Creating a successful employee rewards program.
The biggest support or the backbone of a successful company is its employees. For a company it is essential to reward their employees and recognize their efforts in the company’s success as well. Hence, integrating employee rewards programs is one of the best ways to achieve this.
Now, depending on different companies and their cultures, these employee performance program can vary. However, here in this blog we will be helping you to understand the basic nature of creating a successful employee rewards programs.
Decoding the Employee Recognition
Essentially, an employee recognition or employee rewards programs is the process or system that allows a company to recognize the efforts and achievements of its employees, while also rewarding them for their work.
For recognition programs, organizations often leverage their internal platforms with the intent of boosting the employee morale and motivating them for better performance throughout the year. This also allows the organizations to identify the best talents which are further retained, motivated, and appreciated.
It’s not that all brands cannot integrate a successful employee task reward program, what they lack is the knowledge and the resources to do so. Hence, it is advisable to integrate the right partner such as RewardPort which can offer you better employee rewards programs.
Why Integrate this Approach?
Defining the basics, now we move on to provide you with the details as to why these programs are beneficial for a company and for their employees as well. Here are some of the most common benefits that come along with it.
- Employee retention
If your employees feel their efforts are being recognized and rewarded, it encourages them to stay or work for a longer period of time with the company. Developing a culture of rewarding and recognition will help in employee retention rate which further enables them to have a sense of belonging within the organization.
- Increased employee engagement
Regularly conducting employee engagement activities and employee task reward program will allow the employees to have better engagement in all the activities and tasks. This further promotes better communication within the organization and the employees.
- Better communication
These rewards and recognition programs would offer the employees a platform to speak up about their mindset. This would further encourage employees to get involved in conversation with the management and have an open conversation. This allows the employees to keep forward their issues and queries and the management an opportunity to solve their queries and further improve the work performance along with culture.
- Enhanced performance
Since the employees are recognized and rewarded for their efforts it will further push them to perform even better. For this employee performance coupon program are integrated such as effective sweepstakes promotion for offering rewards to employees.
Elements of Employee Rewards Program
Moving on, let’s have a look at the key elements that you need to consider while creating your employee performance program.
- Parameters for performance evaluation
Identify certain specific parameters for performance evaluation for different teams. This is necessary as the parameters that you use for the sales team are not relevant for the marketing team, hence each team needs different parameters.
- Employee task reward program fair
Consider all the employees and all teams in the performance evaluation process to make it fair for all. Don’t involve any factors that might make the process biased in favor of any particular team or employee.
- Include certain surprise elements
If you open up all the elements of the employee rewards program, you are taking the thrill out of it. Hence, keep an element of surprise, be it the rewards or the evaluation process. This will further push the employees to be more excited about the program and would work even better to achieve the recognition.
- Regular performance valuation and recognition programs
These employee task reward program should be conducted on a regular basis as this would keep the employees motivated and their morale high. Further enabling the employees to perform better and achieve their goals.
- Open communication space
Include an open communication space where the employees can offer feedback and talk about their queries, experiences which the management can work upon. This would make the employees feel heard and appreciated by the management.
Rewards and Recognition
For a successful employee performance program, here are some rewards and recognition ideas that you can integrate into your company. Additionally, another important factor to consider here is that you involve the right partner that can help you implement this process such as RewardPort. With RewardPort effective Sweepstakes promotion you can offer various rewards to your employees.
- Monetary rewards
Either you can offer additional incentives as a part of your employee task reward program or you can provide incentives along with the regular payouts.
- Social recognition
Leverage the social channels and offer your best performing employees a social reward by recognizing them on social media. This would help them get more motivation and urge to perform better in future as well.
- Gift cards
You can offer your employees gift cards. Creating successful sweepstakes with RewardPort for an effective rewards and recognition process would further enable you in this process.
- Personalized gifts and hampers
Depending on the best employees’ you can give them a personalized gift which has more effect as compared to any other gifts. This provides them a sense of personal belonging with the company and hence more connection.
