According to the experts, there are four areas that staff rewards should address – benefits, recognition, compensation, and appreciation. Finding the right balance between these as well as covering what motivates different people can be a tricky balancing job for managers and business owners. So how can you best reward your employees?
Performance and behaviour
The best reward systems recognise two types of activity and reward them accordingly – performance and behaviour. Performance is perhaps the easier – you set a goal, the employee meets or exceeds it and then receives the agreed reward. This is often where financial bonuses come in, such as the end of month payments or other types of financial reward.
Behaviour rewarding can be a little more difficult. First, the company needs to think about what kind of behaviours they want to reward. For some, it might be recognising people who work after hours without being asked to complete a task or project. For others, it might be rewarding the efficiency of someone who sets an example and gets the most done during their shift.
Choosing the type of bonus
So in both situations, compensation is usually the first place we turn to think of a type of reward. And if the staff is mainly motivated by money, then this can work very well. Also, if the goals they are working towards are also financial in nature, then this ties in. There are also longer-term financial compensation rewards such as equity ownership to consider.
Benefit rewards can be varied depending on the nature of the business and the employees. Benefits can be a crucial part of some types of jobs and are the deciding factor between taking the job and going somewhere else for some employees. But it also needs to be tailored around what the business can afford and is sustainable for the whole workforce so working with your payroll provider to establish the right benefits is important.
Non-financial rewards
Not all rewards have to be linked to finances directly. Recognition rewards may not have any physical or financial involvement at all but are a great, free way to show you appreciate what your staff is doing. Even little thank you gifts such as a bottle of wine or a box of chocolates given out for good work, achieving a goal or going that extra mile can work well to motivate staff.
For some staff, the prospect of extra time off or an early finish can be a big motivator. Therefore, the appreciation reward may involve allowing them to have a free afternoon off or an extra day’s holiday to take when they want to reward the work done. This does have a financial cost for the business to consider and may need to be tied in with the payroll provider but can be worth it for the motivational element.
Rewarding staff is an important part of any type of business. Showing that you appreciate their work and view them as an important part of the business helps with motivation and morale. And while it might cost the business, the uptake in the performance that good rewards can bring will more than offset this expenditure.
Cintra Payroll provides payroll services and have years of experience in many different industries. Contact us using the details below for more information.