Many employees are disengaged at the workplace. With family obligations and monthly expenses, most people are driven to work out of necessity. Very few people are as loyal to the company as they are to the benefits, compensation, and core values of the business. This is problematic for companies who have a need to keep their turnover costs low. Increasing employee engagement is essential, and one effective way to do that is through employee recognition awards.

 

 

 

Facts about employee motivation

 

Approximately 80 percent of employees tied the presence of a rewards program to feeling valued by their employers. Another 70 percent of employees admit that they would work a little bit harder if there were some sort of incentive program in place. In a 2014 survey, 50 percent of employees report feeling valued by their employer.

 

Importance of understanding the employee

 

Many employers mess up in offering rewards that aren’t aligned with what employees would find desirable. Personalized rewards will be better received by employees than those provided without giving much thought. Gifts that are a surprise and well outside of the normal incentives expected are wonderful ways to influence behavior. Consider the culture of your staff in addition to the budget.

 

Benefits of an incentive program

 

Communicating corporate values is something that is done during the onboarding process. It must be reinforced in order to encourage team members to adopt the culture. Incentives are a good way to tie culture to specific actions that can be taken by employees. You can encourage assimilation with targeted rewards.

 

When you lose an employee, it costs money to recruit and train a new employee. That’s very expensive for some companies. Research shows that companies with recognition programs experience a 31 percent lower voluntary turnover rate than companies who don’t have a recognition program in place. Companies save money by retaining top talent.

Productivity is tied to employee effort in some cases. Incenting employees to give their best effort through recognition program will improve efficiency and your company’s bottom line. It is much easier to encourage employees to achieve when you have desirable rewards being offered.

 

Replacing key employees is expensive. Recruitment is costly. Time spent vetting candidates and hiring them requires a significant investment in time and resources. Making a company desirable to employees requires the use of tools like incentive programs. When employees feel valued, they are more likely to remain onboard.

When you hire a worker, your goal should be to keep them for their entire career. While this may not be realistic for every person who becomes a part of your company, lower turnover will result in lower labor costs for the organization. Therefore, it is important that you create conditions that increase the odds that a worker will want to stick around for the years to come.

 

Recognize Their Achievements

 

No one wants to work for a company that doesn't recognize the hard work that he or she puts in. Therefore, it is always a good idea to call out your workers when they do reach a sales goal, hit a service milestone or do anything else that is worthy of praise. The best part is that it doesn't take much to thank your people for the things that they do to make the company a powerhouse in its industry. In most cases, a pin, a plaque or a $20 gift certificate is enough to show that the company cares.

 

Offer Them a Competitive Salary

 

Most people go to work each day because they need their paycheck to provide for themselves and their families. This means that a person is less likely to stay with your company if he or she can make more elsewhere. If you can't afford to pay a competitive salary, you may be able to make up for it with stock options or other benefits to increase a worker's overall compensation package.

 

Offer Room for Advancement

 

One of the easiest ways for a person to increase his or her salary is through promotions up the corporate ladder. While not everyone can go from janitor to CEO, you should aim to help your people get the most out of their skills. In some cases, you may be able to help a worker move up by creating new positions that are tailored to his or her skill set.

 

Act as a Mentor to Your People

 

In the business world, there is nothing more important than a relationship with another person. By acting as a mentor, you are creating one of the strongest connections a worker and manager can have. When you choose to mentor someone, you are telling that person that you care about his or success on a personal level. That type of loyalty is likely to be reciprocated, which may lead to lower levels of turnover.

 

Create an Enjoyable Workplace Experience

 

If you can provide nothing else to your employees, provide them with an enjoyable workplace experience. This may include a game room, free breakfast on Friday or an atmosphere where colleagues are allowed to be social with both customers and each other. It is not uncommon for people to stay with a company because of the people who they work with or work for even when they aren't being paid top dollar.

 

The best companies are the one that treat their employees with respect. This is because employees who feel good about their employers will work harder to serve the needs of its customers. Furthermore, people are unlikely to leave a place where they feel valued and appreciated as this can be worth as much or more than any amount of financial compensation.

Employee recognition helps with retention. Discussion of different recognition tools such as crystal awards, engraved plaques and employee of the month awards.

