Affordable ways to incentivize your employees
Few things are as heartwarming and inspiring as feeling appreciated. This particularly applies to your employees. Yes, you pay them – even more, you pay them your hard-earned money – but this doesn't eliminate the critical need to incentivize them once in a while.
Incentivizing your employees significantly ramps up employee engagement. But wait here is where you get it wrong. Incentivizing your employees doesn't mean you have to buy them some super-expensive Lamborghini to inspire them and show your gratitude.
In this guide, we will explore cost-effective but memorable ways to incentivize your team. These strategies are sure to get your employees positively pumped and ready to give your company even more.
Publicly honor top-performing employees
Public recognition is one of the most psychologically reinvigorating ways to refuel that deserving employee. Who doesn't like being a celebrity in the office? Few things elate your employee more than being publicly endorsed by the boss. There are several exciting ways to publicly recognize your best-performing employee.
You could give them a special gift in a meeting. For example, a custom coffee mug like Eula Blue's special Mompreneur Heart-Shaped Mug could be a great gift for that female employee rocking it in your company and beating expectations. Ridiculously affordable but remarkably symbolic, this mug speaks volumes of appreciation to the employee, telling them how much you cherish their input.
Other than a special coffee mug, there are other options like reserving the most exquisite parking lot (for a period) for that exceptional employee. Another beautiful, cost-effective incentive for your employee is naming a conference room after that super performer or superb team. You can also incentivize your employee by giving them a special lunch. This could be once a month or once in a week for 4 weeks.
Should you choose to externalize your appreciation, you could note that specific employee's achievement in your monthly company newsletter. You can also publish their feat on your website, say as the employee of the month.
Reward them with a special Office BBQ
Now, how crazy does the idea of a memorable BBQ right in the office sound amidst all that corporate odor? Well, office BBQs are amazing team parties. These fun events prop up the team's social bonding, celebrating the conquests of the select employees.
What better time than the famed TGIF merry on Friday? Roll in the pizza ovens and propane tanks, it is fun time – deservedly! Office BBQs could be hugely reinvigorating for your employees, allowing them temporary relief from the mental strangulation of all the tasks piled up on their desk.
Assume you were the employee here. Would there really be a better way for the boss to say "thank you" than by allowing you to enjoy some mouthwatering grilled chicken, grilled potatoes, and grilled chicken wings right in the office? I doubt!
What more, a BBQ wouldn't get you bankrupt, making it one affordable and delicious way to incentivize your employees.
Pay for employee's magazine subscriptions
Books are delicacies for the brain, aren't they? Your employees have their favorite magazines they pay to read. How about taking the jolly step of paying off their magazine subscriptions?
As the year draws into the second half, many top magazines are offering exciting deals you could tap into. Typically, a five months subscription could cost you around $35. This isn't a bad deal considering sustainability. For the next five months, your special employee can get an issue all on the boss!
Say thank you with a handwritten note
Alright, this is going to practically cost you so little, but your employee is sure to cherish it crazily. The practice of appreciating subordinates with handwritten has being as enduring as office culture generally.
While you can readily pick up a gift from the nearest shop, sparing that time to crest a special note is sure to drive your employees wild with excitement, especially if you are that well-respected boss they all look up to.
You can readily scribble your "thank-you" words on a simple card. But you can even make it more epic by gifting them a custom journal (like the Eula Blue Inspirational Journal), where you would write your gratitude on the first page. This shows the recipient you care enough for them to set precious time aside to appreciate their input.
A handwritten congratulatory note from the boss is most likely to be a cherished paper medal that employees could go as far as pinning to their office wall. If given to the right employee, such a handwritten note will not be ending in the bin anytime soon.
Invest in employee's professional development
For most of your employees – especially the upward-thinking ones – they have been severally financially handicapped from attending several professional conferences. Some of the conferences or educational programs promise enormous capacity development in addition to exponential networking opportunities.
You can incentivize your employees by paying for some of these professional development programs for them. Relax, you are not necessarily polishing them enough to attract your hawkish rivals to come and poach on them. No, if your employees are better (capacity-wise), your company will magnanimously benefit from it.
Investing in their development shows them you value their input enough to concertedly pour resources into their improving them.
To make it seamless for you, build a dedicated professional development budget devoted to paying for courses and conferences for deserving employees.
Enjoy a casual dress day at work
The office is one dedicated haven of professionalism, right? Conventionally, we are supposed to desert all casualness at home and be the total "corporate" guy at work. This extends to perpetually coming to work in formal dress codes. But how about juicing things up with informality for one day?
Yes, you can incentivize your employees by allowing them to come to work on a special day on casual dresses. Indeed, this gives your employees a breather from their 3-piece suits What more, this act can even go as far as making your company more culturally accommodating as some of your employees can come to work even in their native attire.
Need some fashionable ideas for your casual dress day? Eula Blue's custom Heroic Dad Fatherpreneur T-shirt is one great idea for your employees to appear smartly relaxed to work on such special days. For all its charm and symbolism, this shirt costs so little, making it the perfect cost-effective idea to motivate your employees to give more!
Eula Blue's Inspire and Motivational shop has a line of exquisitely customized products to incentivize your employees. More than the artistic glamor of these products, these products are delectably symbolic, allowing you to sustainably tell your cherished employee those beautiful words they deserve for their hard work. These products are ridiculously cost-effective, ensuring you can exponentially motivate your team without having to mortgage your beloved home!