7 November 2022
Only 34% of employees in the US feel engaged in their work and company, 53% of employees don’t. For employers a lack of engagement from your team will result in a lower bottom line, higher absences and low retention – none of these will help you get where you want to be. In the last year 65% of employees have said they don’t feel recognised by their employer – feeling overlooked or underappreciated will affect an employee’s productivity and often lead to poor retention within the company.
So, are you looking for ways to improve your office environment? Is your team lacking motivation and inspiration? In this article we’re going to be laying out 5 reasons you should recognize and reward your team, as well as 5 ways to begin implementing new . Here’s our guide to creating a better reward scheme to get a better work environment
01: PRODUCTIVITY
Approximately 80% of employees are disengaged or unmotivated leading to a $7 trillion loss in productivity. Every company wants their employees to work in an optimized frame of mind. But getting the best from your team in the time which they’re working comes down to how motivated they are to work hard; this is down to the company environment and how much they like their job. For example, did you know that offices which allow their employees to listen to music have seen a 70% increase in productivity, and 81% of HR decision makers say that allowing people to bring their pets into work increases productivity? Every year stress-related illnesses cost businesses $200 – $300 billion in lost productivity, ensuring that your employees are working in an environment that makes them happy and feel secure will not only help them, but it will also help you to reach your targets and achieve your goals. Nowadays a paycheck isn’t enough to make employees feel noticed and fulfilled within their work, so what will make them feel that they’re appreciated and seen?
A great way to improve productivity is to create a recognition and reward system that highlights the work of employees who keep hitting those targets, and going above and beyond for your business. Globally the employee recognition market is worth $46 billion, optimizing your business to fit the needs of your employees will increase your company’s productivity by 31%. So what kind of reward system will increase productivity? Well, a good way to start is to acknowledge the targets each individual is set (are you overestimating or underestimating?) and offer the incentive of a gift card which you can personalize to suit your brand and give your employees the recognition they deserve. Don’t view it as conforming to trends but investing in the people who make it possible for your company to stay in business.
02: MOTIVATION
7 out of 10 employees want to feel more motivated at work. At the moment motivation is at an all time low with only 15% of employees globally feeling motivated within their business. But how important is motivation? Motivation will make your employees show up for work, it will make them focus on their work and it will make them want to work – it will make employees perform 20% better leading to a 4x revenue increase for your business. It might sound silly but motivation is the bedrock of a successful business – whether your team are motivated because of personal or more professional reasons it’s important to give them a reason to keep showing up. To put it into numbers – unmotivated employees can cost companies up to $550 billion every year not just in profits lost but in rehiring and absences. But if you want motivated employees you have to create a work environment and company that is worth being motivated for. If you were working at your company what would you want to see, what would you want to get?
So how do you manage to maintain the motivation of a team? Well:
Make the work worth their while, often employees don’t feel motivated because they can’t click with their tasks. Find the strengths and weaknesses of your team and put them in roles and projects that highlight these strengths and make them care about their work. Motivated employees are 87% less likely to leave a company – considering that you took the time to hire your team you probably don’t want them to go so it’s best to invest in ways to keep them. But only 18% of employees believe in monetised incentives – 32% believe in boosting morale while 27% believe in recognition and praise as an effective way to motivate them. So – instead of monetising rewards, how about setting up a reward system that recognises individuals and celebrates teams.
03: SATISFACTION
Employees spend an average of ⅓ of their lives at work, that’s approximately 90,000 hours. If your team aren’t happy that means their investing ⅓ of their lives in a place they don’t like – doesn’t that make you want to change something before they change jobs? Unfortunately for you as an employer, every employee is an individual and therefore measures satisfaction in their job by different standards to their co-workers. But that also means that within your company you have the opportunity to create a diverse environment that benefits everyone. 43% of workers put their job as their biggest source of happiness, since it’s such a huge part of an individual’s life and can impact all other areas of their life – it’s important to make sure they’re satisfied. How do you ensure this?
Well making sure that you’ve got the right person in the right job is step one, so many people are in jobs that naturally they don’t enjoy. As an employer this isn’t conducive to hitting your goals, as an employee it can mean complete dissatisfaction. Part two is recognition – employees who feel recognized for their work are more satisfied with their work and their company and 80% work harder. How to make sure that the recognition you’re giving works for the individual? Well, have you ever received a surprise present for no apparent reason? Felt amazing didn’t it and it probably improved your mood towards the person/people no end. So why not do the same for employees? Gift cards, personalized cards for career milestones – it doesn’t take much but it means a lot.
04: RETENTION
It is estimated that rehiring costs one and a half to twice as much as investing in retention schemes for current employees. What does this mean for your company? Well, if you hired someone chances are you want to keep them – and here’s the good news: until they’re out the door you’ve got a good run at doing just that. 91% of HR Managers agree that employee retention revolves around recognition and rewards for the job the individual is doing – if an employee feels they are being taken for granted or badly compensated for their work they’ll walk to a better offer. All of the previous points will help you to figure out how to handle individual cases but for teams, ensure you’re recognising and rewarding their hard work with company gift cards and personalized milestone awards.
05: LOYALTY
Possibly one of the most underrated qualities in an employee is their loyalty to your business. Loyal employees are great testimonies to the image of your brand, they sell products and services better than disenfranchised colleagues and will always be looking for ways to improve in current and future markets. But how do you get a loyal employee? Unfortunately you can’t just buy them on the shelf in the local supermarket, but you can make sure that you’re hiring individuals who resonate with your brand’s mission and the work you do. Hire people who are passionate on day one and keep giving them reasons to believe that your brand is the best.
We’ve given you the facts, we’ve hinted at solutions – come to BPAK for your corporate gift cards that will inspire employees, raise productivity and get your team back on track.