A timeline of some of the most famous awards created throughout history. Including the NFL's Lombardi Trophy and FIFA's World Cup.

Four Important Tips for Closing the Communication Gap between Employees and Managers

One of the most important success factors for any business is efficiency and accuracy in communication. In many businesses, communication problems manifest vertically rather than randomly. It is more common to experience communication barriers between subordinates and their superiors than between employees on the same work level.

 

 

 

When these challenges are present, it becomes difficult for the two parties to achieve the common goals of the organization. While both groups may ultimately be working to achieve the same corporate goals, the operative goals become unsynchronized, threatening the company’s ability to achieve the former. The following tips will help you to identify and close such communication gaps.

 

Identify the Symptoms

 

Before attempting to eliminate the perceived gaps in communication, it is necessary to identify the symptoms of such a problem in your organization. The first step involves looking out for some of the commonest signs that the company may be suffering from misalignment.

 

Companies that have communication problems will exhibit confusion, misaligned priorities, indecisive actions, unclear motives, and overall lack of awareness. Communication gaps normally appear in different ways such as in technology, interpersonal issues, and motivational aspects.

 

As an illustration, technological gaps that lead to miscommunication are common in organization whose employees have opposing views toward technology. Generation Y employees may easily be drawn to solving problems using technology while, the baby boomers could prefer to do things using the older ways.

 

When these two groups of employees are working under the same corporate wing, such problems will manifest relatively quickly. The problem will be more pronounced when the hierarchy has theses generational differences. For instance, the workers could be from Generation Y while the managers could be baby boomers who are still unwilling to welcome new technology.

 

Measure the Gaps in Communication

 

It is essential to determine the basic characteristics of the communication gaps when attempting to fix this problem. The first step is measuring its size and trend. One way you can do this is by reviewing all the communication that has occurred between the employees and their managers and tallying the number of synchronized communication versus misunderstandings and cross-purposes.

 

You may also request feedback from the employees and managers without making any attempts that could stifle information as that might lead to less efficiency in the company.

 

Undertake Resource Assessment

 

Some causes of miscommunication between employees and their employers can be solved by injecting resources in the right places. For instance, one may easily solve technological gaps by upgrading the available equipment and software.

 

It is important to identify whether the communication problems are related to acrimonious issues since these cannot be solved using technology. In some cases, the communication problems can be solved by introducing company phones, upgrading the phone software, or fixing the faulty internet signal.

 

Do not Underestimate the need for Training

 

One of the reasons why the technological gaps continues to grow everyday between employees is the fast pace at which innovation is happening. Younger employees are quick to pick up the necessary skills and utilize them while older workers are more conservative with their tools.

 

Every small and midsize company needs a program that runs routine employee workshops where all the workers are exposed to the newest technology especially in regards to communication and efficiency.

 

Conclusion

 

Identifying and closing the communication gaps in your organization will streamline most of the company operations. It will improve your organization’s ability to plan and execute key projects.

 

The first step involves looking out for signs of miscommunication between the workers and the managers from feedback and the communication log. You may then proceed to measure the gap, assess the resources needed and offer the necessary training to workers.

Improving employee engagement and retention through the introduction of performance recognition programs. Service awards, trophies and employee recognition plaques.

Businesses and companies too often forget about the importance of employee recognition and the effects it can have on employees and job performance. Many businesses think they're saving time and money by skipping out on employee recognition programs, but in the long run, they're actually losing out on time, money, work quality, and employee retention. It's important to take the time to appreciate an employee's hard work in order to better improve the company and business as a whole. Here are five reasons why employee recognition is so important.

We spend a good majority of our lives at work. It's gotten to the point where almost every adult has to work in order to bring in a viable income for their family. While work is a big part of all of our lives, it can also be problematic when it comes to feeling motivated for most workers. Most get up in the morning and literally drag themselves to work, dreaming of the day they can get out of their dead-end job and go onto something new, exciting and different.

 

As a manager, the last thing you want is for your place of business to become a revolving door as far as employees are concerned. A happy employee is one who stays and does an outstanding job. If your employees lack motivation, you'll find that performance is lacking and people are apt to leave if something better comes along. This is why it's crucial that you keep your employees as motivated as possible.

