Employee rewards and recognition programs are great ways to create a positive work environment. The simple act of acknowledging and rewarding workers can help them feel valued, elevate their performance, and increase their likelihood of staying in the organization.
But unfortunately, the biggest issue with employers is that they fail to offer exciting rewards. Employees feel like the reward and recognition programs lack engagement and motivation compared to their efforts.
They usually perceive this way because employers often have a common type of reward program in place. However, employers must understand that each employee is unique and so are their personalities. Thus, all employees may not be motivated by the same reward program.
But in this article, we’ll help you get creative with reward ideas for every employee in your team. Start implementing what you deem fit for your workers or use the ideas as an inspiration to come up with something of your own.
Reward Ideas for Thrill Seekers
Some of your workers may be thrill-seekers. These people often enjoy experiences that others find scary, chaotic, or overstimulating. For these types of employees, provide them rewards like a parasailing adventure, skydiving excursion, ninja lessons, airplane flying lessons, etc.
Reward Ideas for the Introverts
According to psychology professor, Colin DeYoung, socializing is more exhausting for introverts. Extroverts may also get exhausted, but it would probably take more socializing to get them drained as compared to introverts.
Therefore, to make it appealing for your introverted employees, offer them rewards like a personal spa day, a stay at a local hotel, a solo camping trip, etc.
Reward Ideas for Growth-Oriented Folks
According to a LinkedIn report, people consider a work environment to be excellent if it offers them learning and growth opportunities. So, if you have employees who are always on the lookout to build new skills or pick up a new hobby, provide them with rewards such as free foreign language courses, pottery lessons, photography classes, and so on.
Reward Ideas for Working Parents
Working parents often want to spend time with their kids or have family-friendly experiences. You can help them have those meaningful experiences through your employee reward programs.
Offer them a free pass to visit the local museum, aquarium, zoo, or Disneyland. You can also book them a spa or woodworking project for a parent-child bonding activity.
Wrapping Up
Everybody wants success and recognition, let alone the employees. Besides, today’s workforce is well aware that success is closely associated with continuous learning and development. Around 87% of millennials agree that growth and development matter to them the most in their career – which is why offering them these opportunities should be in your interest. As a business leader, it’s your job to give employees what they need to extract the best performance.
