How to Set Up a Motivating Employee Rewards Program

growth and ensuring the company's success. Their enthusiasm, dedication, and heightened customer service often lead to business growth. Fostering employee engagement and embedding this into your company culture will often lead to long-term tangible rewards for your business.

One of the most effective strategies to ensure consistent employee motivation is through a well-crafted employee recognition program.  In this article, we’ll guide you through setting up an impactful incentive program, concluding with why Edge emerges as an unmatched ally in this endeavor.

Understanding the Value of Employee Motivation

Let's unpack precisely why motivated employees and good employee morale generally are so valuable to your local business:

1. The Direct Link Between Motivation and Productivity

Recent studies have repeatedly underscored a compelling correlation: motivated employees are more productive.

When individuals are recognized and rewarded, they often outperform, bringing innovation and efficiency to their roles. This is all about instilling in employees the intrinsic motivation that naturally leads to more enthusiasm in their roles. When individual employees are engaged, happy at work, invested in a team spirit, and feel seen and acknowledged through meaningful feedback and forms of recognition, they perform better in their roles. 

2. Employee Retention and Loyalty

Motivated employees don’t just work harder; they stay longer. The cost of employee turnover for a service business is significant, both in terms of loss in sales and customer service.

Some studies suggest that replacing a salaried employee costs 6 to 9 months' salary on average. For an employee making $60,000 a year, that's $30,000 to $45,000 in recruiting and training expenses.

By keeping employees engaged and valued through employee incentives and other means, companies can significantly reduce these turnover rates. High rates of employee retention also benefit your business in several ways:

• Stable teams foster better collaboration and understanding among colleagues, leading to a positive work environment.
• Experience often correlates with employee performance and their ability to produce higher-quality work.
• Fewer changes in personnel help in maintaining a consistent company culture and values.
• Long-term employees retain a vast amount of institutional knowledge and expertise.
• Employees familiar with company processes and tools tend to be more efficient.
• Managers spend less time on recruitment and training, allowing them to focus on strategic tasks and business objectives.

3. Enhanced Workplace Morale

A motivated and happy employee is a powerful asset. Employee wellness is contagious, so a happy, healthy employee will have a positive impact on other coworkers. This ripple effect means that motivation can foster a vibrant, collaborative, and positive environment to work in, driving collective success and better job performance.

We've established that employee motivation is immensely valuable to all businesses, and team leaders should be going out of their way to increase levels of motivation in the workplace. We think reward programs are one vehicle through which management teams can foster employee engagement. So, how should management go about rewarding employees?

Elements of Effective Rewards Programs

Rewards for employees need to be well-thought-out and meaningful for them to have the desired effects. Follow these guidelines when initiating an employee incentive plan:

Clear and Achievable Goals

For any rewards program to succeed, the benchmarks must be transparent and within reach. Unattainable goals can demotivate, so ensure that while targets challenge employees, they're also achievable. One way to simply do this is to ensure customer service is SMART: specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Educating customers about automated SMS review requests and leaving a review highlights a SMART goal. This creates recall for the customer to mention and reward the employee in their review. 

Flexible Employee Rewards

Different employees value different rewards. Some may prefer financial incentives, while others might appreciate additional leave days, store credit or extra time allocated to training opportunities. Offering flexible employee rewards caters to diverse preferences.

Easy Reward Redemption

Your employees are on the go and mobile. An easy way to enhance the incentive experience is providing easy reward claims like direct deposit for their exceptional service. Your employees should be able to view near real-time feedback about their service to customers, gain recognition for positive reviews, and even claim rewards via a mobile app. 

Regular Team Feedback

Rewards are most effective when paired with feedback and thorough recognition systems. This ties into the notion that positive reinforcement only works if it's backed up with sufficient explanation as to what is being rewarded.

Continuous clear communication ensures employees know their strengths and areas of improvement, aligning them better with company objectives. A mixture of public and private recognition is also critical. Sharing credit in public in front of others ensures transparency.

Public recognition of an employee's achievement can be as impactful as a tangible reward. Ensure that there are automated service leaderboards or events to celebrate standout performers.

On the other hand, addressing things privately with 1-2-1 conversations can also help address personal goals. 

Flexibile Rewards

A rigid rewards program can become obsolete. Ensure that there's scope to adapt and modify the program based on evolving business needs and employee feedback. In this regard, it's worthwhile conducting an employee engagement survey to help understand their preferences. 

Implementing an Employee Rewards Program

As you seek to roll out a new reward program, ensure you complete the following steps:

Stakeholder Buy-In
Before rolling out the program, secure the endorsement of all the relevant stakeholders. Their support can be instrumental in its success.

Communication:
An effective rewards program is one that's understood by all. Use meetings, newsletters, or dedicated sessions to explain how the program works and its benefits.

Regular Review and Iteration:
Periodically evaluate the program’s efficacy. Gather feedback, assess its impact, and tweak as necessary to ensure your program stays relevant. 

Enter Edge: Your Partner in Employee Rewards

In the journey of crafting and maintaining an effective rewards program, the tools and platforms you choose can make all the difference. 

Edge is a perfect solution that combines the worlds of customer feedback and employee rewards.

When a customer leaves a positive review about an employee, that staff member earns points they can turn into real rewards. This not only offers monetary incentives but can also help them progress in their careers.

Through engaging sales competitions, employees are even more motivated to do their best. Simply put, Edge turns employees into strong supporters of the brand, benefiting both the staff and the business. Picking Edge means businesses get more than just a tool; they get a complete solution to boost growth and keep employees motivated.

Let's explore why Edge is not just another tool but a comprehensive partner in crafting a motivating employee rewards program:

Integrated Feedback and Rewards - Edge is not just a platform; it’s a holistic solution. It deftly marries feedback with rewards, ensuring employees are recognized in real time for their achievements.

Customizable Reward Systems - Every business is unique, and Edge understands this. Its platform allows you to customize your rewards to tailor them to your company’s objectives by offering cash, time off, store credit or other flexible rewards. . 

Efficient Tracking and Redemption - Edge's user-friendly dashboard makes it effortless for managers to track employee performance, rewards, and feedback, ensuring timely recognition. Edge's mobile app (Apple and Android) for employees makes it easy to view their review mentions and claim their rewards via direct deposit. 

Boosting Customer Service Through Employee Motivation - With Edge, the rewards system doesn't just motivate employees; it drives them to deliver exceptional customer service. This dual benefit amplifies both employee and customer satisfaction.

Employee-Centric Approach - Edge champions the cause of turning frontline teams into brand promoters. By focusing on employee motivation, it ensures that service businesses have a passionate team setting a new standard for customer service.

Final Thoughts

Implementing an effective employee motivation and reward program can keep employees motivated and engaged through carefully crafted incentives.

Edge offers a fantastic option for businesses to create an employee motivation reward system that perfectly marries customer feedback with employee rewards, offering a whole host of advanced features to allow franchise owners to utilize the valuable insights they gather. 

Plus, with the in-built employee incentive program, you'll be able to motivate and retain your frontline team for years to come. Find out more about Edge and its pricing plans.