Employee Recognition Awards, Incentives & Gifts
Employee recognition and incentive programs help to improve morale, reduce turnover and also can improve productivity. When you are looking for ideas for employee incentives and gifts, keep your mind open to more than just money. In some cases, you can create ongoing recognition programs that cost very little to administer but add to the motivation in the workplace.
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Personal Recognition
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Departmental managers have direct contact with their staff every day, and they are able to determine when employee recognition is appropriate. Encourage your managers to use small personal tokens of appreciation as a way of motivating employees. Handwritten letters or certificate templates that are filled in by hand with the manager's signature can be given to employees as an ongoing form of recognition. It is a small token that costs very little money, but the effect of personal recognition from management can be positive.
Length of Service
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Length-of-service rewards can come in several forms. Employees that reach significant milestones such as five years or more with the company can be rewarded with an additional week of paid vacation or a cash reward. For example, a cash reward of $500 for each employee's fifth anniversary can be an incentive for employees to remain with the organization. Another way to enhance a length-of-service award is to give the awards out in a single ceremony to honor the employees in front of the entire staff. This helps to make the moment special for each employee being honored, and it also helps the other employees to see the benefits of remaining with the company.
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Team Incentives
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Individual incentives can help to boost the performance of certain employees, but team incentives can help increase production within entire departments. Set performance indicators for each department, and then reward those departments when they exceed their goals. Examples of departmental goals include a low number of accidents for the warehouse, revenue captured by accounts receivable and revenue generated by sales. You can reward each group that reaches its goals with a quarterly bonus payment that can range anywhere from $100 to $500 per employee at the company's discretion. The company could bring in a catered lunch once a quarter for each department that reaches its performance goals as well.
Regular Gifts
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One of the ways to create interest in incentive programs and rewards is to have ongoing contests that all employees are eligible for. Reward employees that put the best suggestion in the company suggestion box with gift cards to local department stores or restaurants. Employees that are seen to go above and beyond their job on a regular basis can be rewarded with movie or professional sporting event tickets. Make sure the rewards are not random and that employees know how to earn them, and be certain that the programs are well-publicized in the company newsletter and on the organizational Intranet.
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