- Trip or travel vouchers
Lastly, you can offer your employees travel vouchers with effecting Sweepstakes promotion. This would help your employees to take time off and relax a bit after the hard work they are putting in for the company.
Concluding Words
Loyalty program companies such as RewardPort offer companies a chance to integrate an effective sweepstakes program in their employee rewards program and motivate their employees for better performance.
Offering employee performance coupon program would further enhance the employee performance throughout and a motivation for them to work better in the future to get the rewards and recognition as well.
20 Employee Engagement Rewards & How to Give Them
Employees are an integral part of every organization. Without ensuring high levels of employee productivity and morale, it is challenging to make your company grow at a rapid rate. This is the reason why most of the successful organizations are paying special attention to retaining their employees. Organizations run multiple employee engagement programs to retain their staff and encourage their workforce to give their best at work. The following are some effective employee engagement ideas that you can consider:
1. Immediate Rewards or Bonus
When your employees perform exceptionally or complete a big project, you must recognize their efforts and reward them. Delaying recognition or rewards in this case is similar to denying their hard work. As soon as they achieve a milestone or help the company achieve something big, you can immediately announce their achievement in the office and promise a reward for the same. Remember that rewards are effective only when offered on time.
2. Provide Wellness Benefits
Focussing on employee wellness has become extremely important for organizations these days. By offering health and wellness-related benefits, you can address your employees’ wellness while making them feel valued at the same time. You can organize fitness sessions in the office, give your employees free access to online mindfulness sessions, or offer complimentary massage sessions to top performers. As per a study, over 70% of employees believe that they need their employers’ help to stay healthy. Therefore, investing in your employees’ health and offering wellness-related benefits can be an effective employee engagement strategy.
3. Celebrate Work Anniversaries
This is quite common but one of the most effective ways to keep your employees motivated and encourage them to work with you on a long-term basis. You can organize small in-office celebrations on the work anniversaries of your employees. On their work anniversary, thank them for their dedication and contributions to your company and also allow them to share their experiences. You can also give some valuable gift or monetary bonus to encourage the employees to stay loyal.
4. Organize Team Lunches
Organizing team lunches is a great way to boost team morale and encourage team building in your company. Employees can appreciate each other and also bond over non-work-related conversations. It helps employees build mutual trust and feel good about each other as well as their organization. For a happy and recharged staff, employers should organize team lunches on a regular basis. A happy staff means increased productivity and hence, faster company growth.
5. Offer Performance-Based Incentives
Offering performance-based incentives is one of the common strategies used by most companies to boost employee engagement. You can run employee rewards and recognition programs based on performance. Offer monetary incentives or non-monetary bonuses to the employees who always complete their work before the deadline. You can also offer rewards or benefits to the top performers of every team. The employees who earn rewards are motivated to keep performing well in the future. Moreover, it also encourages the entire staff to perform better in order to receive the benefits.
6. Offer Rewards for Punctuality
Every organization has some employees who are always on time. It is essential to encourage them through some rewards or recognition so that they continue to display this behavior. Punctuality is one of the good qualities that every organization wants to see in its employees. You can give them gift vouchers or other types of rewards on a monthly or quarterly basis. It encourages other employees to come to the office on time.
7. Include Gamified Rewards
Gamification has gained popularity as a powerful tool for making loyalty and engagement programs more effective. By incorporating gamification strategies in your employee engagement programs, you can make the program more interesting for your staff and boost employee productivity. Some best examples of gamified rewards for employee engagement include team quiz contests, leaderboards, etc.
8. Social Employee Recognition
You can use any social media platform or professional platform where all your employees have a presence. You can create a group of your employees and share the exceptional work of your employees there. For example, if one of the designers in your team has created an amazing design, you can share it in the group and ask everyone to send their reaction via a GIF. This is an interesting and effective way to make your employees feel recognized and appreciated for their hard work.
9. Give Shoutouts in the Office
Public recognition and appreciation can be much more effective than monetary rewards when it comes to boosting employee engagement and productivity. When an employee gives an extraordinary performance on a project or helps you close a big deal, you can give them a shoutout in the office and on social media. It increases productivity levels in your organization and encourages every employee to give their best.
