On the biggest day of love each year, Valentine’s Day, the focus is on all the things that we care about in our personal and professional lives. Yet, as human resource professionals and business owners, oftentimes we forget just how important it is to share this love with our employees – the very people who make our organization the success it is. Perhaps one of the best ways to do this is by evaluating and increasing the current employee incentives that are offered.
In the above infographic, it’s clear that the world’s leading companies across many different industries offer some very unique employee incentives. From free on-site services and wellness programs to casual work environments and other amazing benefits, there are some creative ways to say “I love you” to employees in a way that will make them stick around to do their best work.
Why are employee incentives important?
Outside of showing basic appreciation for the hard work your employees do every day, employee incentives have some very real business benefits. Incentives can be motivators, they can help to engage employees on the job, and they can encourage more loyalty. Research from Towers Perrin and Gallup back this up.
- It’s estimated that the cost of a disengaged workforce is more than $300 billion, including 20.6 million workers in the USA alone.
- Companies with highly engaged employees experience almost a 20 percent increase in operating income, while those without engaged employees see their income drop by over one-third.
- Retention rates are higher in companies that take the time to develop meaningful employee incentive plans, reducing turnover by as much as 50 percent.
- Twice as many companies offering incentives experience business growth over those that do not, due to engaged employees.
Ideas for incentives in the workplace
In his book, Performance Management: Improving Quality Productivity Through Positive Reinforcement, author Dr. Aubrey Daniels explains how using positive encouragement can go a long way towards increasing employee engagement. He has stated that, “positive reinforcement is appropriate recognition of improved performance that leads to improvement. It doesn’t really matter if this reinforcement is tangible or social, scheduled or unscheduled, but it must be frequent and meaningful to employees.” Therefore, as you develop your internal employee incentive plans, keep this in mind.
Here are some possible ideas for incentives you can start offering your employees, to show them more love.
- Flexible work scheduling
- Free snacks and beverages
- Friday afternoon social time with peers
- Wellness and stress reduction programs
- Quarterly performance bonuses
- Regular peer recognition
- Floating holiday time off
- Educational benefits and support
- Supplemental health benefits
- On-site celebrations and events
- Comfortable work surroundings
- Above-average technology and resources
As you work on ways to enhance and improve your employee incentive and benefit programs, consider reaching out to your employees in a 360 Feedback survey. Chances are, what you believe are incentives may not be in line with what makes employees feel valued in your organization. Then you too can show them the love they deserve for a job well done.
