Feature: Motivation: netting rewards

Employers are increasingly beginning to realise the value of long-term staff recognition schemes that reward their employees accordingly, largely due to the high cost implications and business disruption of losing and replacing good staff and the improvements in employee performance that such schemes bring about.

Motivation schemes not only help to engender increased staff loyalty, ensuring their retention, but also add to the company’s bottom line through greater productivity and improved sales. However, there’s still a lot of confusion among many companies on how to devise and run the best staff loyalty and motivation scheme for their needs.

Just looking to run something like an employee of the month scheme with little thought to the objectives, as well as the wants, needs and interests of staff, will not enable a company to maximise return on investment from this activity. Such an approach could in fact, incentivise the wrong sort of behaviour, which could actually alienate staff.

Therefore, before considering implementing a motivation programme, it is worth calling on outsourced experts who can provide the creative input and experience of what works and what doesn’t as a result of working with other organisations.

It’s important that a motivation programme achieves the right blend of reward and recognition by looking at each individual and identifying the incremental impact on the business that is expected from them. For instance, it maybe wise to combine “soft” objectives such as attendance, helpfulness of customer service, team working and leadership, cost reduction and improved staff morale, with the “hard” contributors such as sales revenue and profit.

Gone are the days when a company rewarded its employees with cash-only incentives. Today, there are many other incentives that employees will find more appealing and memorable but it’s vital that companies understand what makes their employees “tick” and offer the most appropriate incentives. Allowing employees to choose their rewards from a selection ensures the reward will be most memorable and meaningful to the individual. For example, rewards could include personal “treats” such as CDs, DVDs, gadgets, experience days, days out, events, jewellery, holidays and TVs, but there are other motivators related to personal success, such as continual professional development courses. This is valuable for both the individual in terms of career goals and for the business by investing in valuable resources.

Delivering a motivation programme to employees can have an impact on retention in the longer term as well as prove to be overriding motivators for improving sales and productivity.

In addition, it’s important to communicate with staff on a regular basis to gain maximum level of engagement. Without good awareness and understanding of the programme from everyone within the organisation, it will not achieve the desired change in performance and the resulting increase in productivity. It’s important to give employees regular updates on the scheme in terms of how it works and benefits being enjoyed by the individuals and the organisation.

Interestingly, providing motivation schemes in an online environment provides a great opportunity to engage with staff in a personalised, timely and efficient way. It is easier to send out regular and targeted email communications, which may be automatically triggered, for example, when rewards are made or redeemed. Because awards can be made and redeemed at any time, in real time, this increases the immediacy and impact of the reward thus increasing excitement and involvement in the scheme.

Investing in staff, not only increases productivity and loyalty but it is also crucial to the survival and success of any business. Large and small companies alike can enjoy motivation schemes, and the benefits of a scheme easily outweigh the investment. Even if a company feels it’s too small to employ a full online motivation scheme, it can still reap the rewards if it sticks to the core methodologies and principles. Offering a flexible rewards programme, which has been tailored to meet the objectives and the size of the business, will make a significant difference to staff motivation and, ultimately, retention.