If you are a manager, have you asked yourself this question, how do you reward your team?
If you are not leading a team, ask yourself too, how do you wish to be rewarded?
Many people associate rewards for good work with promotion and pay raise. What if the company just unable to pay more? Well, here are 10 simple ways that I used to reward my staff without breaking my own bank and the amount is small enough that I don’t need to claim from my company.
Sugar High I love to buy little treat like Halloween candies on sale that comes in bite sizes Snickers or Mars bars. I would buy them and reward my staff with these little treats. No doubt they are not your 3-year-old kid but who doesn’t like a bite-sized midday snack to perk up the rest of the day? There must be a reason why Unilever have free flow gelato machine on every floor of its building.
Food Storage My pedestal is full of snacks, ranging from health nut bars to potato chips to instant cup noodles. A great way to temporary fill up the hungry tummies when my team works overtime with me. Oh, you will be grateful to me when you smell the hot soup in the cup.
Packed Dinners This is something I frequently like to do when my staff had to do overtime for the company, I would ask them to order dinner delivery in and I would pay for the bill. We can have a mini pizza party for half an hour before returning back to work or have a round table of Chinese takeout dishes. I would ask them to take turns to order in so that everyone gets to order something they like. Great for bonding too!
Caffeine Galore When I know we are having a new service or product launches or even it has been a long day, I love to pop over to Starbucks during lunch and surprise my team with their favourite cup of coffee. Doesn’t cost me a bomb and I don’t do it all the time but when I do, people appreciate it a lot. Same goes when I bought desserts or ice cream.
Office Lunch Outing It doesn’t have to be a fancy restaurant or something expensive. A good out of the office lunch to create bonding among the staff is a great thing to do and you don’t even have to offer to pay, just invite everyone on a go dutch basis. Sometimes, people just need an excuse to get together and mingle.
Drinks on Me This is actually pretty common. After a long day, a cold tall glass of beer would do wonders for the soul, gather the whole team after work to the pub across the street for a quick round before heading home.
Birthday Celebration Once a month, we will celebrate whoever’s birthday falls in that particular month. The team will chip in for a present and a card, and I’ll surprise with a cake. We will do loud and proud celebrations after work in one of the meeting rooms. By the way, it means a lot to the person when you as a boss remembers their birthday, sometimes I might be away on business trips, those times I would remember to drop a sweet happy birthday text to the person on the day of birthday. Sincere thoughts count a long way.
Trust & Respect This is free but costly. Many times, I choose to turn a blind eye and resist to micromanage a staff because I wanted to show that I trust and respect his due responsibility. This often allows them to gain trust and respect for me as well. No one wishes to be working constantly under prying eyes and led on by a short leash. If you do this all the time, your staff will hate you.
Gaining the Spotlight I like to bid for high-profile projects and in turn, throw the project to my team while I mentored them. When the project is a success, I turned the spotlight onto them and let them shine. When the project fails, I will step up and take the responsibility because it is my guidance who fail them. This is the only way that your staff will be recognised by higher management and be groomed.
Open your Golden Mouth A cheery ‘Good Morning’, a ‘Good job!’ and a ‘Thank you, I appreciate it.’ makes an employee day. Give credit when credit is due. Teach when a lesson needs to be taught. Mentor when guidance is needed. These actions will be appreciated more than any kind of monetary rewards.
Do you agree with me? Have you come across good rewards before? Or did you have a great boss? Share with us at the comments below.
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