Engagement & Motivation

The future of remote work has been a hot-button issue for managers ever since working from home became the new normal. The number of businesses operating remotely has skyrocketed in the last number of months—leaving leaders scrambling to figure out how this transition has impacted their employees. A large chunk of whom may have never worked virtually before. Transparent, honest, and open communication can be tricky on the best of days face to face —let alone remotely. 

You’ve heard the saying, “No news is good news”—and while that may be applicable in some situations, remote work is not one of them. Effective communication, whether between managers or colleagues, is of the utmost importance for successful remote work. Feedback is one of the best, and often overlooked, indicators of gauging employee well being. So how can managers streamline communication and use feedback to optimize remote employee experience? 

Regular touch-bases 

If you start to feel anxious or nervous when you hear the words “performance review”, know you are not alone. When managers only allocate individual meetings with employees once a year, or even quarterly, it can create a lot of stress. Going several months or longer, without discussing feedback on work or progress? Talk about intimidating. Instead, schedule regular check-ins with your employees. These do not have to be formal meetings. Rather, casual conversations to see if employees need any additional help or support. Not only is this a great addition for employee engagement, but anticipated discussions also empower employees to bring forward any concerns which may seem out of place in a traditional performance review. Managers want input and feedback from everyone. However, if an effort isn’t being made to include remote employees in that conversation, it’s easy for virtual team members to feel overlooked. 

Related Article: Spice up your employee engagement with gamification 

Empower with collaboration tools

Odds are your team was already using collaboration tools to some extent, but this year has kicked everyone’s reliance on such platforms into overdrive. Introducing tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Google Hangouts is an easy way to keep everyone informed and on the same page. Encouraging employees to stay connected despite distance boosts employee engagement, experience, and overall well being. Collaborative tools encourage all colleagues, not just employees and supervisors, to communicate with each other. In fact, 39% of remote employees cited difficulties in collaborating with team members during quarantine. The reality is that even after stay-at-home orders have ceased, many teams will continue to work virtually. Adopting tools that help streamline collaboration will help keep your team agile and connected. 

Recognize and reward employees 

While office gatherings and parties may be on hold for now, that doesn’t mean employee recognition needs to go out the window. Celebrating important milestones and achievements is a great way to keep employee morale up during these strange times, while simultaneously boosting motivation and productivity. Regularly socializing and recognizing team members fosters a culture of trust, transparency, and inclusion—which can be hard to achieve when team members are dispersed geographically. In addition to bringing remote employees together, virtual recognition programs enable managers to witness employee engagement in real-time. Employee recognition, or lack thereof, is a good indicator of how interested an employee is with their colleagues and the organization as a whole. By introducing peer recognition, leaders can collect insightful feedback to help spot wins or opportunities for improvement that may otherwise go unnoticed. Peer recognition is a great solution for strengthening internal communications while also keeping the pulse on employee engagement. In addition to strengthening workplace culture and motivation, recognizing and rewarding employees is an easy way to boost employee experience remotely.

Related Article: Overcoming remote employee burnout 

What it means for (digital) employee experience 

Employee experience was the top trending employee topic of 2020 and it isn’t hard to understand why. After the year we’ve had, and the likelihood of remote work staying around, many are now referring to a “digital” employee experience instead. In fact, 98% of employees would like to continue working from home in some capacity following the pandemic. While we wait for life to return to some form of normalcy, leaders need to use their employee feedback strategically so the employee experience can remain flexible. Strive to build employee experience strategies that consider remote team members so your organization can support virtual teams while staying ahead of the curve. 

Employee feedback is the most powerful resource when it comes to understanding employee engagement and employee experience. While things may not necessarily be "business as usual", including your employees in the conversation is paramount. By simply listening to team members and giving them opportunities to articulate themselves, anyone can craft a killer remote employee experience. 
‍

Amplify your employee experience with recognition - request a demo with Qarrot today!

Even the best and brightest of employees can hit a slump now and then when it comes to being motivated. Employee motivation has always been a key concern for managers, this year especially. And it’s not simply keeping employees motivated enough to hit their goals. Effective leaders will approach employee motivation with a long term vision in mind, rather than a flash in the pan that falls to the wayside once a goal has been met. This ensures that employees continuously work towards new achievements and develop their skills while feeling supported. 