10. Put Personalised Notes on their Desk
Personalized handwritten notes are magical. A simple and small ‘thank you’ note can make your employees feel happy and valued. You can randomly put sticky notes on the desks of your employees and thank them for all their hard work and dedication toward the company. Personalized messages with the names and special qualities of your workers can be more encouraging than an expensive gift.
11. Offer Regular Monetary Incentives
Though non-monetary benefits and rewards can encourage your employees to be productive at work, offering monetary bonuses is still important to gain their loyalty in the long term. Giving regular salary hikes or monetary bonuses becomes very important to maintain high motivation levels among your staff members. You should try to offer a monetary bonus at least once every quarter or every six months.
12. Give Regular & Honest Feedback
Giving regular feedback to your employees is a great way to encourage open and healthy conversation in your organization. You should give positive as well as negative feedback to each of your employees and guide them about how to improve. However, you need to ensure that you keep yourself very calm while giving feedback and understand the concerns of your employees as well. It helps you establish a healthy work environment and positive culture in your office.
13. Send a Care Package on the Birthday
Celebrating personal occasions like the birthdays of your employees makes them feel that their company really cares about them. You can give them a complimentary off on their birthdays and send a self-care gift, such as a spa kit, a hair care kit, fitness-related products, etc. Even if you don’t want to give them a day off, you can organize a small celebration in the office and gift them something they value.
14. Ask For Employee Feedback through Surveys
Taking employee feedback is also as important as giving feedback to them. You can conduct online surveys to take feedback from your employees. Most companies take employee feedback but never take it seriously. This is something you must avoid. Gathering feedback is not enough, but you also need to look into it and make the required improvements. Making your employees feel valued is very important to boost engagement levels at your company.
15. Give Access To Learning Programs and Certifications
Offering learning and growth opportunities is an effective way to retain your employees while improving their skills. Everyone wants to learn and grow while doing a job. By giving your employees free access to learning and certification programs, you can give them an additional reason to work with your organization. By combining benefits, such as certificates and incentives with these learning programs, you can make them more interesting for your employees to participate in.
16. Give Experiential Rewards
Many organizations offer experiential rewards to their top-performing employees in order to encourage other employees to perform better. You can choose one or more top-performing employees of the year or quarter and provide them with a wide range of experiential reward options to choose from. The options can include skydiving & other adventures, a sponsored trip for two, free singing or dancing lessons for a month, etc.
17. Support What Your Employees Value
You can boost the engagement levels among your employees by supporting them in what they want to support. You can organize and sponsor a social cause day, where all your employees work together toward a social cause that they are passionate about. Giving your employees a chance to give back to the community is an amazing way to make a difference and encourage them to stick with your company.
18. Create a Wall of Fame
This is quite commonly used yet one of the most effective employee engagement activities. You can create a physical or a digital wall of fame where the top performers of your company are recognized on a monthly and yearly basis. You can add two sections, including ‘employee of the year’ and ‘employee of the month’ to the wall of fame. Update it every month and every year and try to give every employee a chance to get featured on this.
19. Give Them Some Time Off
Time is one of the most valuable and precious things you can gift someone. When your employees complete a big project without any error or achieve any such milestone, you can give them some time off. You can leave them a few hours earlier than the actual leaving time on Fridays to make their weekend more enjoyable. This is an amazing way to encourage all your employees to give their best at work.
20. Run a Continuous Employee Rewards Program
You can even run a continuous rewards program for your employees just like businesses run loyalty programs for their customers. You can create a separate rewards portal, where all your employees can log in to track and redeem their rewards. You can offer reward points for every desirable action, such as completing a certification program, being punctual at work throughout the month, etc.
Boost Employee Engagement at Your Company with RewardPort
RewardPort is one of the top reward and loyalty solution-providing companies, which can help you plan and implement the most effective engagement program for your employees. The team of experienced marketing professionals at RewardPort analyzes every small detail of your company and also considers the interests of your employees while executing employee engagement activities for your company.
