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It’s March and almost everyone I know is talking about employee salary appraisals. All those talks about deadlines, goals, targets etc has got me curious and I’ve been trying to understand what is all the hurry and excitement about.
What’s so special about salary appraisals? At the end of the day, they are just a few digits in your bank account. Well, employers, you should know that increasing salaries doesn’t always motivate employees. There are many more interesting things that you can do to motivate employees than just padding their bank accounts.
An average employee spends about 68% of his day at the workplace and if you ask me, that’s a lot of time! Employees would expect their company to do something for them, something that would make them feel different from other people.
Here are a few employee perks that you can give to your employees to keep them motivated always and not just when it is time for salary appraisals.
It would be absolutely boring if I started this by saying that “Healthy employees are more productive”. Because that’s not how it works, you can be totally healthy and still be unproductive. But what’s more important here is an organization caring for their employees’ health. It is necessary to have an on-site health service, just in case of an emergency.
There are many offices that have an on-call doctor and provide medical insurance for their employees or cover their medical expenses up to a particular limit. Some workplaces also conduct free regular medical check-ups for their employees.
Implementing this one is surely going to motivate your employees and make them feel valued.
This is one more way of caring for your employees’ health. Educate them on fitness and provide them with a free gym membership. Allow them to have free time for fitness and workout at the gym. Not everyone finds enough time and motivation to hit the gym, work out and burn those calories! So you can also have a yoga instructor come to your office and teach yoga to your employees. It can be a great way to keep your employees motivated throughout the year and productive. You could even go a step further and offer a healthy snack or eco-friendly water after the class to really get your employees smiling.
Remember what I said in my last article? “Exercise gives you endorphins and endorphins make you happy!” stick to that!
Last Thursday, as I started my work in the morning, my neighbor asked me where I worked and I replied to him. Guess what he did after I told him where I worked? He gave me a clueless nod with a confused smile. Being smart, I made out that he had no idea about my company.
My roommate on the other hand never got asked the same question because she always wore that jacket to work with her company’s logo printed on it. (The company is a reputed Multi-National Company)
I got to understand two things after this experience. One, I needed a jacket with my company’s logo on it (We have one by the way!) Two, every employee in every company should be given some personalized goodies. These goodies which only the company’s employees deserve.
Personalized goodies create a sense of belonging. And while all your belonging is not going to come from wearing a jacket, it is going to make employees feel like they are a part of something.
Most organizations have personalized jackets, t-shirts, shirts etc. Some companies even have their own personalized water bottles and coasters. Obviously, you don’t need to personalize EVERYTHING. But, why not a few commonly used things?
This one, we have talked about this in our last article – 10 Fun and Innovative Ideas For Employee Appreciation Day 2017.
Create a wall of fame in your office and list the names of all your employees and write about how their efforts contributed to your organizational success. This will be an entertaining and motivating way for your employees to feel valued.
This one might be a little high on your budget but trust me when I say, all the new-parents (also old parents, okay all parents basically) are going to thank you personally for this.
There are many daycare centers out there in the city but why have one at the office? Not all the day care centers are open on all days. Having an on-site daycare would make the life of your employees easier if they have kids whom they cannot leave home alone and come to work.
Hire qualified baby-sitters and have some fun slides and set up a colorful and entertaining day care at your office. All that your employees would have to do is to drop their kids off at the day care and pick them up when leaving for home.
Though game rooms are quite common in many offices, there are workplaces which do not maintain them properly or think that it would just be a distraction to their employees.
Create a game room for your employees so that they can relax their minds and relieve themselves from work stress. Include games like foosball, table tennis, carrom board and other board games.
Game rooms are a fun way for employees to kick back and relax.
This morning, one of my friends called me up and told me that there was this concert in the town and she had free passes for it. It took exactly two minutes and thirty-seven seconds for my almost dumb brain to realize that I was just invited to the concert. Whoa! My belated realization aside, her invite got me thinking.
What would it be like if a company could gift all of its employees with some free passes for events? It didn’t seem like a bad idea to me, and I know most employees (us Engagedly ones included )would all be really happy to hangout somewhere (with free passes, of course) and have some off-time from our daily routine.
In the beginning of this article, we talked about how the physical health of employees is important for an organization and how providing health services on site and giving them gym memberships would help them stay fit and healthy.
But there’s another problem that no one talks about, the mental health of the employees. Every employee has many responsibilities at the workplace like completing tasks before deadlines, reaching targets etc. Along with all these responsibilities at the office, they also have responsibilities outside their office. And additionally, they might also be suffering from mental illnesses.
Since there is so much stigma surrounding mental illness, not many people are going to be forthcoming about their suffering.
And while you cannot force somebody to come clean or acknowledge their illness, you can definitely provide them with the resources to seek help and treatment.
Mental health allowances, on-call counselors, short-term counselling sessions etc are viable ways to show employees you care.
This is an amazing perk for book lovers like me. Libraries are not always accessible and it’s not possible to always pick up the latest novel to hit the shelves. However, an accessible library at the office makes it easier for employees to indulge in their love of reading. More importantly, most employee perks tend to be geared towards outdoorsy or extroverted activities. A free library is a perk that can help motivate some of the more bookishly-inclined employees in an organization.
Never in history of motivating employees has free food let anyone down! It has always fought its way and motivated the employees and pushed them to the boundaries of their efficiency.
Well, to say briefly, food is the motivator, go for it. Give your employees free lunch or give the free food vouchers which they can later use even when they’re away from work.
Moral: This never fails!
Like I said in our last article – 10 Fun and Innovative Ideas For Employee Appreciation Day 2017, supporting a cause on behalf of your employees can go a long way.
Find out if your employees would like to support a cause and make a donation on their behalf and make them feel appreciated for being able to make a difference by donating to the cause.
You can also take them out to participate and actively volunteer for a cause. This will be your little employee engagement activity.
Do you have any more ideas in your mind? Go ahead and share them in the comments section. If you liked this article share it with your friends. If you want to know how Engagedly can help you.
