What would you prefer as an employee reward: a day off, or a gift card to your favorite store?
Creative reward ideas for employees, we’ve shared a few. But just because you had never considered it before doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
Employee reward ideas are just that–ideas. Sometimes we need to comb through a few hundred options before we find something that meets all of our criteria. Going for something new or niche isn’t always the answer, as we’ll find today.
Why is rewarding employees important?
If we’re being completely honest, it isn’t rewards that are important; it’s recognition. Rewards alone are too heavily associated with performance and extrinsic motivation. Instead, we should be using rewards to enhance the engagement and connection built by employee recognition.
Some companies find that meaningful recognition is rewarding enough on its own. We’ve discussed rewards versus recognition and how to use both to your advantage. For now, let’s find out why else rewards may fall flat.
Mistake #1: Complex planning or execution.
Some creative reward ideas aren’t easy for organizations to pull off. Coordinating catering across remote teams, choosing a highly personalized experiential reward for someone, and several dozen others come to mind.
Even free rewards, like letting someone pass on a tough task, become convoluted when we don’t consider team dynamics or the person’s role and processes.
The solution:
Put simplicity and ease up front, and then look for ways to add meaning. This also helps ensure that rewards are timely.
A gift card with a handwritten note or an afternoon off may not be the most unique idea you can dream up. However, they feel like real rewards, can happen ASAP, and don’t come with as many sticky planning points.
Mistake #2: It doesn’t fit the culture.
Some teams do recognition and rewards so well that you can’t help but try and emulate them. So why didn’t your squad fall over with delight when offered a free yoga session with baby goats? Because it comes down to the company culture, not how niche or fancy the reward is.
Just like the last mistake illustrates, employee rewards shouldn’t be aspirational. Those often feel out of left field for recipients.
The solution:
Keep a few adjectives describing core values in mind when choosing rewards, and augment that with a few words describing the culture. Now remind yourself why you’re giving a reward and question if the idea aligns with that.
For instance, tech employees who don’t often collaborate in the workplace and are used to autonomy will see company goat yoga as a team-building thing. Not a reward tailored to them for their merits.
Mistake #3: When a reward doesn’t feel like a reward.
Ah, the second cousin of rewards that don’t make sense. Some reward ideas for employees aren’t distinct enough from their compensation. If someone puts in extra work to hit a performance milestone, a cash bonus of some type feels like an extension of their paycheck.
There’s earning a reward, and then there’s being compensated for your effort. If you want to boost engagement, the difference should be clear to the employee.
The solution:
If rewarding performance, go non-monetary. And always, always make sure employees know why they’re getting a reward.
What helps here is having a tried-and-true set of rewards that can quickly be tailored and distributed to the employee. This prevents it from feeling transactional and ties it firmly to a specific moment or action.
Have no clue what your most reliable rewards are? Keep reading.
Mistake #4: Employees were never included.
Tailoring and personalization are a mainstay in employee recognition best practices. Are you supposed to become an expert at that through surveys alone?
Peer recognition works better than other types of recognition because it’s something employees are doing rather than something that’s happening to them. They also have a deeper understanding of what deserves recognition at work. Applying this to rewards is just good logic.
The solution:
Bring employees in on the reward selection process. Ask them outright to help create rewards, or give them choices (such as with gift cards).
Their ideas could be more relevant to their desires and culture, and who knows? They might be more creative, too.
Mistake #5: Money over meaning.
It isn’t just glorified performance bonuses that feel transactional. Relying on rewards with cash value breeds entitlement in a worst-case scenario. Even in the best case, it doesn’t have enough psychological pull to strengthen culture and engagement.
This–not budget–is a key reason why many recognition programs don’t include rewards. Expensive things can feel cheaper than they are when compared to consistent feelings of belonging and appreciation. And that means we’ve wasted money.
The solution:
Suggest or test employee reward ideas with more sentiment behind them. Tacos for Charity is a prime example of team-led rewards that will be associated with awesome feelings more than cost.
We have more meaningful reward ideas here. Many of them are also pretty creative, if we do say so ourselves.
Let HeyTaco inspire your next employee reward idea
Rewarding an employee with an oil painting of their French bulldog sounds so creative. But it’s expensive and therefore probably not very sustainable, so no other employee will get something like this. You also didn’t get enough reference photos, so now the nose is off.
By the way, the artist was two weeks late finishing it, so we all forgot why the employee is being rewarded. Not to mention, the employee already has three commissioned portraits of Lucky, and personally ranks this new one in fourth place (the nose is off).
Maybe in the future, you should just give them all gift certificates to go skydiving. Super creative, and we hear accountants love that.
OR you can do what thousands of global teams already count on for a stronger sense of community and daily feelings of genuine appreciation.
- Put peer recognition tools in their hands.
- Watch them ritualize small, positive gestures.
- Reward them in a way that feels natural and familiar, on time and with meaning.
Learn more about how HeyTaco pulls this off and start for free.
Creative reward ideas for employees FAQ
What is the best reward for an employee?
The best reward for an employee is meaningful, personalized, and right on time. HeyTaco users tend to favor charitable initiatives, food, company swag, flexibility, and of course, gift cards.
What are intrinsic rewards for employees?
Intrinsic rewards are non-monetary rewards that give employees feelings of accomplishment and pride. Growth and development opportunities, job autonomy, and sincere recognition are all intrinsically rewarding.
What are the most commonly used rewards for motivating employees?
If you want rewards to specifically impact motivation, social recognition is common. Shouting them out during a meeting, peer nominations, and other acts that put them in the spotlight do more for long-term motivation. Monetary rewards can only temporarily spur motivation.
What do employees value the most?
Fair compensation, flexibility, and a positive environment are the top three on employees’ workplace wish lists. Using recognition programs to foster a culture of appreciation and including flexibility as part of recognizing and rewarding employees may support retention, engagement, and overall job satisfaction.
