Reviving Employee Morale with Rewards

There are a lot of factors that affect an employee’s morale. However different the situation may be, the results are often one and the same in nature – a dive in business revenue. What employers sometimes fail to understand is the need to practice giving out employee rewards, just to boost a little bit of morale inside the workplace.

According to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, individuals are always innately seeking for approval. This begins at childhood, and continues until the person eventually achieves the self-fulfilment stage. Self-fulfilment may be attained either at home, from peers, and at work. This is the psychological view that employers need to plan and understand carefully.

Common Cause of Low Employee Morale

Unfortunately, not everybody is lucky enough to land a job that they have always dreamed of. Most of the time, people settle for the immediate opportunities at hand, rather than continuously seeking out what they really want in the first place. Sometimes, employees lose their work morale due to lack of opportunities, while other times it’s just because of personal reasons. As a result, employees are not motivated to produce the best results. Hence, a far less productive employee can terribly affect business revenue.

How can you Motivate Employees? How can you Increase their Work Morale?

The answer to this is simple- rewards. When employees are rewarded for hitting their targets, they will be motivated to work together and harder, thus increasing the company’s stocks and profit.

There are other options in boosting morale aside from increasing an employee’s salary. It is most understandable, of course, that money as a form of employee rewards does motivate people. However, there are other things that can definitely capture an employee’s attention:

1.     Convenience Credit Cards- companies can better instigate responsibility and eagerness among their employees by awarding outstanding employees with a prepaid convenience credit card. This can hold money from $100 to $1000, depending on the company’s budget. The star employee of the month may be much privileged with this card, and he or she can decide where and when to shop. 

2.     In-Season Gadgets- of course, iPads, iPhone, netbooks, digital cameras or an LED TV may be too expensive as a form of reward. However, it can motivate your employees to strive harder, and achieve even impossible company targets. Since these items may not be as cheap as your average rewards, these rewards may be given as a year-end bonus to top performing workers. It can also be given as a reward for hitting a major company milestone.

3.     Restaurant Gift Cards- there is nothing more wonderful than eating at a fine dining restaurant without worrying about your bill! This reward will give your hard working employees a taste of luxury, without hurting their budgets. This gift card will let your employees taste the rewards of their hard work, and enjoy the company of their loved ones at dinner.

4.   A Wellness Program- these wellness programs can be structured and developed in a number of ways. They can be in a form of a free gym membership, nutrition counselling, alcohol and smoking cessation program, and weight loss packages. Healthy employees indeed perform better. Therefore, a company is doing both itself and the employee a favour by having a wellness program at hand.

A little creativity, and a good selection of rewards can dramatically increase your employee’s performance, and of course, your company’s revenue. This selection of rewards can help you do just that.

Photo credit to: RobinsonsMay