10+ Creative Ways to Reward Employees amidst Pandemic

January 15, 202112:05 pm1748 views

Employee loyalty is hard to come by. If any, digital technology has given talents the freedom and means to actively hop in from one job to another for more growth opportunities and to fulfill their personal growth plans. Talents today are also seeking employers who could provide better development and inhibit positive culture within their workforce.

Many HR professionals believe that one way to nurture loyalty among employees is to reward them for their good work and contribution. Employee rewards and recognition effectively motivates employees to become better and better at work – and in the long run, the company will also benefit from that. Having rewards and recognition in place also helps improve employee retention strategy which has become an ongoing challenge to the human resource manager.

Rewarding employees is not always about calling for an extra budget. One survey showed that employees show appreciation even to the simplest form of rewards. And vice versa, more than half (66 percent) of employees would be likely to leave their job if they did not feel appreciated. The percentage rose up from 51 percent from 2012.

As employers, whether you are interested in budget-friendly tips or you want to do something quick and easy, here are some of the creative ways you can reward employees that will surely raise their morale, whether individual or a team.

“Good job!”

Give credit to the employee who prepared the tedious research or report that you are about to present in the next board meeting. You can give credit by allowing him to include his name in the last page of the report as the researcher or make mention of his name before other board members.
Brag about your staff’s latest work achievement to other people in the office during breaks.
Give your recently-awarded employee the freedom to choose his next assignment. Whether he wants to take on a less stressful project in the meantime or another award-winning assignment will be his own choice.
Make a short video interview of your employee-of-the-month regarding his challenges at work and his techniques of overcoming them and play this at the reception area where others can see and learn from.
Send out an email to all departments recognizing a job well done by an employee based on your “job well done” qualifier.
Send a bouquet of fresh flowers to your employee that did an outstanding job on a critical project.
Make a dinner reservation for two and send out to your employee of the month, thus they can have a lovely dinner with their loved ones.

“You did more than what was asked for”

Create a life-size image standee of your best employee and place that in the reception area. Let other employees sign in their message on the standee until the spaces are filled up. Allow this standee to enjoy the fame for their hard work for at least 15 minutes or until everyone in the office has learned who this best employee is.
Reward your employee’s family with a day out in the theme park; rides and munch courtesy of the company.
Purchase a tailored suit for your best male employee and power dress for the female employee. Get your inspirational message across by customizing the label that they can read every time.
Give your best male and female employee an absolute-pampering fashion or beauty makeover for a day.

“This is small gesture for your hard work”

Allow employees who can work from home to do so. Provide equipment such as earphones, table, chair, cable extension, etc.
Award employees with a half or full day off that they can use later, or allow them to leave a shift early.
Give out cards to restaurants, grocery stores, or a type of service to your employees. It is not only good to reward your employees but also good to support local businesses.
Offer company swag such as company apparel, bags, pens, etc.
Offer fringe benefits such as covering cost of parking, public transportation to work, internet or phone bill.
Celebrate birthdays or work anniversaries to highlight how much you appreciate their time.

“That was a job well done, let’s level up a bit more”

Listen to your employee’s ideas. This is one of the simplest yet most direct ways to show you appreciate your employees.
Follow up on the ideas proposed before and consider to implement them and explain why.
Highlight employees on social media by posting a stock photo of employee appreciation with some text and tag their personal account. You can also explain why their work matters.
Encourage employees to lift up others by doing peer-to-peer recognition. The goal is to get appreciation coming at employees from all directions.
Promote them as a direct way to appreciate employees. This can also help create tangible benefits in terms of career development.
Offer scholarship to study at a higher level as a clear way to show that you value them.

Be creative in rewarding and recognizing the good works of your employees and you’ll be surprised at the amount of increased productivity among them.

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