Frequently Asked Questions: -
Employee engagement refers to the level of dedication and enthusiasm an employee feels toward his/her organization. For an organization to be successful and productive, it is very important for its employees to be engaged at work.
Employee engagement is the relationship between an organization and its employees, i.e. how an employee feels about his/her company. Employee engagement is of three types, including emotional, cognitive, and physical.
You can improve employee engagement by making your employees feel valued at their organization and incentivizing their efforts toward your company.
5 Reasons RewardPort Should Be Your Partner for Employee Rewards Programs in 2023
As per a study conducted on 3 million employees, companies that used an effective employee rewards program gained over twice the three-year median return than the ones that did not have any such program. This is evidence that employee rewards and recognition programs play a vital role in the growth and success of an organization. But, planning and implementing a rewards program for your employees is a challenging task as you need to take every small business detail into account and consider a lot of other factors to make it successful. However, there are various employee rewards program companies that you can look up to.
RewardPort is one of the top reward and loyalty solution providers to consider. Here are some most significant reasons why you should partner with RewardPort for your employee rewards program in 2023:
1. Experienced Team
RewardPort has a team of experienced marketing professionals, who have already executed over 11,000 reward programs across different categories. The team manages loyalty programs for several companies not only in India, but across 6 countries, including India, Sri Lanka, UK, Canada, UAE, and Kenya. Trusted by more than 750 clients, RewardPort becomes one of the top options to consider when it comes to choosing the right company for your employee rewards program.
Planning and running an employee rewards program requires good research and understanding of what types of rewards are suitable for a particular company. This is what RewardPort’s marketing team can do for you. With their industry expertise and years of experience, they can come up with the best rewards program for your employees.
2. Multiple Rewards & Redemption Options
With RewardPort, you can run an employee loyalty program using rewards starting from as low as Rs. 10. Being one of the top loyalty solution providers, RewardPort provides you with a host of reward options to choose from. You can always find a suitable option under your budget and start running an employee rewards program. Along with the reward points, your employees also get plenty of exciting redemption options. They can redeem their rewards across over 70,000 products or services across different categories.
To make a rewards program effective, you don’t only need to focus on offering rewards but also on redemption options. If your employees can not find any valuable redemption option, they will not be encouraged to earn reward points that are of no significance. This is why offering multiple redemption options always becomes a necessity to make your rewards program successful. RewardPort’s marketing team keeps this in mind and offers valuable rewards to cater to every employee’s interests.
3. Seamless Execution
Once you partner with RewardPort, you can leave all your employee rewards-related worries behind. From planning the rewards program to executing it with perfection, the team of marketing professionals at RewardPort gives you a seamless experience. You are given a team of experts that analyze all your business details and plan the employee rewards program accordingly. RewardPort majorly focuses on the following key points:
- Culture of Appreciation: Creating the values of appreciation and recognition in your employees.
- Celebrating Milestones: Making employees feel valuable by celebrating their achievements and promotions.
- Targeting Performance: Rewarding employees based on their performance to push them to perform better.
- Imbibing Company Values: Ensuring that a solid foundation of your organization’s culture is imbibed in your employees.
- Employee Retention: By offering continuous rewards and recognition, RewardPort focuses on boosting employee retention rates.
4. Easy-To-Use Reward Programs
One of the most important characteristics of a successful rewards program is its ease of use. An employee rewards program makes sense only if your employees understand it and are interested to earn the rewards. A complicated user interface of the rewards portal or a lengthy reward redemption process can lead to the disinterest of your employees in the program. However, this is not the case with RewardPort.
The rewards programs designed by RewardPort, one of the top employee rewards program companies, are not just easy to use but are also interesting enough to keep your employees engaged. The web interface has been designed keeping all types of employees in mind. They can conveniently earn and redeem reward points against any redemption option of their choice.
5. Customer Services
When partnering with a rewards and loyalty solution provider, it is also important to look for their customer support services. If the customer service is not good, your queries and feedback will not be considered by the rewards company. With RewardPort, you get a dedicated customer care team that is responsible for answering all your queries and handling your feedback. This is another significant reason to choose RewardPort as your employee rewards program partner.