Infamous culprits that hinder motivation include things like stress, fatigue, and burnout. A lesser known, however equally as impactful factor on employee motivation, is recognition. Can you believe that 40% of Americans say they would put more energy into their work if they were recognized more often? While this isn’t exactly great news, just imagine how much more a team could achieve when adding recognition to the mix! 

We know that employees respond well to recognition and that these processes are even more effective when done in a group setting, also known as social recognition. Research suggests that employees are no longer driven by monetary incentives, and that assuming as such can hinder their performance. Instead, employees should have the option to choose the rewards associated with their recognition. After all, as different as your employee's goals are, so are the incentives that motivate them. So how can you recognize and support employees in a way that motivates them individually while delivering results? 

‍

Related Article: Create engaging incentive campaigns with Qarrot 

‍

Driving employee success with Qarrot incentive campaigns 

Motivate objectives with awards 

Our incentive campaigns are totally customizable to nurture and reflect the employee goals that are unique to your company - anything from lead generation to employee wellness. By participating in a campaign, your employees can earn additional forms of recognition for reaching goals, like badges and points which they can redeem for their choice of reward in the Qarrot catalog. By giving employees the agency to choose their own rewards, managers can make their recognition process feel a lot more personal while simultaneously motivating employee and business success. 

Engaging gamification features 

As explored in our previous blog post, gamification is the newest trend for boosting employee engagement and performance. Our minds, quite literally, are wired to respond positively to processes with game-like features. So adding them to your recognition process is a no-brainer. Throughout Qarrot incentive campaigns, participants can avail of gamification features like the leaderboard or trophy case to keep track of their progress towards any campaign’s objective. Campaign participants can also see when others earn awards for reaching campaign goals and celebrate each other’s achievements. Gamification means that employees can enjoy their progress towards accomplishing their goal, rather than simply counting down the days until a goal has been met.

Related Article: Benefits of positive reinforcement in the workplace 

Easy campaign administration 

You might be thinking, “Gamification? Points and badges? Incentive campaigns? That must be an administrative nightmare!”. On the contrary, there is no reason to lose sleep over employee recognition. Qarrot takes any administrative burden off your shoulders when it comes to the recognition process, including our objective-driven campaigns. Participants can enter their own campaign results and redeem their collected points for rewards instantly through the Qarrot catalog. This makes it easy to target and motivate specific teams or individuals within your company while requiring minimal involvement from management.

Discover how to motivate your teams while simultaneously reaching business objectives with Qarrot incentive campaigns - book a demo with Qarrot today! 

As the world has shifted to a primarily remote workforce, employee engagement and motivation has never been such a top priority. By focusing on creating the optimal employee experience, organizations position their employees to bring their A-game more often. Engaged employees are more productive, achieve better performance, and provide better customer service - and who doesn’t want that? 

Gamification has become an increasingly popular approach to employee engagement and performance. According to a 2019 TalentLMS survey, 89% of employees whose companies use gamification techniques report feeling more productive at work. An additional 86% of employees feel happy. So we know that gamification translates into more engaged, productive, and happy employees - but what does gamification really mean? And what does it look like in practice? 

Related Article: Can gamification motivate your employees?

As the term suggests, gamification is simply the introduction of game mechanics and techniques to motivate the target behaviors. What separates gamification from other engagement strategies is that it works on a psychological level - tapping into our natural drive for feedback, instant gratification, and a sense of social belonging. This is also known as accessing our brains “motivation engine”. When we are rewarded or recognized, a rush of dopamine is released leaving us with a sense of accomplishment. Quite literally, your employees are already wired to be responsive to gamification. 

The technique can be exemplified through a variety of elements such as scoring, badges, awards, or points. While it isn’t exactly playing Nintendo at work, the idea remains the same - add some friendly competition, and things get more exciting. So exciting, in fact, that 83% of employees whose training involves gamification aspects feel motivated.

