Reward Your Employees Without Incurring Expenses

Employee Reward System

The employee reward system allows employees to receive appreciation and recognition for their exemplary work. Employees can receive rewards for bringing out the best possible result from their work. They can also be recognized for upholding office culture, great teamwork.

In short, employees should be encouraged to uphold the right behavior in their workplace. Whenever employees show appropriate behavior aligned with the company’s culture, they should be rewarded for their efforts.

Types of Employee Reward Programs

There are two types of employee reward programs. They are:

• Monetary Reward Program
• Non-monetary Reward Program

The monetary reward program is given to employees for outstanding job performance. Here they will receive a certain amount of money depending on the company policy. Monetary incentives include spot bonuses, project bonuses, stock options, profit sharing, etc. 

In non-monetary employee incentives, the employee is recognized for their good performance but doesn’t receive any cash prizes. Instead, they are given certain perks to acknowledge their good work and make their life easier. 

Extra vacation days, flexible work schedules, learning opportunities, etc., are offered as non-monetary incentives.

Why are Non-monetary Perks Important for Organizations?

Non-monetary rewards for employees are an excellent way to recognize employees. Monetary perks require demonstrating excellent results and work ethics. So, only the top performers of an organization receive these perks.

Other employees of a company are working their best to bring optimum results to the organization. They may not exceed expectations, yet their work is essential for the success of an organization. However, they may not be awarded or considered for monetary perks.

Without recognizing these dedicated employees, soon the organization will see a loss in productivity and engagement. Therefore, a company should have a program to recognize all the employees equally and regularly. In such cases, non-monetary perks allow management to appreciate, acknowledge, and reward employees effectively.

Non-Monetary Perks Examples

Most organizations struggle to develop good employee recognition programs that fulfill employees’ desires. So, here are a few ideas that you can effectively employ in your organization.

Time Off

It is one of the most important non-monetary perks an organization can give to its employees. After successfully completing a project, employees can feel stressed. In such cases, the organization can offer employees additional time off, excluding their entitled vacation days.

This additional time off will allow the organization to recognize the hard work employees have done. Also, it will allow the employees to get recharged and reduce employee burnout. Therefore, they can start working again on the latest project with recharged stamina.

Learning Opportunities

Many surveys have shown that, without proper growth opportunities, employees tend to shift their jobs often. Employee turnover can cost a massive sum of money and talent for an organization. So, offering employees learning opportunities can be a great non-monetary perk for any company.

By offering learning opportunities, companies benefit in two ways. Firstly, It allows the employees to expand their knowledge and skills that benefit the company’s productivity. Secondly, it increases employee loyalty, improves retention, and draws talented personnel toward the organization. 

In a nutshell, offering learning opportunities as a non-monetary perk has mutual benefit to the employees and the company.

Health Insurance

Health insurance is another great example of non-monetary benefits. Here the company can demonstrate how much it cares about the well-being of its employees. Also, it allows employees to reorganize their costs as health insurance can be costly at times.

Offering health insurance can boost employee satisfaction and increase employee retention. Employees favor companies that offer better health benefits.

Extra Responsibilities

Giving employees additional responsibilities is a great way to recognize their worth. When organizations trust employees with additional work, It boosts employee confidence. Often, employees are promoted or get a raise after entrusting them with additional work.

By giving employees additional responsibilities, the organization allows them to reach their full potential. Although this starts as a non-monetary perk, it can end up being a monetary perk.

Flexible Work Schedule

Allowing employees to work at their favorable time can be a great non-monetary perk. Some employees can have a lot on their plate in the early morning. Some will need to take their children to school; some have to take a long commute to work. This can make them late for work.

Additionally, some employees may feel comfortable working from their homes. Also, some employees may face circumstances that restrict them from coming to their workplaces. In such cases, flexible work schedules and working from home privileges can be very helpful.

It will allow employees to reduce workplace stress and have a convenient time to perform their tasks better. 

Peer-to-Peer Recognition

This is a great non-monetary perk for large organizations. In small organizations with fewer employees, leaders can easily appreciate the good work done by them. However, in large organizations, it can be quite difficult to recognize the best works of all employees for the leader.

In such cases, peer-to-peer recognition can be a great way to recognize the appropriate behaviors. It should be a constant practice, and employees to leaders should participate in this. It will create more scope to collaborate and encourage engagement among peers.

Parties and Social Gatherings

Throwing parties on special occasions is a great way to recognize employees and encourage engagement. It allows all employees to celebrate and have a good time. Additionally, it allows the employees to relax a bit to relieve work-related stress. Therefore, it can improve productivity among the employees.

Celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, achievements can be a great occasion to arrange parties and gatherings. It is a great team-building exercise and can be considered a non-monetary perk.

Recognize without Money

For the ultimate results, you need to recognize your employees properly. Here are the steps, you can recognize your employees effectively:

• Step 1: Develop an employee recognition program. It should contain all the goals you want to achieve and uphold the desire of employees. 
• Step 2: Determine the appropriate behaviors and actions for what employees should be appreciated.
• Step 3: Track employee behavior and productivity for recognizing them.
• Step 4: Whenever employees show recognizable behavior, appreciate them. Immediate recognition encourages employees to replicate those behaviors.
• Step 5: Review your recognition program regularly. Find out if your employees are happy with it and are getting the desirable results. If it is not working, take proper steps to make it more effective.
• Step 6: Arrange a meeting with your employees after six months or one year and take their feedback. Ask them what they want from the recognition program and how you can improve the program. Then take the necessary steps to make the program more engaging.

Final Words

Rewarding your employees for their achievements and appropriate behavior goes a long way in employee satisfaction and encouragement. A company that appreciates its employees can see a boost in employee morale and productivity. 

Many company managers tend to steer away from constant appreciation as they anticipate it will raise costs. However, there are numerous ways to reward employees without money.

As a company manager, you can implicate any of the abovementioned strategies to appreciate employees. However, we have seen a significant productivity increase with peer-to-peer recognition.

In this policy, anyone can appreciate everyone for their good work. It can be either for good behaviors of employees or the cumulative achievement of a team. It will initiate a great company culture.

You can either choose to recognize your employees manually or choose an online recognition platform for it. Get the best system that works for your organization and take steps to make it more relatable for employees.