Boost Employee Retention at Your Organization with RewardPort
Almost every organization is now adopting a culture of employee rewards and recognition. However, only a few of them are able to implement these programs effectively. A survey conducted on employees of various companies has shown that over 65% of employees received no recognition for over a year. This is the primary reason why most employees leave their organization even after receiving a decent salary.
Just running an employee rewards program is not enough but you also need to ensure that it encourages every single employee at your company. The team of marketing professionals at RewardPort keeps all these factors in mind and runs a rewards program that effectively rewards every employee while motivating them to perform better.
Frequently Asked Questions: -
Some best practices for managing an employee rewards program are as follows:
- Define the objectives and criteria clearly.
- Use multiple rewards and recognition programs.
- Ensure that the program is implemented effectively.
- Ensure that each employee is rewarded and recognized.
An employee rewards program, if implemented effectively, encourages employees to imbibe company values and build a sense of belonging to the organization. As a result, the company environment and culture are improved.
Some most popular examples of effective and successful employee rewards programs are as follows:
- Employee Loyalty Programs based on rewards programs or incentives.
- ‘Employee of the month’ programs.
- Weekly shoutouts or other gamified employee rewards programs
10 Ways a Travel Incentive Program Boosts Morale Of Employees
Incentives are used by successful organizations to reward and motivate employees, customers, and other stakeholders to engage in certain behaviors and avoid others. Incentive programs boost innovation and revenue while lowering losses and expenses and reinforcing corporate culture.
One study of incentive travel trends discovered a 22% improvement in performance after implementing a new program, increasing to 44-48% for programs in place for more than six months. Another study discovered that companies with effective incentive programs had 31% lower voluntary turnover.
Businesses invest in rewards such as cash, gift cards, trophies, recognition, time off, professional development, trendy merchandise, and the most prestigious award of all, leisure travel, to gain a competitive advantage in their markets.
1. Travel incentive programs have a huge impact
Organizations in the United States spend more than $100 billion per year on incentive rewards. The most common rewards across all programs are gift cards (71% of organizations), merchandise (38%), award points (36%), and travel (30%). Eighty per cent of programs use multiple types.
The top goals for sales programs are to increase overall revenue (80% of programs), boost morale (76%), and improve productivity (58%).
When many participants are earning rewards, cash and gift cards are used to reduce administration. When buzz is more important, trendy merchandise and leisure travel are used.
The ultimate reward is solo travel. Although travel can be difficult to manage, it has a huge impact that no one forgets. Celebrity Cruises offers individual cruise gift cards and certificates to relieve planners of much of the administrative burden.
2. Increase your value through word of mouth
The most powerful advantage of tangible noncash rewards over cash and cards is the recognition value.
Tangible awards are prominently displayed. Everyone knows who and how they got them. They create anticipation before the awarding, social media buzz during the awarding, and an afterglow that lasts long after the awarding.
Winners will extol a luxurious resort or cruise experience they had—and the organization that made it possible—to any willing listener.
Whereas, bragging about a cash prize is less than successful in spreading the word.
3. Increase your motivation by increasing your desire
Tangible rewards, such as those provided by incentive travel programs, take up more mental space than cash and cards, making them feel more desirable despite being of equal value.
The added value of these awards translates into measurable increases in recipients’ effort, perseverance, and performance. More emotional attachment results in greater behavioral change.
Performance in the first round was comparable in one field experiment that followed consecutive sales contests, with one cohort receiving cash and the other receiving prizes. However, in subsequent rounds, the median sales results from prizes rather than cash were significantly better.
In laboratory experiments, participants who received tangible rewards produced higher-quality work with fewer errors than those who received cash.
4. The reciprocity effect boosts productivity and creativity
While cash and credit cards are considered transactional, tangible rewards feel more like gifts and are more social. They lead to more emotional connections.
