Keeping your employees happy is essential to running a successful business. Yesterday, I talked about communicating internally to improve your customer service. Letting your employees know what you want, what they’re doing well, and what needs improvement keeps everyone on their toes with goals in mind. Everyone learns differently though and sometimes a pat on the back may not be enough.
Rewarding your employees is a way to keep them happy and producing great work. Depending on the size and nature of your business, some rewards may or may not be doable.
Lunch. Sometime it may be nice to reward some hard-working employees by either taking them out to lunch, or ordering in something they like. It’s a small gesture that shows you appreciate their time and work.
Movie. My colleague and I had been working incredibly hard on a project at work. We were told if we were told if we completed it in a certain amount of time and achieved a set goal, we would get something in return. Well, I’m a huge sci-fi movie nerd (in the best possible way), and our reward was to go see “Immortals†the day it came out. It was fun to do something with my colleagues other than work and it was something we all enjoyed.
Flex Hours. If you’re able to, giving employees flex hours is a nice way to reward them for hard work. Maybe one Friday they can leave an hour before normal and get their weekend started early.
Celebrations. In our office, we celebrate a lot. We’re a tight-knit group and if it’s a birthday, holiday, etc. We have a party. Usually pot-luck and everyone gets to bring something delicious. It’s great to have something like this to break up the work day every once in a while.
How do you reward your employees? Can you see a difference in their work performance and customer service because of rewards?