One of the many issues that small to medium enterprises (SMEs) fail to prioritize is having long-standing employees. Most of the early years of a company are usually directed at brand growth and do little to cater to the employee-employer dynamic. Interns and workers come and go during this period as the company becomes a mere pit stop in their career.
Prioritizing employee growth is one method to increase productivity in the office. Creating a fair and respectful workplace recognition program is an excellent way to develop employee retention and satisfaction to help motivate coworkers.
Gauging Employee Motivation
Entering a new decade also means that there is a shift in office-work dynamics. The incoming surge of workers has different demands and needs, compared to the previous generations.
One of the many issues that young business owners face is handling employee motivation. Employees should work through not only their minimum required output, but also what they do beyond their job specifications.
Positive reinforcement is one of the better ways to improve company motivation. Utilizing incentives to reward employees instead of pitting coworkers with one another creates a healthier work dynamic that fosters better workplace conditions.
Drafting Attractive Incentives
Recognition should hold concrete benefits for the employee. Monetary reward is a redundant benefit that most company owners fail to realize as it is similar to merely giving overtime pay. Desirable incentives for hard workers are both tangible and beneficial.
Understanding what one’s employees want and need is the key to creating the right reward. Beyond monetary compensation or gift certificates, a project manager can incentivize employees with shorter or more flexible work hours. Time is an excellent reward to give to an employee, whether it be increased paid time off or longer vacation days.
Together with an attractive incentive, getting customized trophies or glass trophy is an excellent method to standardize and concretize an office achievement. Concrete symbols of rewards allow for employees to have a sense of fulfillment in doing more than what the job requires from them.
Designing a Recognition Program
Public recognition is the key to complementing rewards in the workplace. Employees who do more than is expected of them are hardly ever recognized in larger companies. Smaller enterprises have the benefit of utilizing fewer employees and therefore make it easier for recognition programs to work across the different teams.
How exactly should one go about the implementation of a recognition program? Recognition programs can be held through quarterly company travel or during a modest agenda included in the company dinner. Some methods of recognizing employees can range from receiving simple tokens to being affirmed during regular general assemblies.
What’s important during these events is in incentivizing the rest of the team to follow by having an example through their coworker. Having an actual person to follow and learn from creates a stronger sense of team culture and allows healthy competition among coworkers.
Rewarding Hard-Earned Work
The issue of finding the candidates for recognition now comes into mind. It is essential to clarify one’s employees the criteria for rewarding acknowledgment. Understanding that different factors affect a project can be a good start in designing rules for a rewards system.
Noteworthy candidates for workplace recognition can excel in showing job qualities such as these:
- Handling leadership positions effectively
- Having the most improvement as an employee
- Displaying healthy workplace attitudes
- Increasing sales numbers beyond other teams
- Cultivating team culture in their respective teams
Finding tangible and concrete ways to measure a reward system is an excellent way to boost company productivity while rewarding hardworking employees.
Improving the Workplace Dynamic
An “all work and no play” attitude is what kills the potential of the company and the staff’s growth. The modern workplace has many issues to address with the arrival of the new generation of employees. Besides fundamental needs such as a working lounge or more freeing interior design, rewards systems have shown impressive results in increasing workplace productivity.
The healthy development of team culture in the workplace is tough to crack. Not all practices are a good fit in every company. Every recommended practice needs to take into consideration the line of work and the composition of the employees’ characters.
