Employees play a major role in the growth and success of an organization. The more dedicated and loyal your employees are, the faster your business grows. However, studies suggest that very few employees feel engaged at work. A major reason behind this is a lack of appreciation from the employers which further leads to a lack of motivation among the employees.

No matter how hard working your employees are, if their hard work and dedication is not appreciated in the right manner and at the right time, they will be discouraged at some point. This eventually affects their performance leading to a negative impact on your organizational productivity.

How do you ensure that this doesn’t happen at your organization? You can do it by appreciating and rewarding your employees when they deserve it. This is where employee rewards programs come into play. Many leading organizations are already running some sort of employee rewards programs to engage their employees. However, not every program is equally successful.

Further in this article, we will discuss some tips and strategies that you can use to run a successful employee rewards program:

What is an Employee Rewards Program?

An employee rewards program is a rewards or incentive system that is designed to engage and retain employees. The objective can be different for each organization. However, the basic purpose is to make employees feel valued for their work and keep them engaged.

In these programs, employees are rewarded for their hard work and dedication in order to encourage them to perform even better in the future. It also gives them a sense of being valued by the company, which further boosts employee loyalty. Employee rewards programs can be of different types and can be customized as per your individual business requirements.

How Can You Run a Successful Employee Rewards Program?

Below are the steps you can follow to design, implement, and manage a successful employee rewards program:

1. Define Your Goals & Align the Program with These Goals

Your first step of designing an employee rewards program should be to identify your goals. The program should align with the objectives of your business. Start by understanding why you need an employee rewards program and what are the issues you want to address with it.

Your goal can be to increase employee retention rates, to boost employee performance, to reduce employee absenteeism, or simply to boost morale among your employees. Determining your goal will help you come up with the right rewards program that helps you achieve your objective.

2. Understand What Your Employees Need

After all, you are designing the program for your employees and hence their preferences matter. You can conduct an in-office survey to understand what type of rewards program your employees will like the most. Another idea is to test different types of rewards and incentives for the few months and then continue with what works the best.

Aligning the employee rewards program with your employees’ needs and interests is crucial to make the program successful. If they do not find it interesting or valuable, they won’t be encouraged to participate in the program. Even if the employees participate, they won’t be engaged by the rewards that do not add any value to their professional or personal lives.

3. Ensure Regular Communication

Communication is the key to building a long-lasting relationship with your employees. While rewarding their efforts is essential, it is also important that your employees are not afraid to communicate. Encourage open, honest, and direct communication in your workplace.

All the employees should be well aware of how the rewards program is going to work. Also, they must feel free to ask questions and resolve their queries regarding the same. All this is possible by establishing a positive work environment, where employees are encouraged to speak and are properly answered their questions.

4. Reward More Often and On Time

Your employee rewards program makes sense only if it allows you to reward your employees frequently and on time. Appreciation and rewards lose their value if not offered on time. Therefore, you must ensure that your employees are appreciated regularly. If you want to reward an employee for performing exceptionally well on a particular project, reward them as soon as the project is completed. Public recognition can be highly effective in such situations.

Your employee rewards program should be designed in such a way that every employee gets equal opportunity to participate and earn rewards. Keep in mind that appreciation delayed means appreciation denied. Reward your employees at the right time, so that they are motivated to give their best in the future projects as well.

5. Ensure Transparency

Transparency also plays a contributing role in employee loyalty. Your employees should have a clear understanding of how the rewards program works. Make sure that they do not feel biased or unrecognized in any manner. Try to keep things as transparent as you can. It builds trust between the organization and the employees, which can positively impact employee engagement.

6. Partner With a Reputed Employee Rewards Program Company

Last but not the least, you can consider partnering with an employee rewards program provider like RewardPort. Designing a perfect employee rewards program is not so easy. It requires proper research and in-depth understanding of what will work the best for your organization. Having years of experience in running over 11k rewards and loyalty programs, RewardPort has the right expertise to do this.

Crafting an Effective Employee Rewards Program

It requires some extra effort to build an effective and potentially successful employee rewards program. You can’t just copy a strategy from the internet, implement it, and expect it to do wonders for your organization. That’s not how it works. Every business has different goals and objectives. Hence, you must create a program that not only rewards employees but also aligns with your organization’s individual requirements.

RewardPort specializes in designing employee rewards programs for every type and size of organization. With personalized rewards starting from as low as Rs. 10 and custom strategies specially tailored to your business, the team of marketing experts at RewardPort will help you create the perfect program for your employees. Designing a custom program will benefit your company in many ways, contributing to a happy workplace.

FAQs