5 for Friday: Reward Zone

This week’s Five for Friday focus is on employee reward and recognition programs. Below are highlights of the week’s articles on the subject. A consistent theme is to reward often, even if it means the rewards are smaller. As long as they are meaningful and timely, you’ll fnd success in your rewards program.

Beware the Reward Plan Fiscal Cliff, Anne Bares, Compensation Cafe
All-or-nothing single reward programs are similar to a cliff. Though sometimes these types of rewards are ideal, often they have unintended consequences. For this type of reward to work, make sure to have a well-thought out plan design and a well-balanced overall rewards program. Read this article for some examples of unintended consequences that might occur.

For Employee Incentives, Simple Works Best, Chris Griffiths, The Globe and Mail
Small business owners often struggle with incentives that work and that they can afford. In this article, we are advised to keep it simple. Simple, meaningful incentives are effective but the keys to really making them work are personalizing for the employee’s specific motivation, rewarding frequently and making the rewards a surprise.

The Front Lines of the Pay/Performance Link, Joanne Sammer, BusinessFinance
Even though the economy is recovering, it’s important to be discriminating in how we spend our compensation budgets. In this hot war for talent, we need to put our money where the talent is and make sure we reward those employees who are most valuable to us.

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Limit Your Turnover: Happy Employees are Worth More, Tom Buswell, Send Me The Manager
This article lists incentive programs as a key component in keeping employees happy. Be creative with weekly, monthly, and quarterly employee rewards. More frequent, small rewards can be just as effective, if not more effective, than less frequent but bigger bonuses. Try creative things like extra breaks or free meals to make your employees happier.

The Carrot Principle, Jessica Miller-Merrell, PayScale.com
In this synopsis of the popular book by the same name, we learn that managing employees to be successful in their role is a year-round process, not something that happens just once a year. Try an employee-of-the-month program or maybe out-of-the-box rewards to improve productivity and retention.