Would you say, you can’t afford £ to reward your team? Perhaps you can’t afford not to!
Motivating and retaining good people is a costly business, but it can still be achieved with a modest £ budget and a lot of creativity!
A good feel factor is good news for productivity and therefore good for business. This may take the different forms from a deserved pat on the back, to a bonus.
As Jessie J sang …. it’s not all “about the money, money, money ”!
People often talk about their immediate line manager and how well they feel they are treated. Most people say it is motivating, when something over and above doesn’t go unnoticed and is fed back to them. Sounds obvious enough, but if people are overall happy and feel satisfied at work they are more likely to stay longer and be productive whilst at work.
A genuine thank you, goes a long way! Who does not want to feel appreciated for their achievements and successes? Most people will respond well to praise.
What ways can we reward?
Have you spent enough time identifying what motivates each individual team member? Armed with accurate information, you should be able to come up with ideas on how to ‘top up’ their top motivators – in order retain people and improve performance. You may want to consider those people who will respond well to:
- Extra responsibility – what could you delegate to them that they may enjoy or find interesting or give them some more variety?
- Training/coaching – to help them learn and upgrade skills or become multi-skilled
- You may be rewarding specific targets achieved, but what about a 100% attendance and punctuality certificates? Do you recognise and reward length of service? Rewarding a key milestone work anniversary may go down well too?
Organisations have found a variety of ways to recognise:
- Verbal/written praise and thanks – a hand signed letter or card of recognition/personal call from top management
- Recognition by peers that have voted for them
- Time off or arrive later or go a bit earlier? Personal time is a much overlooked golden nugget!
- Food and drink goes down well! Cakes/biscuits at meetings, hot snacks for staying late to meet a deadline/or working emergency hours, thank you chocolate
- Social get together, fun activities or meals
- Plaques and Certificates
- Invites to a special award event
- Additional development opportunities
- Sharing customer compliments about specific staff
- Being treated how you would expect, spoken to with respect!
- Training opportunities and career progression
- Free e-cards that are personalised, sent from the team/organisation for special occasions.
Start involving your team – ask them for their ideas, opinions and understand what motivates each of them. You should then be armed with some specific actions that will make a real difference to motivation, morale and staff retention.
For further information about Trayna UK and our services please call: 07746 495 972
