Are Non-monetary Rewards in the Workplace Beneficial?
Many high performance companies understand the importance of offering awards and incentives that recognize, validate, and value outstanding work. They help keep the employees motivated and productive, and are effective methods of reinforcing company expectations and goals. When the management of a department gets together to put an incentive program into place, they have to decide which awards are worth the effort. They also have to consider the perceived value of earning the award, as well as the effort that is required to earn it. Management and employees may perceive non-monetary incentives to be more valuable than the retail value of the award in cash. Non-monetary rewards in the workplace can be creative, powerful tools used by leaders to create a motivational environment, in which employees may find to be meaningful, which will help them work at their optimal levels to accomplish company objectives.
The Purpose
Rewards are defined as something that increases the frequency of an employee action. This definition points to an obvious desired outcome of rewards and recognition, which is to improve performance. It's important for employees to be reminded that extra efforts are noticed and rewarded. Non-monetary recognition can be very motivating, helping to build feelings of confidence and satisfaction. The purpose of non-monetary incentives is to reward associates for excellent job performance through opportunities (Ballentine, Kepner, McKenzie, & Wysocki, 2003). Retention research identified consistent employee recognition as a key factor in retaining top performing workers (Ryan, n.d.). Recognizing employees provides them with practical feedback, it makes it easier to get the work done and ...