All right, so you want to do some employee recognition and make sure people who work hard get properly rewarded—that’s a great idea. Most employees want to know that their efforts on your behalf are noticed, and few things are more depressing than the belief that the company doesn’t care about them. Even better, knowing recognition is possible can help other employees work harder—and the end result will be a major gain for the company.

Still, what kind of employee recognition can a small employer offer without fracturing your budget? After all, money isn’t always a good motivator—the most expensive rewards may not be the best ones. Let’s take a look at some of the more affordable HR Solutions you could use for recognizing employees.

1. Newsletter Recognition
   If you have a company newsletter, a section highlighting special efforts people have made can be an outstanding way of making sure everyone knows how well they’ve been contributing to the team.Try to avoid things like “Employee of the Month” or “Best of…” segments, though—this kind of recognition can feel temporary at best. Instead, honestly talk about their actions and what the results were—especially if they work remotely, since employees who aren’t in the office all the time often need to be managed in different ways.
2. Tickets to Events
   Few things feel more rewarding to employees than the sense that their job supports the rest of their life—and few things support the rest of their life as well as tickets for their whole family to some kind of event. Perhaps they’re tickets to a play, the movies, a theme park, a concert… there are countless options here, and they’ll almost certainly enjoy something that’s happening around them. However, it can be difficult to time things perfectly. Tickets are a great gift for employee recognition after they’ve really gone beyond the call of duty or just finished a major project. If you’re not sure what kind of tickets to give, you can either ask outright (along the lines of “We think you did a great job, and we want to treat your family to something—what would you like to do this weekend?”) or give them tickets that can be used at any point in time.
3. Treat Them to Lunch
   Everybody likes food—and even a meal at a good restaurant is easy to work into the company’s support budget. If your relationship is good enough, consider treating your employee to lunch at a nice sit-down restaurant, perhaps with an extended lunch hour so they have plenty of time to enjoy it. Alternatively, have catered meals brought to the office—though this works best for recognizing larger groups of people, rather than individual employees. Highly tangible rewards like food are also particularly good for meeting the needs of Generation Z employees.
4. Get Some Donuts
   This HR solution is a little sneakier than most. With a large variety box of donuts—several boxes, if you have a lot of employees—announce to the company that a given employee has done a great job… and that the donuts are in their office. Anyone who wants one is allowed to go say “Hi”. This will allow for a steady stream of happy employees showering recognition on someone.
5. Enable Profit-Sharing
   If you want to recognize a lot of employees, a good HR solution might be to start a profit-sharing program that directly rewards employees for improved productivity (profit for the company). This is the kind of employee benefit that’s actually a benefit—and its value is not to be underestimated. Profit sharing gives employees a direct stake in the profitability of the business, creating an atmosphere in which employees want the business to succeed as much as management does.

Keeping good employees is as easy as providing a bit of recognition so they feel rewarded. Do your employees feel recognized for good work? Contact us and we can help you make sure your employees feel supported, which is a win-win for them and your company!

This article first appeared at M.J. Management Solutions, Inc.

MJ Management Solutions, Inc., is a human resources consulting firm that provides small businesses with a wide range of virtual and onsite HR solutions to meet their immediate and long-term needs. From ensuring legal compliance to writing customized employee handbooks to conducting sexual harassment training, businesses depend on our expertise and cost-effective human resources services to help them thrive.

When running your own business, it’s imperative that you keep up to date with today’s latest labor availability rates. You’ll also want to look at your turnover rate and see how it compares with your competitors.

Fortunately, no matter what your turnover rate is, there are tools you can use to increase employee retention within your company. Here’s a quick look at the causes of high turnover rates and how to avoid them.

Top Causes of Employee Turnover

• Employer has no vision
• Poor management or supervision of employees
• No flexibility or telecommuting opportunities
• Little opportunity for promotion or job enrichment
• Employees required to work long hours
• Minimal rewards for employees

The Cost of Employee Turnover

If your company sustains a high turnover rate, your turnover costs will increase, which lowers your profit margins. Common costs (some monetary, some not) associated with an employee leaving your company include:

• Separation costs
• Lost value of departing employee’s knowledge
• Lost productivity of that position
• Overload on team during recruitment period
• Lower workplace morale and productivity
• Increase in recruiting, hiring and training costs

Tools for Reducing Employee Turnover

Are you tired of the headache and financial loss associated with losing a new employee every other week? If so, you should know that when an employee walks away from your company, most often he’s walking away from his manager, not his job. In fact, the number one reason for high turnover rates is not being able to get along with one or more managers. Have you assessed and evaluated your managers lately? If not, you may want to start. You can also take advantage of these helpful HR solutions for enhancing your employee retention rate.

1. Job Applicant Assessments
What does your job application process look like? Does it involve a drug test and that’s it? If so, then you are definitely missing out on the many valuable job applicant assessment tools that are available. From a background check to a competency screening, there are many ways to evaluate whether or not a job candidate will be a good fit with your company. Background checks allow you to check everything from a person’s past criminal history to employment history and even education verification. A competency screening can be used to assess whether or not the applicant has the knowledge and training needed to fill the position she’s applying for.

2. Career Training
When you provide training to your workers, you demonstrate that you want them to be both competent and safe in their new position; this leads to the cultivation of employee loyalty. For each new position that an employee works in, proper training should be provided. If possible, each worker should be trained for several different positions when they first come on board. In doing this, you’ll have a first-class workforce that can operate around the clock regardless of each week’s worker schedule. Cross-training employees keeps things exciting for your workers, which deters them from becoming disengaged, which is a major contributor to high employee turnover rates.

3. Predictive HRMS Software
As you can imagine, there are many types of HR solutions that can be used to reduce turnover rates. One of the best involves the use of HR Management Software (HRMS), which streamlines both the recruiting and onboarding process, providing a better job applicant experience. With better applicant experience comes the ability to attract today’s best talent.

The Takeaway

By employing certain tools, you can be on your way to running a more successful business. It all starts with respecting your employees and finding today’s best talent. For a comprehensive look at managing turnover, grab our e-book, “Practical Tools to Manage Costly Employee Turnover.”

This article first appeared at M.J. Management Solutions, Inc.

MJ Management Solutions, Inc., is a human resources consulting firm that provides small businesses with a wide range of virtual and onsite HR solutions to meet their immediate and long-term needs. From ensuring legal compliance to writing customized employee handbooks to conducting sexual harassment training, businesses depend on our expertise and cost-effective human resources services to help them thrive.