Non-monetary ways to reward employees

It’s crucial that companies reward their hard-working employees that consistently go above and beyond for the good of the business. Properly rewarding your employees shows that you appreciate them, which in turn helps to keep staff turnover low and cultivate a positive company culture. Plus, it’s far easier for a company to grow when its best people aren’t constantly moving onto pastures anew. However, as opposed to merely sticking around, staff that feel that their employer values and adequately rewards them are more likely to put forth their best effort and ideas.

The vast majority of people prefer their reward to be a monetary one, in the form of increased salary or a bonus. This is completely understandable – who doesn’t want to be paid more for their labour? That being said, pay rises and bonuses are issued once a year respectively, so how do you reward your employees the rest of the time? Also, it might not be feasible, budget-wise, to give a valuable employee more money, so what can you offer them instead. This post looks at a few non-monetary ways of rewarding your staff.

More time off

Next to remuneration, a generous annual leave allowance is the most important part of a compensation package for the majority of people. Having more days off gives an employee more holiday options, such as going further afield and taking longer vacations, as well as more opportunities to unwind away from work.

For this reason, it’s not uncommon for companies to increase an employee’s holiday allowance – adding an extra day for every year of employment, for instance. But there’s nothing stopping rewarding a member of staff with more annual leave whenever you see fit. This could be in lieu of a pay rise or for a particularly well-done job on an important project.

Flexi-time

Similarly, if an employee has proven themselves responsible and trustworthy, as well as valuable to the company, then perhaps you can offer them flexi-time in place of a pay rise. The ability to decide when they work gives an employee more control over their day and empowers them to craft their desired work/life balance. This flexibility needn’t be too drastic, however. if it’s important that they’re in work during key hours, you could give them a 2 or 3-hour window to play with, in the morning and evening. For some members of staff, namely those with families and lots of obligations outside work, this could be perceived to be more valuable than a salary bump.

Gifts and perks

Many companies already offer their employees perks and incentives, with company cars and short, all-expenses-paid getaways being popular choices. But there are lots of other items you can use to reward employees more frequently. This includes simple, less-expensive things like food or drink hampers, gift vouchers, and theatre tickets, for instance.

Recognition

Last, but by no means least, is recognising your employees’ efforts and achievements. Though it’s an intangible reward, when given properly and sincerely, recognition can be incredibly effective. And the best part? It costs companies absolutely nothing – yet, sadly, lots of companies fail to recognise their staff for their hard work as often as they should. Worse still, some managers are in the habit of accepting all of the praise, for their team’s hard work and none of the blame. Which leaves their employees feeling stiffed, unappreciated, and that it might be time for a change of scenery.

Recognition makes a person feel their contributions are valid and mean something. That they’re competent, perhaps even talented, at the thing they spent most of their waking hours doing. Even high-achieving, productive, seemingly confident employees need a genuine reminder of their worth once in a while – and this can be achieved by simply recognising their performance.