How should I reward successful employees?

The people within your business who push themselves to achieve are the ones who take your business forward so they should be rightfully rewarded. But how do you go about this?

Employee recognition is not just a nice thing to do; it is also good for your business. At its best it is also a communication tool that reinforces and rewards people who are developing and building your business.

Such rewards also serve to incentivise those who wish to perform well and inspire others.

It also sends out the right signals within your company; that it is able to acknowledge hard work and commitment. An effective employee recognition system is simple, immediate, and powerfully reinforcing.

Defining the success that you want to reward
Your employee recognition and reward strategy needs to be equally powerful for both the organisation and the employee.

This means you need to establish simply and powerfully the reward criteria.

Choosing to reward high performers by bonuses and target related commissions is fine, in a clearly defined sales environment. Such schemes have been around long enough and are understood well enough.

If a company is looking to improve its employee retention and longevity, an employee service awards program with gifts given at set milestone anniversaries could be ideal.

For an organisation looking to boost sales and profit, a sales incentive award program could really make an impact on the bottom line.

All employees should be well informed of what goals they must complete to receive the award and should feel that they can actually attain these goals.

Kicking off an incentive award program in which employees need 3 years of exceeding sales goals before they see any rewards for their efforts would not likely motivate participants.

Inclusiveness
Although you will effectively be rewarding your key performers, your strategy needs to be all inclusive if it serves to demoralise those non-key performers.

The best strategy is one which rewards anyone who performs to the level or standard stated in the criteria.

What you need to avoid is the strategy which looks like favouritism. Singling out an individual for special rewards and mentions can be counter-productive, serving to undermine moral and creating the wrong atmosphere.

Underperformers and incentives
There can be many reasons why someone is underperforming, from personal reasons to job dissatisfaction to lack of morale. These issues need to be addressed in their own way and may have nothing to do with incentives.

However, given that you simply want to incentivise those who do not perform as well as your key employees, then an inclusive rewards strategy is a good start.

Within such a strategy you may wish to discuss with any individual how you as a company will try to help them raise their performance; supporting them, in effect to do well or better, until they can see the benefits for themselves.

A simple thank you
Don't forget, all rewards and incentives do not have to be part of a grand strategy. On a day to day basis, such motivation can be part of the culture.

Where staff or a member of staff have been putting in extra hours, going the extra mile or helping implement company-wide changes more effectively, a simple, ‘thank you note', or a day's leave can be highly rewarding in its own way.

People also like recognition that is random and that provides an element of surprise. Once such rewards become expected, they can lose their cache.

An occasional reward, recognising effort, which is part of a company's overall culture, can be good for morale and appear more genuine than the ‘hard-edged' incentive scheme.

The people within your business who push themselves to achieve are the ones who take your business forward so they should be rightfully rewarded. But how do you go about this?

Employee recognition is not just a nice thing to do; it is also good for your business. At its best it is also a communication tool that reinforces and rewards people who are developing and building your business.

Such rewards also serve to incentivise those who wish to perform well and inspire others.

It also sends out the right signals within your company; that it is able to acknowledge hard work and commitment. An effective employee recognition system is simple, immediate, and powerfully reinforcing.

Defining the success that you want to reward
Your employee recognition and reward strategy needs to be equally powerful for both the organisation and the employee.

This means you need to establish simply and powerfully the reward criteria.

Choosing to reward high performers by bonuses and target related commissions is fine, in a clearly defined sales environment. Such schemes have been around long enough and are understood well enough.

If a company is looking to improve its employee retention and longevity, an employee service awards program with gifts given at set milestone anniversaries could be ideal.

For an organisation looking to boost sales and profit, a sales incentive award program could really make an impact on the bottom line.

All employees should be well informed of what goals they must complete to receive the award and should feel that they can actually attain these goals.

Kicking off an incentive award program in which employees need 3 years of exceeding sales goals before they see any rewards for their efforts would not likely motivate participants.

Inclusiveness
Although you will effectively be rewarding your key performers, your strategy needs to be all inclusive if it serves to demoralise those non-key performers.

The best strategy is one which rewards anyone who performs to the level or standard stated in the criteria.

What you need to avoid is the strategy which looks like favouritism. Singling out an individual for special rewards and mentions can be counter-productive, serving to undermine moral and creating the wrong atmosphere.

Underperformers and incentives
There can be many reasons why someone is underperforming, from personal reasons to job dissatisfaction to lack of morale. These issues need to be addressed in their own way and may have nothing to do with incentives.

However, given that you simply want to incentivise those who do not perform as well as your key employees, then an inclusive rewards strategy is a good start.

Within such a strategy you may wish to discuss with any individual how you as a company will try to help them raise their performance; supporting them, in effect to do well or better, until they can see the benefits for themselves.

A simple thank you
Don't forget, all rewards and incentives do not have to be part of a grand strategy. On a day to day basis, such motivation can be part of the culture.

Where staff or a member of staff have been putting in extra hours, going the extra mile or helping implement company-wide changes more effectively, a simple, ‘thank you note', or a day's leave can be highly rewarding in its own way.

People also like recognition that is random and that provides an element of surprise. Once such rewards become expected, they can lose their cache.

An occasional reward, recognising effort, which is part of a company's overall culture, can be good for morale and appear more genuine than the ‘hard-edged' incentive scheme.

Towards a successful employee recognition system
Simply wishing to reward high performers is fine, but the best employee recognition schemes are those which look at the whole company; what it needs, where it wants to go and what its goals are.

Once these are established you can then look at specific rewards schemes for individuals; such as performance related pay, or a general bonus for the whole staff – or a mixture of both.

In this case, you are putting the company's future at the centre of your scheme rather than focusing purely on short term rewards.

Whatever schemes you decide upon, setting up an employee recognition system requires good budgeting and planning. It's no good rewarding your high achievers so much, or giving everybody too much time off, that your business suffers.

Finally, when it comes to tangible rewards – good budgeting can make or break an employee award programme. It's also worth remembering that such tangible reward programmes are easier to track and provide important feedback in terms of how your company is performing.

Simply wishing to reward high performers is fine, but the best employee recognition schemes are those which look at the whole company; what it needs, where it wants to go and what its goals are.

Once these are established you can then look at specific rewards schemes for individuals; such as performance related pay, or a general bonus for the whole staff – or a mixture of both.

In this case, you are putting the company's future at the centre of your scheme rather than focusing purely on short term rewards.

Whatever schemes you decide upon, setting up an employee recognition system requires good budgeting and planning. It's no good rewarding your high achievers so much, or giving everybody too much time off, that your business suffers.

Finally, when it comes to tangible rewards – good budgeting can make or break an employee award programme. It's also worth remembering that such tangible reward programmes are easier to track and provide important feedback in terms of how your company is performing.