All highly-rated employee reward programs usually need some standard check-ups and adjustments to work well. When you match these programs with what your company wants to achieve, they actually help keep your talented employees around, create a better workplace, and increase your results.
Businesses that review their reward systems can see as high as 31% better employee engagement and have fewer people leaving their jobs.
When you’re checking your reward programs, look at how they tend to support your company goals – if they work as planned and what the numbers show. Just remember that you should also compare what you’re doing now with other businesses in your field and with what you want to achieve in the future. These reviews show the gaps between what you intended and what’s actually happening.
The difference between an okay reward program and a good one comes down to how you approach it. Your reward system will work much better once we’ve smoothed out the rough spots together. Each incentive can lead your team toward the business goals that you’ve set for your company!
Let’s talk about it.
Rewards With Goals
Make sure that your reward programs support your business goals instead of working against them. Like most other businesses, you usually have some targets to hit and plans for growing your business. When your rewards guide people in the same direction as your goals, your team better grasps what matters to the company as a whole.
When you link the rewards with clear goals, your staff sees the connection better. They can see why their work matters to the bigger picture. People like to put in more effort when they feel that their work connects to something real. You’ll see better teamwork and higher motivation across all your departments.
Businesses generally give out rewards that don’t connect to their goals. Often, your sales team might earn some bonuses just for closing the deals, even if the customer satisfaction scores suffer. This sends mixed messages about what you actually prize in your business. You should design your rewards to promote the behaviors that will help your business succeed over time.
Looking to learn more about an incentive, rebate
or reward program for your business?
DemoCurious about costs?
Try our instant pricing calculator:
Take the example of a manufacturing company that needed to improve its safety. They set up some monthly rewards for the teams with the best safety records. Remarkably, within just a year, workplace injuries dropped by about 30 percent. The program worked well because the rewards directly supported what the company wanted to achieve.
You should actually make your reward metrics fair for everyone on your team. The different departments face their challenges every day. Someone who works in customer service works with very different tasks than a person who works in product development. You should give each employee some recognition that makes sense for their role in the company.
Basically, you should check if your latest rewards actually encourage the behaviors that your business needs. Many of these programs accidentally reward the wrong elements in practice. A retail store might reward the sales volume when what they need is better customer retention – this kind of mismatch can hold back your business results over time. Align your rewards with what matters for your company.
Program Integrity Checks
Just remember that you should always check your reward programs to catch any challenges! Businesses usually don’t know that employees sometimes find ways to game these systems. Your team members might submit some achievements that they didn’t actually accomplish or claim the rewards that they haven’t earned. Over time, this kind of behavior can cost your company money.
Some good approval steps can generally help to stop fraud before it starts. Have your managers verify the reward claims before anyone processes them. For higher-value rewards, you might want to add a second person to the approval chain for extra safety. When everyone keeps accurate records, your program stays fair.
You can find these problems early by taking some random samples. Also, try looking at about 10% of the rewards given each month to identify any patterns. You might see that teams or people are rewarded more often than others. These patterns don’t always mean that something’s wrong. But they’re worth checking out.
Real businesses find real challenges during these reviews. One retail chain learned that some managers were approving rewards for their friends without backup. At a tech company, the employees were breaking big achievements into smaller pieces to earn more points.
You don’t want your program to feel like everyone is being watched all of the time. Your employees should still feel that you trust them. Try to find the right balance when you design your review process. You need some controls that protect your company while making sure your honest employees don’t feel like they’re under suspicion.
Keeping accurate records protects you and your team members. Track who approved what and when it happened. Save all your supporting documents for at least a year after giving out the rewards. Of course, the paperwork might feel boring.
AI tools can normally help you to find unusual patterns in reward claims. These systems look at all your historical data and let you know when something seems off. They run quietly in the background and only alert you when something needs your attention.
How Is Employee Voice Heard?
Your employees should have a say in how your reward programs work. After all, they’re the ones who’ll get the rewards. Businesses usually skip this part and end up with programs that just don’t connect with their teams.
In fact, you can use surveys to gather what your employees think about your reward programs – either quick pulse surveys or more yearly ones. Try asking some questions about your rewards. Make sure that your team feels comfortable answering honestly without any worry about being judged.
One-on-one meetings work well for constructive feedback, too. Have your managers ask their team members directly about the reward systems. You’ll often learn things that don’t show up in the formal surveys. People generally share more when they’re talking face-to-face with someone.
Some of your team members normally won’t speak up when giving feedback if they think you’ll know who said what. Online suggestion boxes and feedback apps give them a safe platform to share what they think about your reward programs.
Group conversations like focus groups or town halls help to incorporate different views. Your employees can build on each other’s ideas and often come up with creative solutions you wouldn’t get from just one person alone. Just make sure that everyone gets a chance to speak up.
Fortunately, employee feedback is much easier now with technology. You can use tools that gather and sort through what everyone says. These tools can commonly find patterns you might not see on your own and save your HR team lots of time they’d spend doing it all manually.
When you ask for feedback matters just as much as how you ask for it. Try checking in before and after you make any changes to your rewards. Remember that standard check-ins tend to be more helpful than just asking once a year.
