Everyone likes to be thanked and have their contribution to the cause recognised. Statistics have shown that employees with supportive managers can be up to 67% more engaged in the workplace. Recent studies also point to the fact that people are less likely to express gratitude at work than anywhere else. Are your team doing a thankless job?
Here’s 10 brilliant ways to reward great work.
Leave a Note
It’s often the smallest things that can have such a profound effect and the same can be said for rewarding work. For the Lord Alan Sugars and Claude Littners among us, you don’t need to be the emotional type to do this either. It’s actually possible to express your gratitude effectively in as little as 8 words. You just need to put pen to paper.
Plan a Company Away Day
Giving your employees a productive yet fun team-building day away from the workplace is a massive reward for everybody that could result in a positive swing in morale for the next few quarters. It’s a win/win situation for everybody. See the best activities and team-building ideas.
Dress down Fridays
Many workplaces already have Dress Down Fridays but if you’re yet to launch this initiative, then it serves as a simple break from the routine to reward colleagues after tackling targets or a record-breaking quarter or year. It’s a marker of trust that employees are sure to appreciate with many business leaders determining that the millennial workforce are more responsive to freedom of choice than any other generation to date.
Company Quiz Nights
Yes, it made for a very awkward episode of The Office, but as a method of rewarding work it’s a great option with a high level of customisation. You can include rounds on company history, employees and other categories tailored to your place of work. Mix your staff into randomised teams and you’ve also got an excellent team bonding exercise. May the best team win!
Bake Off
If you’re looking for a cost-effective way to re-introduce a little fun back into your workplace, then create your own company bake off. Pick your Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith, then ask everyone else to bring in some home baked treats. It’s a great way to celebrate creativity, personal achievement and at the end of it all there’s CAKE!
CEO for the Day
This is one of the quirkier ideas out there, but if there’s one employee who deserves to be celebrated in particular, you can reward them by making them a CEO for the day. This grants them special powers to be able to make speeches at team meetings, declare new workplace rules at random and (crucially) decide who makes the tea. It’s sure to be a treat for the whole office.
Colleague Appreciation
Noticing all the little things your employees do during a hectic 9-5 can be difficult, it’s often hard to find the time to celebrate their achievements both great and small. So why not give colleagues the chance to recognise their peers for their successes? This could be an anonymous notice board or part of your internal website, whichever method you choose, it’s a great way of ensuring employees feel valued.
Team Dinners
It could be lunch, it could be dinner, it could even be breakfast, but getting your team together to have a special meal outside of the office is a great way of rewarding work and showing your appreciation for all the effort that’s been put in recently. It’ll also provide a brilliant chance for colleagues to get to know each other better outside of a work environment.
Donation of Choice
A unique way of rewarding work could be setting aside a small budget each month, then allowing the ‘colleague of the month’ to decide a charity that your set amount of money can go to. This reward will instil a feel-good atmosphere in your workplace and is also an act of philanthropy that will only serve to improve the external image of your company.
Doughnuts!
Who doesn’t like doughnuts?