Gamifying a work environment is beneficial to employees and managers alike. Gamification improves feedback, transparency, and communication - all important contributing aspects to employee performance. It can also be used as a fun spin on traditionally mundane business activities like recruitment or employee onboarding. While gamification strategies and use may differ among organizations, it’s clearly a more effective and innovative approach compared to traditional methods. 

Related Article: Customize your rewards and recognition program with Qarrot 

Qarrot’s approach to gamification 

As part of our rewards and recognition program, Qarrot enables peer-to-peer recognition using a variety of game-based elements. By incorporating these gamification features into your engagement strategy, employees can motivate each other while working towards both individual and team goals.   

Leaderboard

The leaderboard is an easy and convenient feature that enables users to view the rankings of colleagues based on the number of points and badges earned. Employees can access the leaderboard from the home section and choose from a variety of filters in which to view rankings. 

Points

Points are a ‘rewards currency’ that managers, employees, or both can include when sending recognitions and can be redeemed for a variety of rewards in the Qarrot catalog. Employees are issued a monthly point budget which they can use to recognize and celebrate coworkers. Users can view their points budgets and transaction history through their Qarrot profile. 

Badges

Badges are the metaphorical swag employees are awarded as part of a recognition when they exhibit desirable behaviors, hit milestones, or reach objectives. They can be customized to reflect your company's unique core values and culture. Team members can view each others' badges by clicking on their colleagues' avatar. 

Incentive Campaigns

Whether you’re looking to increase deals closed or promote employee development, Qarrot incentive campaigns are a great way to motivate employees to achieve results. Your team members can partake in some friendly competition while simultaneously reinforcing company values, accomplishing goals, and strengthening teamwork skills.

Discover how your team can benefit from gamification - request a demo with Qarrot! 

The idea of planning, implementing, and monitoring an employee recognition process may seem daunting at first, however, that doesn’t have to be the case. It’s the combination of knowing what makes your employees tick and aligning employees' engagement with your organization's values and goals. 

Here at Qarrot, we believe that incentive campaigns are a staple when it comes to driving results from a rewards and recognition program. Whether they’re crafted to motivate employees to achieve goals or complete tasks, incentive campaigns can tailor any recognition process to fit your team's unique needs. Qarrot makes motivating improved performance with campaigns easy - from our fun gamification features to effortless campaign administration. Our campaigns feature customizable badges and awards, further reinforcing your company's core values and culture.  

Related Article : Customize your rewards and recognition program with Qarrot 

Manual vs. Automatic Campaigns 

When creating incentive campaigns within Qarrot, users have the choice between two types of campaigns - automatic or manual. It will ultimately depend on how you would like awards to be paid out to the participants of your incentive campaign. 

If you select 'Automatic', the campaign will let participating employees enter their results data. If an employee's results meet the award rules you set up, then the corresponding badges and points will be given to them. 

If you choose “Automatic’, then you need to decide what awards (points and/or badges) will be given to participating employees for accomplishing the campaign goals, KPIs, or targets. Awards can be given in three ways :

• Ongoing earn : Employees can earn awards throughout the campaign
• Threshold bonus : Employees can earn awards when a specific threshold is achieved within the campaign timeframe 
• Winner takes all : Like a contest, this format rewards one top performer at the end of the campaign 

Alternatively, if you select 'Manual', then you will have to create the award(s) and decide who deserves to be given the award(s) during, or at the end of, the campaign. You can give employees awards any time by closing the campaign and selecting winners.

Related Article : Dell Technologies cuts admin tasks by more than half with Qarrot 

Whether you’re new to creating objective-driven campaigns or just looking for some fresh ideas, we’ve got you covered. From customer support to employee development, you can create customized campaigns for just about anything - here’s some inspiration to help you get started!  

Example Manual Campaign : At the end of the campaign, you manually award every employee who has received a 5-star review in the last 30 days.

Example Automatic Campaign; 

Ongoing : Every employee can earn an award for receiving a 5-star review.

Threshold : The whole team is rewarded when participants have accumulated ten 5-star reviews.

Winner Takes All : The employee/team with the most 5-star reviews wins. 

‍

‍

Example Manual Campaign : At the end of the campaign, you manually award every employee who has completed one training/development course in the last 30 days. 

