6 Proven Ways to Reward & Recognize Employees | 2021

It’s the season to be jolly!

With almost everyone working from home, staying in a joyful mood is turning out to be hard. The Christmas holidays are the sweet signal of the end of the year-long hard-work that has been done by the employees, and a time to earn well-deserved recognition and rewards.

Needless to say, not all the companies have profited the last year, and many even had to perform lay-offs. It hasn’t been a financially rewarding year for everyone. Under normal circumstances, every company’s goal would have reached its peak, sales would have smashed, but not this time.

Companies would want to spend a lot financially but there are other ways you can make your employees feel appreciated. If, you as an employer, are also in a fix as to how you can reward your employees, have a quick read at our top ways to do so-

Instant Rewards

The easiest and efficient way of conveying your employees a big thank you is by providing them with instant rewards such as gift cards, e-vouchers, or if you don’t want to spend a lot financially, you can always give them a day or a week off to let them spend with their family and friends.

Expressing how thankful you are to your employees by rewarding them, will not only make them happy but encourage them to be more hard-working and pumped for the coming year! An online employee performance management system can help you receive legit data about your employees.

You can easily decide the rewards or appraisals through a new-age performance management system.

Flexible Working Hours

It may not be practically all year round or for all the companies, but providing the employees with flexible working hours is one the best reward an employee can ask for. It is an amazing gesture that will hardly impact your business and that for a limited amount of time.

Whether they want to spend time with their families or do some other chore, does it really matter if at the end of the day they are completing their work?

Virtual rewards

Who doesn’t like to be rewarded publically? This year since that isn’t possible, we have another great option for you. You can go ahead and organize a virtual recognition party for all your employees. The conference can be held on any social platform that provides audio and visual features such as Zoom or Skype.

To make the conference fun, certain games can also be played, such as sharing best moment of remote working, and whoever wins gets a prize. This will surely bring back the holiday mood in everyone. Once all the games are over, rewards can be said out loud on the video, so that employees will feel they are receiving it in-person only.

Rewards

Since most of the shopping nowadays is done online itself, gifting your employees also won’t be a problem. You can keep various games and reward the winner with a present. The only difference is that instead of handing out the gift in-person, it will directly be sent to the employees’ address. Or you can always go for gift cards, and let the employees have the luxury to choose what they want.

Personalized "Thank You"

Most employers think that they have done their job by handing out rewards to the employees. But what employees crave the most is appreciation. A simple "Thank You" to everyone personally, acknowledging their work and thanking them for their part, can make anyone’s day. Moreover, it will boost the employees’ morale and encourage them to work harder.

The "Thank You" can either be in an e-mail, or cards, or carved on stationery items. It doesn’t matter, as long as the feeling is received.

Let Them Off the Hook

Last but not the least, there could be various possibilities, such as the person is having some personal crises, or be a shy person to be involved in such conferences. Don’t force people to participate in the games or the event. People who want to be involved will surely do so. But this decision should be voluntary, not forced.

Therefore, the employees who don’t want to participate, simply let them off the hook. Wish them and tell them they would be missed! As simple as that.

Last words

2020 has been hard on everyone, and everyone is dealing with it in their own different ways. But as an employer, it is your responsibility to make sure that 2021 sails on a positive note for all your employees. Stay with the trend and practice ideas shared in the blog.

Thanks for reading! Good luck.