My boyfriend hates it when I try to finish his sentences for him. With as long as we’ve been together, if I still can’t read his mind (or at least not as effectively as I think), chances are you and your employees aren’t always on the same page either. The trouble is, while I can just exercise some patience (as hard as that might be) and listen, it’s often a little harder to get feedback out of your employees.
The best way to make sure you’re hearing what your employees have to say is by ensuring you give them an outlet…and I’m not just talking about the standard review processes which can be intimidating to a lot of people.Employee Incentive Programs are a great way to get information out to employees about what management is looking for from them and it can also be a great way to give your employees a way to share their thoughts with you. With recent research showing the importance and impact of employee engagement it’s clearer than ever that it’s important for employers and employees to work as a team to take the company to the next level. Below are a couple quick suggestions for boosting the impact of your employee incentive program and allowing your employees to get more involved.
Critiques & Comments – Regardless of what you’ve heard previously, great minds do not all think alike. The more feedback and suggestions you can get through your employee incentive program, the better you can ensure that you’re not overlooking any important factors that may contribute to your company’s success. Your employee incentive program provider should be easily able to add a feedback form to the program to allow employees to share their thoughts and feedback and while yes, you may need to filter out some suggestions that aren’t as helpful as others, there can be a lot of useful input that has just been waiting for a way to make itself heard.
Giving Thanks – If your company is anything like the majority of workplaces I’ve experienced, supervisors and managers aren’t always working right beside their employees. If you’re not working closely with someone on regular basis it’s harder to recognize when they are going above and beyond and many supervisors may be overlooking employees that have a significant impact on the company without being overly obvious about it. Adding a peer recognition aspect to your employee incentive program allows each of your employees, no matter what level of the hierarchy they are at, to be able to recognize and reward their coworkers which boosts morale and improves engagement while strengthening your team.
Sharing New Ideas – More and more of our clients have begun to look to their employees for ideas that improve and impact their company’s bottom line. Your employee incentive program provider should be able to add in custom forms to gather ideas on cost savings, procedural changes, safety improvements and a variety of other areas that can make your company more effective, efficient and safe. A lot of ideas coming from the employees that complete the tasks on a daily basis tend to be more effective than those coming from “above” based off of outsiders. That said, a fresh pair of eyes often have some insights as well so it’s a good idea for everyone at the company to be able to share their ideas equally.
With all the planning that goes into setting up an employee incentive program it’s a great idea to make sure nothing is being overlooked. Rather than assuming your program is set up perfectly and that it’s having the best impact possible, now’s a great time to implement some of these quick aspects that can make sure your employees have an easy way to let you know what might be missing. Whether you’re looking to improve your current employee incentive program or to start a new one from scratch, contact Awards Network for a free program consultation and we can work with you to ensure your program is structured to have the most impact possible by giving participants a voice and improving employee engagement.