Your employees are your biggest asset if you own or run an organisation. They will largely determine whether you are a success or a failure.Therefore, you not only have to find ways to incentivise them to perform better, but you also have to recognise and thank employees that are doing a fantastic job. A big misconception is that employees only want financial rewards. There are many ways to reward employees for outstanding performance, including:
1. Offer Prizes at Company Celebrations
If your employees are doing a great job, your organisation should also be performing well. Great performance warrants celebration and it is during these celebrations, and you should thank the best performing employees. One way to recognise the best employees is to offer them prizes for doing well during these celebrations. Everyone in the company will probably attend these celebrations, which makes it an excellent opportunity to recognise employees that are doing well. Almost everyone loves receiving prizes as they are a tremendous extrinsic motivator. It does not have to be a fancy prize, and a gift card or a plaque will do just fine. Functional prizes like phones or cars are even better. The employees will get the adoration of all those in attendance, which is outstanding.
2. Create an Appreciation Programme
You don’t want to recognise and thank employees that do a good job randomly. You want it to be part and parcel of your company’s organisation. One of the best ways to do so is to set up company appreciation programmes. There are many types of appreciation programmes, including customer appreciation programs, peer appreciation programmes, and others. These recognition programmes are an excellent way for employees to receive due appreciation in a very public way. Peer recognition programmes are often fantastic because they promote teamwork. Colleagues will give the best performing among them rewards which is a wonderful way to reward employees as it comes from those in the trenches with them every day.
3. Lunch Or Dinner
Sometimes the best things in life are often the simplest. If you own or run a company, you probably do not get a lot of time to interact with your employees.Therefore, if you have an employee who is performing exceedingly well, you should recognise and thank them with a lavish lunch or dinner. Take them somewhere they would regularly not go and splurge on them. Doing so will give your employee an excellent opportunity for some one-on-one time with an executive. You will also get a personal insight into the employee, which you can only get by interacting face-to-face with them.
4. The Best Projects
There are usually projects that people don’t want in an organisation and others that employees clamour over each other for. You can use the latter as a way to recognise and thank the best-performing employees.Give them the best projects you have, particularly if you find it difficult to decide who to give the projects to. It will be an outright act of appreciation that other employees will notice, which will motivate them to perform better next time.
5. Career Advancement
One of the main goals of working in a large organisation is to climb up the ladder. Unfortunately, the higher you go up the ladder, the fewer the positions. Therefore, if you want to recognise an employee that has been performing well, one of the best ways to acknowledge them is to offer them an opportunity for career advancement. A well-deserved promotion not only benefits the employee but also benefits the company. There are dozens of ways to recognise and thank an employee who has been going above and beyond for your company. The methods above are some of the most potent ones. Feel free to come up with ways that suit you, the employee, and the organisation.