Fostering engagement among team members is a key goal for managers, but there are so many employee reward program ideas, and it’s hard to know what will work. Many employees today have re-evaluated their requirements and are looking for more than just a job.
Employee engagement isn’t as simple as job satisfaction or happiness at work. It’s also about feeling enthusiastic, involved, and committed. Employees want to work for a company where they feel invested and engaged in the mission. When they do, it has positive outcomes for the whole company. According to Gallup, organizations with engaged employees see 81% lower absenteeism and 23% higher profits.
READ MORE: Remote Employee Rewards Ideas to Engage Hybrid Teams
Employee reward programs are important to recognize the accomplishments and hard work of your teams. But they can also help foster the engagement that will help managers create a more positive workplace culture. Here are three top suggestions for employee reward program ideas that can help boost engagement.
Employee engagement is at its highest when workers feel that their employer listens to them and values their feedback, often collected in surveys. But some team members may still be reluctant to give that feedback, either because they think it’s pointless and nothing will change or because they’re worried about retribution.
To make sure you get a full spectrum of survey responses, from both happy and unhappy employees, incorporate incentives with a tool that can maintain anonymity. When you can decouple the reward delivery information from the survey submission, then you can encourage both participation and honesty.
Training is not only vital to keep your workforce up to date with the latest developments in the industry, it’s also a key part of employee engagement. But even though employees often cite learning and development as an important factor in their work satisfaction, training is the first thing to get pushed on an ever-expanding to-do list. If learning sessions are completely voluntary, it can be difficult to get employees to prioritize them, especially as workloads increase. If participation is mandatory, however, those sessions may be seen as just another part of that growing workload, instead of a conscious focus on employee development.
The better approach is to implement employee reward program ideas that will show how much your company values the effort it takes for workers to advance. Digital incentives reward them for taking time for professional learning opportunities, and at the end of the day, those opportunities will make them feel more supported and engaged.
Remote workers are often the hardest to engage, since they don’t have the team connections created among in-office employees. As a result, they frequently feel isolated and underappreciated. Nearly 40% of hybrid employees and 30% of remote employees feel less recognized than their onsite counterparts, according to a 2022 Workhuman survey. It’s very easy to overlook employees who work remotely, both in terms of recognition and engagement. You may get casual feedback from in-office team members as you grab lunch in the kitchen or end up chatting in the hallway — connection points that don’t happen with remote employees.
Make sure you’re specifically seeking out engagement from your remote workers. By using an employee rewards program that makes it easy to send rewards to employees anywhere — including internationally — you’ll be able to include everyone in your engagement efforts. That includes feedback surveys and training opportunities, as well as team events.
Employee engagement, morale, satisfaction, happiness — they’re all related and all important to retaining team members, recruiting new ones, and growing the success of your business. Consider these tips for fostering the best environment for your employees:
Get your employee program off the ground fast with BHN Rewards’ digital rewards management platform. Contact us to learn more!
Hannah is a reformed journalist who has more than 15 years of experience and now focuses on content marketing for innovative tech companies.
Hannah is a reformed journalist who has more than 15 years of experience and now focuses on content marketing for innovative tech companies.