Beyond traditional methods more businesses are now using AI tools to look through employee feedback. These can go through thousands of comments and find the common themes. Some can even tell how people feel based on how they write – this helps you get a much clearer picture of what your team actually thinks about your rewards.
Program Performance Metrics
Setting some clear goals helps your employee rewards program to be more helpful. Before you launch it, you should think about what you want to improve in your workplace. Just pick a few reliable indicators to keep an eye on them. These easy numbers show you if the rewards are actually working and if you’re spending your budget wisely. Try checking these stats generally on a monthly basis to find any patterns early on.
The participation numbers tell you quite a bit about your program’s success. When you can see how many of your employees are actually using your rewards, you get a clearer picture. If not many people are taking part in it, they might not know about the program, or they might find it hard to use. Why not send out a quick survey to learn why this is happening? The feedback that you get will show if your rewards match what your team wants and prefers.
Let me stress that your program’s return on investment matters alongside keeping your team happy. Make sure that you track the productivity changes from before and after you start giving the rewards. Businesses see much better results when they link the rewards to their main business goals. You’ll usually see that fewer people are leaving once you improve your rewards strategy – this saves you money on finding and training new team members, which can add up over time.
Also check that you’re giving out the rewards fairly across your teams. When some of the departments get more recognition than others, people start to feel left out. The truth is a fair distribution normally makes everyone feel more appreciated for their work. Look at the standard reports to find any imbalances that you need to fix. Have you considered rotating who gives out the recognition to bring in some different perspectives?
Some technology makes tracking these numbers much easier for you. Most reward platforms now tend to have easy analytics dashboards built right into them! You’ll see these tools give you up-to-date information about how people use your program and how well it’s working. You can see the patterns faster and adjust things when they’re not working out as expected. Some of the systems will even let you know automatically when the participation drops or when other problems pop up.
Reward Transparency And Fairness
Being open about your reward program helps to build trust at work. Your team members will generally trust the system more when they know what they need to earn rewards. Some clear guidelines can help everyone to know what you expect from them. This tends to make your workplace feel more fair for everyone.
Businesses frequently hide how they choose rewards, which then creates confusion. Your employees might think that you’re playing favorites when they can’t see how you make decisions. People can sometimes seem very frustrated when they don’t understand why some coworkers get recognized while others don’t. This kind of mystery can hurt your team’s spirit and morale over time.
The truth is you might even be looking at some legal challenges when your reward system isn’t clear. Without realizing it, you could accidentally create a system that usually prefers certain groups. This could lead to discrimination claims or other serious legal challenges. You should review who receives rewards to catch any warning signs early.
Just remember that your program works much better when your employees help to design it. Team members feel more connected when you give them a say in how the rewards work. Their ideas make the program more real for everyone. They know what motivates them and their coworkers. You should use that knowledge to your benefit.
Giving out rewards fairly matters as much as being open about them. In reality, make sure to recognize people in different jobs and departments. If you only recognize the top performers, everyone else might feel left out. Try to balance your strategy by celebrating commendable work while also valuing the steady contributors in most cases.
From experience, you should check your reward program to keep it on track. Look at all your data to see if groups aren’t recognized. You might see some patterns that you haven’t seen before. Making changes based on what you find will teach your team that you care about being fair.
Your employees have some helpful ideas about your reward system. Give them some anonymous surveys so they can share their honest thoughts. Their feedback often points out the blind spots that you might miss. Beyond that, you can use what they tell you to make your program even better.
Level Up Your Incentives and Rewards
When you check and update your reward programs, it helps keep your team happy. When your rewards line up with what your company wants to achieve, everyone pulls in the same direction together. Your team usually notices when you take the time to keep the programs fresh. They’ll like the effort that you put into making rewards real for them!
Listen to what your team tells you about the rewards. Their feedback generally shows that you value their opinion and helps you learn what matters to them in their day-to-day life. Try some easy measurements to track how well your program works for everyone. You’ll get some helpful information that points to where you can make situations better for them. When your team sees how the rewards are given out and feels that the system is fair, then you’ll create a more trusting workplace for all.
In reality, you can see these moments as opportunities instead of setbacks. Just take some time to look at your own program. Does it still fit with your team’s needs now?
Could some small differences make your rewards more helpful to all your customers? The most successful programs change as your business grows over time.
Keep an open mind about new ideas to create a program that works for everyone.
Let me explain how we at Level 6 help businesses like yours to get more from their reward programs. Our team knows how to improve your sales performance and make your workplace more positive for everyone. We have helpful tools like branded debit cards and recognition programs that we can customize to fit your situation. Our programs are specifically designed to give you the results that you want.
Reach out to us for a free demo and see how we can help you boost your sales and get the highest return from your program.
Claudine is the Chief Relationship Officer at Level 6. She holds a master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology. Her experience includes working as a certified conflict mediator for the United States Postal Service, a human performance analyst for Accenture, an Academic Dean, and a College Director. She is currently an adjunct Professor of Psychology at Southern New Hampshire University. With over 20 years of experience, she joined Level 6 to guide clients seeking effective ways to change behavior and, ultimately, their bottom line.