 

 

Ways to Motivate Your Employees

Here is a list of ways to keep your workers motivated on the job:

 

1. Open the Door to Communication

A good manager is one who is easy to talk to. If a worker feels they cannot go to you with an important matter without being reprimanded or eye-rolled at, they're not going to be motivated enough to get help for their dilemma. You need to be a manager who listens to their employees and offers help when they need it the most. Don't make it feel daunting for your employees to come to you for help.

 

2. Offer Incentives

There are a variety of incentives that you can offer to your workers that will motivate them so that they do a better job. Holiday bonuses and employee-of-the-month salary incentives will get workers performing to the best of their ability. The incentives don't have to be extravagant, but they should be enough that your workers will want to obtain them by doing a better job.

 

3. Allow for Job Advancement

There is nothing worse to an employee than a dead-end job. If a worker feels like they aren't going anywhere and there isn't room for advancement, they will begin to look for other forms of employment. One of the benefits to staying at a job for a long period of time is that you'll get salary increases and job title advancements. If neither of these is available, your workers will leave quickly and often.

 

4. Lead as an Example

Your employees need to see that you're just as willing to get down and dirty for the company as you expect them to do. You need to get on their level and do the exact same work they're doing to show that you care and understand their everyday struggles. A manager who sits at a desk all lay in a cushy air conditioned office looks smug and arrogant to their workers, especially if you're the same person who tells people what to do.

 

5. Show Appreciation

Your workers want to know that they are appreciated and that their work matters. Giving out recognition awards or just telling an employee "thank you, you did a great job" can be the light of their day. In fact, it's been shown that workers who are given compliments on their job performance regularly do better and learn quicker than other workers who are never told the same things.

 

6. Offer Flexible Scheduling

People like flexible job schedules that enable them to juggle home life with work life more easily. Your workers will feel motivated and ready to do a great job when you're able to be more flexible with their lifestyles. This doesn't mean that you should allow employees to work whenever or however they feel like it, but if a worker needs Tuesdays off for their child's care, you should be ready and willing to meet this demand.

When you hire a worker, your goal should be to keep them for their entire career. While this may not be realistic for every person who becomes a part of your company, lower turnover will result in lower labor costs for the organization. Therefore, it is important that you create conditions that increase the odds that a worker will want to stick around for the years to come.

 

 

Recognize Their Achievements

 

No one wants to work for a company that doesn't recognize the hard work that he or she puts in. Therefore, it is always a good idea to call out your workers when they do reach a sales goal, hit a service milestone or do anything else that is worthy of praise. The best part is that it doesn't take much to thank your people for the things that they do to make the company a powerhouse in its industry. In most cases, a pin, a plaque or a $20 gift certificate is enough to show that the company cares.

 

Offer Them a Competitive Salary

 

Most people go to work each day because they need their paycheck to provide for themselves and their families. This means that a person is less likely to stay with your company if he or she can make more elsewhere. If you can't afford to pay a competitive salary, you may be able to make up for it with stock options or other benefits to increase a worker's overall compensation package.

 

Offer Room for Advancement

 

One of the easiest ways for a person to increase his or her salary is through promotions up the corporate ladder. While not everyone can go from janitor to CEO, you should aim to help your people get the most out of their skills. In some cases, you may be able to help a worker move up by creating new positions that are tailored to his or her skill set.

 

Act as a Mentor to Your People

 

In the business world, there is nothing more important than a relationship with another person. By acting as a mentor, you are creating one of the strongest connections a worker and manager can have. When you choose to mentor someone, you are telling that person that you care about his or success on a personal level. That type of loyalty is likely to be reciprocated, which may lead to lower levels of turnover.

 

Create an Enjoyable Workplace Experience

 

If you can provide nothing else to your employees, provide them with an enjoyable workplace experience. This may include a game room, free breakfast on Friday or an atmosphere where colleagues are allowed to be social with both customers and each other. It is not uncommon for people to stay with a company because of the people who they work with or work for even when they aren't being paid top dollar.

 

 

The best companies are the one that treat their employees with respect. This is because employees who feel good about their employers will work harder to serve the needs of its customers. Furthermore, people are unlikely to leave a place where they feel valued and appreciated as this can be worth as much or more than any amount of financial compensation.