How to Improve Employee Morale with Reward and Recognition Programmes


Employee recognition is often traditionally limited to the annual financial bonuses given away to the workers at the time of Christmas. If you are also following the same approach, you should know that it is the most outdated one. While there is no wonder your employees will be more than happy to receive the year end bonus, most organisations today are moving towards more planned recognition schemes. These schemes are active all over the year and are not just limited to the Christmas time. The idea behind such schemes is to keep the employees pushing throughout the year and strive towards achieving them consistently.

With planned reward and recognition schemes, you can present different awards to your employees in different ways. This will appeal to the different team members and will keep all of them motivated and happy to do more work all around the year. Here are some of the most commonly used and highly effective appreciation and rewards strategies for your workers that will keep them motivated.

  1. Instant Recognition

    This is perhaps one of the most effective ways of acknowledging the efforts of your employees. If there is an employee who behaves in a way or does something extraordinary that deserves appreciation and acknowledgement, doing it there and then will make it more special for them. It can be in the form of a small internal announcement, an appreciation email of a financial award. There is no need to wait for the year end to celebrate an important achievement that deserves applause there and then. This keeps your workers motivated as they know their actions and efforts are noticed and rewarded instantly. There are online tools such as https://www.power2motivate.co.uk/ that provide the ability for instantaneous reward and recognition.

  2. Peer to Peer Recognition

    Peer to peer recognition is one of the most implemented and highly valued reward and recognition plans. This reflects the appreciation of not only the management, but also your colleagues. Most of the times, it is the team members who know the most about which member of the team should be recognised and rewarded and they all work closely with one another. These kind of programmes also allow and empower employees to make decisions about who should be chosen for the recognition each time. The recipient and the person nominating them both feel good this way.

  3. Long Service Awards

    Retaining your staff is one of the most important things you need to do. Not only does it keep the best employees with you, but also reduce the cost of hiring again and again. Having an established programme of long service rewards, your employees will know that there is something big to look forward to if they plan to stay. This will keep them motivated and you will also be able to retain them. This also serves as a token of appreciation for the years of service they have rendered in your organisation. They will know that they are valued.