Example Automatic Campaign; 

Ongoing : Every employee can earn an award for completing one training/development course.

Threshold : The whole team is rewarded when every participant has completed one training/development course.

Winner Takes All : The employee/team with the most training/development courses completed wins.

Example Manual Campaign : At the end of the campaign, you manually award every employee who has attended a company yoga class. 

Example Automatic Campaign; 

Ongoing : Every employee can earn an award for attending a company yoga class. 

Threshold : The whole team is rewarded when every participant has attended a company yoga class. 

Winner Takes All : The employee/team that attends the most company yoga classes wins. 

Example Manual Campaign : At the end of the campaign, you manually award every employee who has closed a new deal in the last 30 days. 

Example Automatic Campaign; 

Ongoing : Every employee can earn an award for each new deal closed. 

Threshold : The whole team is rewarded when every participant closes a new deal.

Winner Takes All : The employee/team with the most new deals closed wins. 

Example Manual Campaign : At the end of the campaign, you manually award every employee who has completed all tasks on time in the last 30 days. 

Example Automatic Campaign; 

Ongoing : Every employee can earn an award for completing all tasks on time.

Threshold : The whole team is rewarded when every participant has completed all tasks on time.

Winner Takes All : The employee/team with the most tasks completed on time wins. 

These campaign examples, and their corresponding rules for award distribution, depend on campaign format (individual vs. team), units tracked, and how results are recorded (employees vs. manager). To learn more about incentive campaigns and how your team can benefit from some friendly competition, visit the Qarrot help centre.  

Discover how you can align employee engagement with your organizations core values - book a demo with Qarrot today!

Sometimes - no matter how many hours of sleep we squeeze in or cups of coffee we guzzle - going to work seems like an impossible, insurmountable task. We push through the morning fatigue to slug our way through daily tasks and meetings, absolutely exhausted by 5pm, only to realize our day wasn't that productive. We’ll shrug this off as “one of those days”, and look forward to starting fresh the next morning.

But what if that feeling isn’t a one-off - what if you, or members of your team, are constantly feeling like a candle burning at both ends? Employee burnout is a real thing and it can happen to anyone. 

Many of us will be quick to point the blame on ourselves, second-guessing our ability to handle the stressors at work on top of the unexpected curve balls life can sometimes throw. More often than not, however, the culprit behind employee burnout is how leaders are running their organization rather than the capability of an individual. 

Employee burnout has been around long before our current COVID-19 reality, but tossing a global pandemic into the mix certainly doesn’t help. In addition to the stress and uncertainty brought on by these unforeseen circumstances, organizations have been forced to rethink their approach to employee health and wellbeing. Don’t be fooled - employees can still experience burnout while working remotely from the comforts of home. 

Related Article: The Cost of Poor Employee Engagement 

Based on research conducted by Gallup, there are 5 main factors that contribute to employee burnout; 

1. Unfair treatment at work 
2. Unmanageable workload 
3. Lack in clarity of role 
4. Lack of communications and support for manager 
5. Unreasonable pressure 

Signs & signals of potential burnout

The best tactic when it comes to combating burnout is being knowledgeable on warning signs and acting proactively. While it may be trickier to detect these while working remotely, the earlier you can spot these signs the better. 

• Withdrawal from social activities, group calls, or messaging 
• Lower productivity and efficiency than usual, trouble managing time  
• Easily distracted and unable to focus on specific tasks 
• Frequently using paid time off and sick leave 
• Easily frustrated or overwhelmed 

It is crucial that leaders recognize how detrimental employee burnout can be to an organization as a whole. People are a company's biggest asset, and when that employee morale or drive is lost it won’t take long before it’s reflected in the success of your business. But beyond dollars and cents, routinely burning out employees is not great for the reputation of a company. More burnout means more turnover, which not only costs money and time but can also suggest a toxic culture.   

Related Article: How to Reward Wellness at Work 

‍

Strategies to overcome burnout 

1) Make self-care part of the routine

This pandemic has been the kick in pants a lot of companies needed to make their people a priority. Practicing human empathy is a large part of supporting your team - pandemic or not. Encourage your remote employees to take breaks throughout the day to destress and regroup whether that means an extra coffee break, meditation, or afternoon walk. Even more, collectively brainstorm strategies for practicing self-care so everyone is on the same page and can identify potential stress signals if/when they occur. 

