Last Updated on June 6, 2019 by
Running a successful business involves taking care of your employees. Failure to value or appreciate the people who help you operate your business is a big hindrance or even a major cause of stagnant sales and performance. That’s why it’s crucial to make your employees always feel welcome and adequately compensated.
In this post, you’ll learn some helpful tips to make your employees happy, more productive, and feel career satisfaction at work.
Know Your Employee’s Birthday
Having a great office birthday guide is a good idea to welcome your employees. It’s also one way to show your employees that you value special days or celebrations, too, and not just focus on gaining higher profits or revenue. In an oversized calendar or one corner of your office, decorate or design the space with the names of the birthday celebrants of the month. Your employees will surely look forward to these special dates, making each day fun and exciting.
Here are some tips to surprise your employees who are birthday celebrants:
- Give a simple token or gift, like an organizer, mug, special pen, or a stress ball.
- If you have extra office funds to spend, treat the birthday celebrant for a day in a spa or give movie tickets for two. Holding a small birthday party at the office is also a fun idea.
- If you’re on a tight budget, you can treat all birthday celebrants one time by holding a pizza session after your end-of-the-month meeting.
Give Productivity Rewards or Incentives
Top-performing employees should always be welcomed and appreciated when you’re running a business. Check great productivity hacks for offices online to help your employees plan a proper course of action to attain short-term and long-term goals. While using monetary rewards or incentives is not always advisable, you can give incentives once in a while to challenge your employees to do better and boost confidence.
Here are some tips and reminders when creating an effective incentive program:
- Keep It Simple: Complex incentive schemes may cause frustration and too much struggle, to create something easy to understand and communicate. Design an incentive program that you can describe in ten words or less.
- Set Challenging but Attainable Goals: Participants won’t feel motivated if the objective is not challenging or impossible to attain. Choose an objective wherein 10% to 20% of your employees will likely achieve so everyone would feel they have a winning shot or that these are realistic goals worth working towards.
- Be Creative: Give your employee incentive program an inspirational or fun name, and design a logo to make it memorable.
- Be Consistent: Once you have laid out an employee incentive program, make sure to be consistent and avoid putting it on hold or missing a month or two. Creating a communication plan and placing visible reminders on work areas increase motivation.
- Provide Updates: Your employees should be updated to know their standing and progress, helping them stay focused on the objectives and the prize.
- Big Splash for Achievers: The culmination program is an excellent opportunity to recognize your top-performing employees, so set a budget and make the awarding prestigious. Allow each awardee to have a speech to make the event memorable, inspiring others to do better next time.
Freebies for New Employees
If you’re running a clothing business, giving a free shirt or dress for your new employees is a good idea. It’s also a great way to show how proud you are about your products and services. Your employees are your best brand ambassadors, so giving freebies in the form of your very own products is a good marketing strategy as well.
Here are some tips and tricks when giving freebies to your employees:
- Provide freebies to your current loyal employees once in a while to make them feel privileged and valued.
- Avoid giving freebies that aren’t selling or are merely leftover goods or run outs. Instead, provide the top selling and best products you have to make your new employees feel special.
Special Introduction
There are no other means to introduce your new employees but by holding a special introduction. Gather all your employees and introduce the new ones to everyone. Ask your new employees to share expectations and a short self-description. You can make the day even more special by buying ice cream or pizza for everyone. An after-work dinner is also a good idea.
Be a Cool Boss
You can be a cool boss without losing your authority. Don’t be too strict or stiff with your office rules. Show that you are also considerate without appearing too lax or tolerant of inappropriate behavior. Employees love a flexible boss—someone who can sympathize during family emergencies or when the car broke down.
Here are some tips to become a cool boss who still preserves their authority:
- Set Realistic Rules: Setting realistic rules helps your employees know your expectations. Make sure that you clearly explain the rules in the workplace to new employees. If you make exceptions to the rule, make sure that you have a good reason why you do so.
- Be a Good Role Model: Show your leadership characteristics by being a good role model to your employees.
- Build a Relationship: Find common ground between you and your employees by asking and entertaining personal questions. People likely want to work harder for someone who acknowledges common humanity instead of someone who speaks about business all the time.
- Be Encouraging: Praise your employees for a job well done in front of everyone. If your new employee shows poor performance, coach and share opportunities privately to avoid low self-esteem or losing morale.
Hold Work Games and Contests
You can increase productivity by holding work games and contests while making your employees happy. It’s one way to release work stress and make the workplace lighter.
Check the following sales contest ideas:
- Yankee Gift Swap or Dirty Santa: Every time your employees make a sale over a specified dollar amount, a gift will be opened. Once another employee makes a sale, another package can be opened, or the employee can steal the unwrapped gift. This game develops a sense of autonomy among your employees. By not knowing what is inside the gift box, it becomes a strong motivator and a variable reward.
- The Flash Contest: This contest is so powerful because everyone likes to leave early on Fridays. You can avoid later or end of the month stretches on sales quotas by holding a contest wherein salespeople who have met a certain quota within the last few days would leave early on Friday. The essential qualities of this contest are time limit and spontaneity. Create a sense of urgency by surprising your employees with a very desirable reward within a narrow and limited time frame.
- Sales Poker: The goal of this game is to reward employees who hit small goals every day in a five-day workweek. If an employee achieves a predetermined goal, the person could pick a card out of a 52-card deck. Bonus card selections throughout the week are available, serving as “wild” cards, thus making the best five-card hand possible according to mutually agreed on rules. The highest winning employee at the end of the week gets to enjoy a prize, cash, or personal time off.
Conclusion
Make your work environment a fun and comfortable place, welcoming your new and loyal employees using different techniques. You can place a good employee incentive program that aims to motivate everyone to be the best. Show your new employees that you’re also considerate for as long they are within reason. Also, giving freebies, acknowledging your employees, and being a good boss is important in keeping your employees happy and content for a successful business.