It’s Time to Reward Loyal Employees
A recent Inc.om article calls NOW the time to reward employees, but they state, “If the economy gets better and job prospects improve, you may need to offer more incentives to keep your best employees”. It’s indisputable that as the economy revives, so will job opportunities to your employees and your competitors will be vicious when it comes to recruiting the best your company has to offer. Showing your staffers how much they matter is critical to TOP employee retention. GCP’s comments about how gift cards meet the 3 views of this article follow each Inc.
Reward and Recognition- The Latest Trends
The Incentive Research Foundation released an executive briefing entitled
2012 Trends in Rewards and Recognition, which shows emerging trends for 2012. Some of the top trends include:
Gamification Keeps Employees Engaged and Brand Image Strong
According to Gartner Inc., of Stamford, CT 70% of the top 2,000 publicly held companies will use game-like applications to engage and reward their employees by 2014. Gamification is changing the employee engagement and rewards landscape. Gamifying employee rewards falls in line with social media and the concept of social sharing to create brand awareness and positive brand image. Whether applications are used internally, based on employee performance or externally, rewarding employees for promoting the company and bringing in referral traffic, the trend is growing. Gamification can reward employees in a number of ways. Some applications are designed for employees to accrue points for larger rewards, but others reward employees more frequently with smaller rewards such as gift cards to a choice of retialers, allowing the employee to essentially choose their own gift. The combination of the social component of game-like applications and the rewards employees work toward through the use of the applications makes gamifying employee engagement productive for both the employer and employee.
For more information on gamification and to check out some existing examples check out this article in "Entrepreneur."
How Will You Achieve Your Next Generation Loyalty Program?
Many retailers and merchants decide to go it alone when it comes to creating or updating their customer loyalty program. But those who have an existing loyalty program still need to ensure it remains fresh and offers the best of what customers are expecting. Truly, you should be thinking about going beyond basic loyalty, to gain loyal customer and brand advocates. Here are some simple steps to take to update your program…and keep those customers coming back.
Keeping Small Business Employees Satisfied
According to the
2011 Job Satisfaction and Engagement Research Report,conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management 83% of American employees are satisfied with their jobs. However, only 52% feel engaged at work, and 53% enjoy going above and beyond in their professional role. In order to keep employees feeling engaged and satisfied it is important to both engage their thoughts and opinions to improve your workplace and offer opportunities for training and advancement. Setting up both formal training and informal mentoring sessions keeps employees engaged and feeling as though their employer cares about their career path. Providing these opportunities for employees is productive, and can be paired well with spot rewards. For employees who achieve goals and milestones that are set in these types of sessions providing small rewards, like an afternoon off or a small denomination gift card goes one step above and beyond the role of the employer. Pairing these two employee engagement techniques allow employees to work toward personal achievements and become more committed to the company as the company allows and rewards them for growth. Engaging and rewarding your employees will improve not only their commitment to their job and the company but their dedication to their role and their willingness to go above and beyond the employers expectations.
For more information on the SHRM survey or how to engage and incentivize your employees check out this "Small Business Trends" article.