1. Take them out for lunch: Offer a lunch outing with supervisors or loved ones.
2. Offer flexible work hours: Allow employees to manage their schedules flexibly.
3. Provide a wellness plan: Offer health plans matching employee needs and budgets.
4. Paid outings with loved ones: Sponsor family or friend outings for relaxation.
5. Offer shopping vouchers: Provide retail or online vouchers for employees.
6. Use prize tokens: Reward employees with tokens they can exchange for gifts.
7. Provide special facilities: Offer perks like reserved parking or executive lunchroom access.
8. Allow choice of project: Let employees select projects that interest them.
9. Send surprise treats: Deliver snacks, thank you notes, or drinks as surprises.
10. Present a thoughtful gift: Give personalized gifts based on employees’ desires.
Keeping employees engaged and motivated is one of the most critical contributing factors to an organization’s growth and success. Let’s look at the ten best creative and low-cost ways to reward employees in this context.
Here are the top 10 creative and low-cost ways to reward employees:
Combining good food and fun in a great setting can be an enriching and memorable experience.
Therefore organizations can consider rewarding their employees by asking their supervisors to take them out for lunch.
Employees can even be offered lunch outings with their families and loved ones at a place of their choice.
The concept of flexible work hours as a way of rewarding employees is also enjoyable. Rewarding employees in this manner enables them to manage their personal and professional lives more effectively.
They can schedule work flexibly, so that they can pursue their passions, thus enhancing their happiness and satisfaction levels.
With the costs of healthcare skyrocketing, providing a wellness plan can be a great choice for employee rewards.
Organizations should ensure that the wellness plan matches the healthcare needs and the budget of the employee in question.
It can ensure that employees can continue with the plan even afterward.
A sponsored outing with their family or friends is another way of rewarding their efforts and achievements.
Employees can relax and unwind in the company of their loved ones, which significantly enhances their motivation levels.
Organizations can choose to reward employees by offering them online or retail shopping vouchers.
So, it can help employees buy the products and brands of their choice.
Prize tokens are one of the most creative ways to reward employees and enhance their engagement and motivation levels.
Every time an employee does something worthy of being rewarded, the organization can give a prize token.
Employees can exchange these tokens for specific gifts based on the organization’s budget and employee expectations.
Providing employees with a special facility for a limited period is another effective way to reward them.
These may include pick-and-drop facilities, use of the executive lunchroom, or even reserved premium parking space for a limited time. Hence, they can create a great employee experience.
Organizations can reward employees by assigning them projects of their choice.
It can enable them to explore and learn new skills that can help them advance their careers.
Most people love surprises and sending surprise treats is an interesting and thoughtful way to reward employees.
Sending treats such as snack boxes, flowers, thank you notes or even tumblers of their favorite drinks are great options.
Another innovative way of rewarding employees is to present them with something that they might have been craving for long.
These gifts may be related to work or might even be personal. However, the prerequisite is to understand what the employee wants.
Adopting creative and low-cost ways to reward employees helps in creating a highly motivated workforce committed to ensuring organizational growth and success with minimal budgets.
Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of corporate and entrepreneurship experience. In the past, Sagar has worked in leadership roles with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn
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