Features of a great employee recognition and reward program.

There are key features that a great employee recognition and reward program should have.

The program should be transparent to all employees. It should be fair and equitable. It should be accessible and flexible to fit the needs of different types of employees. It should also be motivating for employees so it drives their performance.

An employee recognition and reward program should not only recognise employees for doing a great job. The program should also acknowledge employee achievements and contributions in the workplace.

An employee recognition and reward program should also clearly communicate expectations. Employees should know how they can receive recognition or earn rewards. With many rewards available, the program should indicate what types of rewards are on offer. All activity encouraged within an employee recognition and reward program should have a clear purpose and align with company goals, otherwise the program will not motivate employees to improve their performance.

Elements of an employee recognition and reward program.

Employee recognition and reward programs can feature many different elements: peer-to-peer recognition, manager-led recognition, social engagement and interactions, service milestones, birthday recognition, company nominations, merchandise rewards, cash rewards, public recognition, recognition and reward events, points systems that can be used instead of cash or merchandise rewards, gift cards, gift certificates or even reward services from local businesses.

Some companies offer stock options as part of their employee recognition and reward program. This gives employees an incentive to perform well because they know that they can earn additional shares if they meet certain targets set by management. Stock options motivate because they allow employees to participate in profits and growth of the company over time. For the company, it means they do not have to come up with reward budgets upfront unlike they do for rewards such as cash or merchandise rewards.

Other companies use points or credits which can be redeemed for merchandise. These points or credits are earned by the employee for their efforts and accumulate over time. Once the employee has enough to redeem, they can choose their preferred reward from a catalogue. This is a great way to reward employees as they get to choose how they want to be rewarded and it can minimise the budget needed for an employee recognition and reward program.

Managing an employee recognition and reward program.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) recognition companies like Work Points Play offer software platforms that allow their clients to create and manage their employee recognition and reward program online. One great benefit of SaaS recognition programs is that while the software is market-leading, it doesn’t cost a lot to use. SaaS recognition software also makes it easy to set up and manage a program as well as track employee progress. The software also allows companies to share the program with their employees, making it accessible to all employees.

Managing an employee recognition and reward program outside of software is more difficult, time-consuming and expensive.

Companies that are ready to implement an employee recognition and reward program can follow these steps to get to launch day:

Find the right software partner.

Work Points Play’s employee recognition software is available as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution. This means that businesses can use the software, track program results and manage employee participation all within a single cloud platform.

There are lots of options out there when looking for a partner. Use our Software Comparison Guide to help determine the best partner for you.

Decide on an employee recognition and reward framework.

Once you have found a good recognition software partner, you need to develop an employee recognition program framework that will drive the desired results. You then need to think about how to create awareness of the program, encourage participation and help ensure employees understand how to participate in it successfully.

Great software is designed to automate some of these elements for you and support program success.

Set-up the employee recognition and reward program.

Implementation begins with the creation of an employee recognition program. The program needs to be designed and configured to align with your organisation’s framework and recognition goals. Once it is set up, you can begin to track employee participation and reward activity.

Choose the right rewards.

The most popular rewards in an employee recognition and reward program are perks, merchandise and gift cards. These rewards work well because they are easy to redeem, rewards that employees actually want and give employees lots of reward choice.

Launch the employee recognition and reward program.

The last step is to launch the program and let employees know about it. This will create awareness of the program and help employees understand how it works. You want employees to participate in the program, so make sure they understand how their participation can benefit them as well as their employer.