Noncash rewards, such as cruise vacations, elicit appreciation and a desire to return the favor. Employees seek ways to respond to emotionally impactful rewards by increasing productivity and creativity when they associate them with the organization that provides them.
Such a reciprocity effect lasts far beyond the transaction because recipients remember the gift more frequently and fondly than they would a cash reward, resulting in feelings of greater value by their organizations and more positive workplace behaviors like attendance and engagement.
5. Increase employee retention by expressing gratitude
People frequently put in more effort for no pay (a social market) than for little pay (a monetary market). Simply acknowledging someone’s good work creates a human connection, which can spark a transformation.
Employees who already make a good living are more motivated by managerial praise and one-on-one time with leaders than by cash incentives, stock options, or even pay raises. Those who are most satisfied at work say their managers are excellent at providing feedback and recognition.
In contrast, nearly 80% of employees who quit their jobs cite a lack of appreciation.
According to one large study of customer service employees, fair, consistent, and timely recognition by managers and peers significantly improved employee behavior and customer experience. Employee recognition was found to be the most effective form of reward by a similar study of managers, improving retention, communications, sales, customer satisfaction, and teamwork.
Members of Fortune magazine’s list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For having 50% lower turnover and a 15-25% higher return on investment than other companies in their industries.
6. Employees can be attracted with incentives and recognition
Rewards and recognition have an impact on a company’s ability to attract talent and meet customer goals such as satisfaction, loyalty, and profitability. With unemployment nearing historic lows, the best organizations recognize that competitive rewards and recognition help attract better employees.
Tangible noncash rewards have more value than cash because they have personal meaning. The best travel incentive programs are designed to ensure personalized recognition. The more recipients enjoy and remember incentives such as luxurious vacations, the more they promote their organizations.
7. Use a tiered approach to reward top performers
Top-performing companies leverage their rewards programs more effectively than average-performing companies. Top performers have sales of $100 million or more, revenue or stock growth of at least 5%, excellent customer ratings, and employee satisfaction of 90% or higher.
Over time, incentive program design has shifted from rewarding only truly exceptional employees (exclusivity) to ensuring that many high-performing employees feel appreciated (reach). When designing incentives, top organizations prioritize reach over exclusivity.
Celebrity travel certificates can be tiered to help planners tailor awards, appropriately rewarding different groups of high-performing employees.
8. Attract all types of employees
Incentive programs, particularly travel programs, must cater to the personalities and desires of their intended recipients. In this way, they also instill an organization’s culture, succeeding to the extent that they reflect that culture’s values.
Incentive programs, particularly travel programs, must cater to the personalities and desires of their intended recipients. In this way, they also instill an organization’s culture, succeeding to the extent that they reflect that culture’s values.
There are five broad categories of incentive travelers:
- Culture enthusiasts
- Trendsetters
- Travelers in gold
- Practical vacationers
- Vacationers are valued.
9. Give culture enthusiasts the authentic experiences they seek
These visitors are looking for in-depth experiences. They have intellectual personalities, value new technologies, enjoy fine dining and wine, and have a strong influence on their peers. They can use their travel vouchers to sail along the Arabian coast, visit Angkor Wat, or dive into the Great Barrier Reef.
10. Make the ideal getaway for trend-setters
Your best influencers are self-assured, younger, more affluent, and technologically savvy. They reserve the suite, go to the spa, and work out in the gym. Shore excursions that promise new travel experiences are popular among trendsetters. They can use their travel certificates to explore Alaska’s massive glaciers, Europe’s iconic cities, or the far-flung tip of South America.
Conclusion
While most people equate the advantages of incentive travel with performance before the trip, numerous positive effects occur after the trip. Once the project is completed or the goals have been met, your employees can go on the trip and enjoy a well-deserved break from work while relaxing and having fun with their coworkers in a stress-free environment.
This break will help to put some distance between completed work and upcoming tasks, enabling your employees to return invigorated and ready to come back motivated and prepared.
RewardPort can help your enterprise devise and execute employee rewards and redemption programs. While it is simple to use, it also provides a unique concept to keep them involved with your company.