2) Implement various channels for feedback & communication

Although there is no substitute for face to face interaction, we will be conducting business virtually for the foreseeable future - so embrace it. Ensure your team has a variety of different methods to stay in touch, and don’t neglect to have regular one-on-one check-in with team members - they are more important now than ever. This is also a great opportunity to adopt collaborative tools and applications if your organization has yet to do so. Encouraging transparent and consistently open communication is always a great investment. 

3) Put people first 

The unfortunate reality of employee burnout is that it usually isn’t recognized until someone already has one foot out the door (that is if they haven’t completely left). Question how your team approaches work, their accessibility of resources, and work relationship dynamics. Are your employees feeling supported? Are you investing in your team like you would any other asset of your organization? Prioritizing the wellbeing of your remote employees will only improve productivity and engagement, and in turn, your bottom line. 

Discover how you can strengthen workplace culture with Qarrot - book a demo today!  

Employee motivation is an incredibly powerful driver of performance in any organization. Whether you’re focused on improving productivity, boosting performance, or increasing retention, employee motivation will no doubt be central to your considerations. And yet, it’s tough to effectively manage and most days can feel equal parts art and science.

Management training usually provides helpful frameworks for areas such as effective communication, performance management, and how to manage different types of people. But all too often, the actions and behaviors that deflate employees the most result from simple oversight or a lack of consideration.

With that in mind, here are 6 mistakes that can kill your employees’ motivation:

Unrealistic goal setting

Do you work in a high-pressure environment that promotes tough goal setting? If so, it can be tempting to set unrealistically difficult goals for employees. While goals should be challenging to achieve, employees won’t buy into them if they’re not realistic. If left unchecked, a lack of buy-in can easily transform into demotivation and active disengagement. Similarly, this type of goal setting can impact a person’s physical and emotional health causing deeper issues within your team long term.

Tolerating poor performance

There's nothing more demotivating for your hard-working staff than to see the poor performance of someone else being tolerated. In fact, poor performance often has a double whammy for managers. When one team member doesn’t pull his weight, other team members often have to step up and do more than their share. This causes resentment but can equally leave those stronger contributors questioning their manager’s competence. A bad situation, no doubt about it.

Letting accomplishments go unrecognized

Recognition is a powerful motivational tool. And yet, it’s an unfortunate reality that so many employee achievements and contributions go unrecognized. All too often, the fast-paced nature of our work has us forget to communicate our appreciation to a team member or a co-worker for a job well done. This can leave employees feeling under-appreciated and taken for granted. This is a horrible feeling and a very powerful demotivator for those affected by it.

Lack of trust

Trust is built over time. But generally, when a new employee joins the team that period is the first 3 to 6 months on the job. As trust is built between the new employee and her manager and teammates, she should be given progressively more responsibility.

In theory, at least.

Sometimes a mistake occurs that puts that trust into question, and sometimes the manager is simply overbearing and not willing to delegate tasks that the employee is clearly ready to handle. Either way, a lack of trust is a very visible signal to the employee that her manager is not comfortable giving her more responsibility. This can be incredibly frustrating and deflating for individuals in this position. Moreover, if the manager handles tasks that should be done by the employee, then additional tension is created and serious demotivation ensues.

No team bonding or workplace fun

While a lack of workplace fun is not considered an egregious managerial oversight in our books, we feel strongly that opportunities for team bonding should be encouraged.

Not only does team building bring people together outside of their regular work context, but it also opens the door for better communication and collaboration. Organizations that rigidly ignore these practices often have siloed structures where poor communication and a lack of collaboration stifle innovation. Not very motivating.

Micromanaging

Micromanaging is a symptom of a lack of trust. The manager is simply not comfortable letting the employee execute the task himself and involves herself overwhelmingly in the process to ensure it’s completed to her satisfaction. The short-term result may be a higher-quality deliverable, but longer-term, the employee won’t feel trusted and valued. As with any lack of trust, tension can also build between the employee and his manager leading to a deteriorating relationship and disastrously poor motivation.

