By Bob Meyer

Today in the workplace, the paycheck buys baseline performance…but with incentives you get exceptional effort, because they communicate that you care about and value your people.

To make rewards more effective—no matter how much you spend—you need to be as timely as possible, so the employee knows why he or she received the incentive.

That way you reinforce and encourage employees to keep doing the exceptional work that won them the incentive in the first instance.

You also must match the reward to the individual, making the incentives as personal as possible.

This means getting to know your employees, observing their interests and picking rewards that they will value and appreciate.

The following rewards prove you don’t need to invest that much money to have an impressive, motivating incentive program. And the best part is the expensive ones can often be done on barter.

• Create a wall-of-fame: Set aside a prominently displayed area as a wall-of-fame for your employees. A place where they can put up anything they are proud of…including “thank yous” from clients, vacation snapshots, pictures of their cars.

Although the cost is nothing it can be motivating to be able to look at past triumphs, when they’re down, and be renewed!

• Massage the masses: When your staff puts in extra effort on a project, reward the group with a visit from a local masseuse—which also happens to be a fast-fix for stress.

The cost will be about $40 to $80 an hour. Figure each person getting a 12-minute massage, the cost for 16 people would be about $150.

• Educate and stimulate: Another sure way to show you value workers is to invest in training courses. The benefit is twofold: you’ll bolster the employee’s career and reap the rewards of his/her new skills. The best strategy is to select a few courses that will help your business, and then let employees choose.

• Fuel workers with food: Treat employees to a steak-and-salad lunch. During the meal remind them that their hard work sustains business growth. A nice meal and a short motivational speech works. (Whether it’s steak, a six-pack of beer and chips, or coffee and doughnuts, a savory show of thanks pumps up productivity. One caveat is to be cognizant of the dieters.)

• Publicize your appreciation with a plaque: Presenting personalized plaques for special achievements is powerful. Especially noteworthy is having one copy hanging on the office wall, and a duplicate given to the worker for home.

• Wield a powerful pen: Add horsepower to your praise by putting it in a handwritten note. We get so few personal notes any more, that when we get one we treasure it.

• Pinpoint workers’ preferences: Remember, incentives cannot be one-size-fits-all. Seriously consider asking your employees to fill our “Reinforcement Surveys” in which they list hobbies and interests. Then when your staff shines, grab the survey and treat each worker to his or her turn-on.

• Everybody wins: The best thing about creating an incentive program is that it strengthens bonds in your workplace. It works!

To find a barter company in your local area, see right-hand column titled, “Top Resources.” USA and global barter companies are listed on your website for you.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 21st, 2007 at 6:04 pm and is filed under Entrepreneurs & Small Business, Marketing, Purchasing & Financing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.