, hiring practices are based more on ‘cheerfulness’, and how the employee treats customers on the ground level.  The sandwich shop has implemented a rewards program that associates scores from ‘mystery shoppers’ and completion of training courses, as milestones with a reward.  Even the top executives are getting involved by handing out ‘Wow’ cards to employees on-the-spot.  Each card has a scratch-of reward, such as $10, or on up to a new iPhone.

You can read more about how Pret a Manger utilizes employee engagement by reading the article, ‘Would You Like a Smile With That?‘ posted in the New York Times.

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One of the truly fantastic things about our employee program is the motivation that it has provided our employees - raising morale and inspiring them to work together in pursuit of common goals. We had relied upon our employee recognition program for many years for these benefits and had certainly seen a return on our investment time after time. Now, we had begun to use the employee program situationally - to help us achieve very specific goals that we set forth throughout the year.

For instance, while we had originally implemented a rewards program and let it run throughout the year - as blanket motivation with set prize incentives - now we were using it a case by case basis. That way we could set specific goals throughout the year - month to month or in response to something specific that were trying to achieve. Then we could tailor our prize incentives to the goals at hand. We were finding that this could be a very effective means to not only meeting our goals but keeping motivation alive throughout the course of the year.

We began doing this with a big project that was coming our way. This was a new client and our first project that we were doing for this client. We needed to come in on time and on budget, and deliver in a way that meant total satisfaction for our client. This was important to say the least and we decided to use our employee program to help inspire our employees to work hard and efficiently.

We set particular goals that were in line with our project and matched prize incentives to those goals; prizes that were in keeping with the scope of the project, the hours that our employees would be putting in and the personalities of those working on the project.

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When we first considered establishing an employee rewards program, one of the things that sold us on doing it was the flexibility of the program. We were a start-up company at the time and, as such, our budget was very limited. However, after doing a lot of research on incentive programs we found that we could successfully initiate - and manage - a program regardless of our budget. We had only to choose prize incentives that were within our budget; which is exactly what we did. We were able to motivate employees and optimize production with limited investment and it was a huge success right from the start. During our research we also learned that we could change the program as we saw fit and as our budget allowed. This was when we were going to put it to the test.

Here we are, five years after we first implemented our employee program and we’re finally ready to change up the program. While we certainly don’t have an unlimited budget we definitely have more economic flexibility. As the company’s owners, we decided that this was the perfect time to change the program with the holidays and new year approaching.

So we went back to our prize incentives to see how we could spice up our employee recognition program for the holidays. We made some different choices that we are we happy to introduce for the holiday season including:

The ability to win vacations. We’re not talking week long getaways at five star resorts but we are talking long weekends at hot spots within driving distances. If there’s one thing that anyone could use right now it’s some time away.

Electronics. When we first set up our employee program, we steered clear of these prizes because they were higher ticket items. Now we were ready to offer up televisions and even iPods as prize incentives.

More in the next post…

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In the last post we talked about what features make a successful employee program. Companies put employee recognition programs into place everyday as a way to motivate their employees and reach particular goals as a company. Ideally such a program does its job to motivate staff and eventually the goals of the company are met. Then, going forward, as goals change, the program itself will be changed accordingly so that employees continue to be motivated and the company as a whole moves forward together towards the goals that they have set.

As we discussed earlier, some of the elements of a successful employee program include its structure - that it is organized and well thought out in terms of what it offers and what it asks of employees, its management - that there is a solid team put in place to monitor the success of the program and to recommend adjustments where/when necessary, and choice of prizes - that the incentives included are appropriate for the goals and the employees.

Some additional elements of a successful employee program include:

Communication. In order for a program to be successful the parameters of the program need to clearly communicated to those who are eligible to participate. The goals of the company and the prizes that employees are eligible to receive if they are able to meet particular goals need to be understood fully.

Focus. With such a tool at their disposal, most companies would want to use an employee program to help them achieve each and every goal they have. However, having a clear direction and focus - something specific to work towards - helps to make the program more effective.

Versatility. What works today may not be so effective tomorrow. Any company that implements an employee recognition program needs to be open to making changes when they are necessary and continually growing the program.

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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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