While some of these motivation-killers can be due to a lack of managerial training, often it’s more of a question of open communication between managers and their employees.

Actively communicating with staff and inviting their feedback is a great place to start. Most direct reports won’t be shy to let you know if something’s bothering them. By openly and actively listening to them, you’ll learn what steps may be required to address the situation and stave off a larger motivational issue.

‍

Don't let these 6 common mistakes kill your employee motivation: book a demo of Qarrot to see how we can help you engage and motivate your workforce to go “above and beyond”!

Motivate employees to do their best work has benefits for both the company and its workforce. For the organization the benefits are obvious, higher revenue, lower turnover, improved product quality, and so on. For the employee, the benefits are less quantifiable but we know that motivated employees feel valued, and employees who feel valued are more engaged with their work.

What motivates an employee to go the "extra mile?"

That seems to be a question that often perplexes business owners, management and stakeholders. A survey conducted on key trends impacting the workplace asked that very question. “What motivates you to excel and go the extra mile at your organization?” The survey involved over 200,000 employees in more than 500 organizations.

What did they determine to be the top motivators? Camaraderie, peer motivation, inherent desire to do a good job, and feeling encouraged and recognized. While, of course, money and benefits are important, this suggests that working in a particular environment has greater impact.

So what can we do that can make a huge impact on motivating your employees?

‍

Reduce workplace stress

Stress on the job and unhealthy work environments are not conducive to anybody’s desire to do a better job. It is essential for employers to recognize the connection between employee well-being and overall organizational performance. You can lower stress in your workplace a number of ways, including setting clear goals and roles, encouraging a culture of wellbeing, and through clear, candid communication.

Give them time off

Giving employees extra time off is a small gesture that goes a long way. According to Entrepreneur, it is the secret to increased productivity. Why? Good employees will simply “run out of juice” and require a little R&R from time to time. Giving them the time they need to recharge their batteries will have them operating at their best in no time.

Give them feedback

Most employees want to be recognized, to achieve this recognition they need feedback. Effective feedback motivates the employee to improve their job performance. It’s suggested to offer feedback regularly and not just at annual performance reviews. Annual conversations about past activities are not sufficient enough to motivate future productivity.

Host a company event

A corporate event is one way you can motivate employees. Company events are much more than just a chance for employees to gather. They are a great way to show them you appreciate their hard work. Whether you have an awards ceremony, a dinner, a summer picnic, or a holiday party, it doesn’t matter. Your corporate event can improve company culture, boost company morale and award your employees for a job well done.

Celebrate milestones and recognize achievements

Celebrating Milestones, such as work anniversaries and birthdays, and recognizing achievements help employees feel appreciated. Whether with cupcakes, balloons and banners or a more formalized rewards program, recognizing employees on milestone dates or for their achievements strengthens workplace culture helping to make your business a better place to work.

If you’re a business owner, manager or supervisor, you know how important it is to have a workforce that is motivated. Research shows that motivated employees tend to be far more productive than those who are not.

‍

At Qarrot, we understand Motivation

Motivate your team, company, or department to perform with full-circle employee recognition. With the help of our software, we can assist you in building a culture of thank you, improve morale, bring employees together and strengthen workplace culture.

‍

If you want to learn more about how Qarrot can work for you, book a demo! We’ll show you how to engage and motivate your workforce to go “above and beyond".

Engaged and motivated employees help customers, take pride in your organization, and improve sales as a result. They are connected to your overall business goals, embody the culture you encourage and become excellent ambassadors for the future success of your company.

So, what makes an employee motivated and engaged? Hiring the right employees is a great start, but once you’ve got people working on your team you’ll need to make the right efforts to create a positive motivating environment for them to work in. To do this you have to understand what motivates employees, and what employee engagement really is.

‍

Here are the top workplace motivators according to the Harvard Business Review

Role design

Every company is different, and there is no set formula for determining the appropriate design for your organization. Better designed roles help employers make the best use of top talent but also clarifies responsibilities to workers. Less confusion leads to higher performance.

