Reward Employees Better and Reap the Benefits
We’ve all heard that rewarding employee performance boosts morale, loyalty and productivity, but is it really as simple as throwing rewards and money at top employees?
What about regularly celebrating the accomplishments of the office golden boy/girl? Won’t other employees feel unappreciated if they try hard but can’t quite reach the top of the heap?
Executives have been taking a critical look at their employee incentive programs and trying to figure out a way to retain the top talent at their company, while maintaining the morale and loyalty of all their workers.
Hit the reset button on incentives
Companies should start by having a broader view of employee performance and how workers affect social, environmental, brand and teamworking aspects to better juggle both short and long-term employee effectiveness with respect to financial and nonfinancial performance metrics.
Starting a wellness incentive program is a good way to help employees stay healthy and productive. Experts suggest setting group goals such as getting everyone in the office to lower their blood pressure by 10 percent. Many workplaces hold informal Biggest Loser contests and having a company sanction that type of program can help promote employee fitness.
Put me in, coach
Many organizations are helping their employees reach incentivized performance goals by asking their frontline managers to act more like coaches, who help lower-performing employees hit their targets. Managers can also counsel lower-performing employees to aim for alternative goals more suited to their individual skill set. The point of this type of frontline management is to get each employee actively thinking about their performance and reaching for an attainable reward.
Make incentive programs transparent and a worthwhile investment
Employee incentive programs can vary from job to job and industry to industry. The key to putting together a good program employees can buy into is to make the program transparent. Younger workers expect their employer to be a transparent as possible in their dealings and that goes for incentive programs as well. Management must explain to its employees why it is incentivizing these goals and outline just how incentive can be earned.
A good employee incentive program should also do more than make an employee happy they earned it. A good program also provides return on investment. If employees are simply jumping through hoops to get a prize – the incentive program is probably no good.
In fact, some incentives and rewards can directly add value to you company. For example, top performers could be sent to out-of-town learning seminars, conferences or certification programs. Employees appreciate the chance to get out of the office and the best part is – they will come back as a more valuable employee than the one that left.
At ZDA, we will work hard to provide our clients with top-performing employees capable of excelling in a range of employee incentive programs. Feel free to contact us regarding the acquisition of top employees for supply chain careers.