‍

Organizational identity

This is all about your company culture and business objectives. A full-time employee working 40 hours a week will spend about 30% of their waking hours at work. Who wants to spend that amount of time at a place that is tiresome, or worse, toxic?

‍

Career ladders

We’re not surprised that opportunities for advancement made it so high on the list. As noted previously, why would an employee want to spend so much time at a job that had no opportunity for promotion?

‍

Community

Even without redesigning business processes, managers can help the overall motivation of their employees by encouraging better peer-to-peer, and manager-to-employee relationships.  Building trust amongst employees, providing opportunities for feedback, explaining the “why” behind the work of employees, are all ways in which community can grow.

When these top workplace motivators are working together, you’re much more likely to have a highly engaged and performant workforce.

According to a Gallup study, the businesses with engaged employees were 17% more productive and 21% more profitable than the businesses in the study with disengaged employees.

‍

How recognition can further turbo-charge employee engagement

In a recent survey conducted by Interac and their 1000+ employees, it was discovered that their number one complaint, regarding motivation, came down to a lack of appreciation from their managers. Not the job, or the hours they worked, not even the pay that they received for their performance, but the simple lack of recognition for a job well done discouraged them from doing their best work. The same study goes on to show that when managers recognized employees’ contributions, their engagement level increases by 60%.

Employee recognition programs have forever been on the radar of large corporations as a tool to foster employee engagement, but what about small businesses? Can they benefit from recognition programs and encourage motivation and engagement to increase productivity and profitability as well?

Of course, they can!

‍

Here are 3 way in which a small business can use recognition to motivate and engage their workforce

Character Awards

My son’s school uses monthly character awards to reward children who embody character traits of value in the school’s code of conduct. Small businesses can adopt this concept by choosing character traits that promote behaviors that foster a better company culture. This is similar to the Employee of the Month concept, but goes one step further. Not only will you encourage better behavior through recognition of positive behavioral traits, but if you include a peer voting system you could promote better business relationships as well.  Taking the opportunity to reinforce your company’s core values by tying a monthly recognition award is a win-win for everybody.

‍

Gamification

This concept sounds way more complicated than it is. Gamification of business processes, specifically routine tasks, can help motivate through friendly competition and boost the idea of community amongst your employees. Think of this as a real-life game where people receive rewards for hitting milestones. The milestones people achieve, as well as the rewards themselves, can be anything you want. Consider awarding badges (buttons, metals, stickers) for hitting sales quotas that employees can turn in at the end of the month for a prize! Or award trophies to top performers at the end of each week who are recognized at a luncheon or ceremony at the end of the month. The sky’s the limit here, but understanding the core motivators above can help you design games that will not only motivate and engage but also encourage performance.

‍

Express Gratitude

A simple thank you can go a long way to motivating people to do their best work. When we focusing on “why” in gratitude we can also help connect employees’ achievements to the overall organizational success. For example, after a good sales month, a company may host a gratitude meeting where management, not only thanks the workforce for their job well done, but includes the reason why they are thankful. It’s possible that by increasing sales that month they were able to meet a higher objective, or expand opportunities. By expressing gratitude to the employees, and linking their achievement to the goals achieved, it allows the employees to understand the value that their performance brought to the company as a whole. Everybody wants to feel that what they are doing offers value. Gratitude is the quickest, and simplest way to show that.

‍

In conclusion

When you understand how to motivate your employees and the reasons why recognition is so important for better employee engagement you have the tools necessary to make real decisions on the design of your rewards and recognition programs moving forward. Use these ideas provided, or come up with your own! Rewards and recognition are as unique as your business is, and the people in it.

‍

Let us help you promote a culture of thank you, a culture of appreciation, and encourage company success through gamification with our recognition software.  Motivate your team to perform with Qarrot. Book your demo today.

Recruiting, onboarding and training is an expensive endeavor for all those involved. Some studies predict that the cost of employee turnover can be as high as twice the annual salary of the employee, depending on their role. When you lose an employee, you lose their knowledge and talent, plus your organizations' productivity can suffer from the loss. So how do you reduce turnover? By developing and implementing an employee retention strategy.

Building A Retention Strategy

An employee retention strategy will never entirely stop employees from leaving your company as a certain percentage of turnover should always be expected. What an employee retention strategy can do is prevent, or control, employees from leaving in an untimely manor due to disengagement, monotony, or out of sheer frustration.

A good retention strategy includes all aspects of your hiring process, your compensation plan, and your engagement strategy which includes your employee recognition programs and encouraging better manager-employee relationships.

Here are a few areas to look at when building your retention strategy:

Recruiting

Many companies treat their retention strategy as an afterthought to recruiting, but thoughtful hiring will prevent resentments about the job from starting in the first place. Qualifying candidates on more than job experience alone can better ensure the right candidate is hired. Career paths and development for long-term growth with the company is also a factor. Many candidates will leave a position once they realize there are no options for advancement.

Employment agency software can greatly aid in this process by streamlining the recruitment workflow, ensuring that all candidates are evaluated against a comprehensive set of criteria beyond just their job experience. With the right tools, companies can attract top talent and foster a more engaging and supportive environment for new hires, reducing turnover rates and promoting long-term career growth within the organization.

Compensation‍

It's true that compensation is a factor in retention, but it is also important to note that it is not the most important one. A good compensation strategy includes everything your company offers as payment in a total rewards package: benefits, bonuses, rewards, career advancement, and training opportunities. Being paid in line with what is competitive with your industry standard is also an important influence in employee retention.

Engagement

‍Ultimately employees stay at a job they enjoy. Work environment contributes to this, but so does company culture. Consider cultivating a culture of inclusiveness, transparency, and offering opportunities to build relationships amongst employees. Good onboarding and training practices can also encourage engagement. Employees who don't have a good understanding of their responsibilities, or job expectations, can easily become frustrated and confused and will ultimately disengage with their duties and leave.

Recognition

‍Recognition programs are more important than ever. The millennial workforce is particularly sensitive to feeling invisible. Build a culture of “Thank You” and appreciation for your workforce while giving considerate thought to providing ongoing feedback. Show employees how to contribute to the overall goals of your organization and communicate that they are part of a bigger whole. This big-picture perspective can increase retention of your employees when they realize the value their part has on company success.

Management‍

Management plays a big role in retention. Managers should emphasize acknowledgement, and offer rewards to employees for a job well done. This too aligns with a good recognition strategy, but more importantly, it’s about ensuring managers are well within reach of your workforce. Balance between visibility and mentorship opportunities will ensure good manager-employee relationships are developed. Steer clear of micromanagement. Telling employees what to do and when prevents them from engaging with their role. This often breeds contention and can lower overall workplace morale.

‍

Promoting Your Retention Strategy

It’s important to disclose your intentions to your management team and employees. Successfully rolling out any new employee retention initiative takes good communication as to why the program is being implemented and what employees can do to participate. Awareness campaigns and training can spread the word of your new strategy. Employees need to be aware of the benefits for it to make the biggest impact.

Internal marketing can only go so far, it’s just as important to measure the impact these strategies are having on your company. Disclosing these statistics to your employees to reinforce the importance of these strategies and can become the catalyst for a good reputation. Never underestimate the value word-of-mouth has on recruiting and retention. Simply giving an employee something to boast about can be the very reason qualified candidates want to work with you, or good employees want to stay.

‍

Qarrot to the rescue!

A good rewards and recognition program should work with your retention strategy aligning company culture and workplace engagement. With Qarrot, reward points can be earned for a completion of tasks, meeting goals or simply be awarded for a job well done. These points can be redeemed for gift cards incentivizing employees with the promise of additional compensation.

Employee engagement is encouraged with performance and opportunities for meeting objectives, aligning your company goal strategy with tangible milestones employees can readily meet.

Managers play a huge role in rewarding employees as well as offering feedback to their employees over our social feed. Coworkers can instantly see these acknowledgements and offer additional encouragement.

Qarrot is fun, easy to implement and cost-effective for companies to use. Plus, it’ll give your employees something special to talk about! So what are you waiting for?

‍

To learn more about Qarrot and how it can work with your overall employee retention strategy, book a demo!