Having a competitive business relies on the quality of the service you supply. A good service is dependent on the work your employees do. The work your employees do has been proven to be much more efficient if they feel happy and satisfied with their job. This is why it is fundamental to take care of how your employees feel about the work they do in order to run a successful business. The key to accomplishing a good working environment with happy employees is, from my point of view, the establishing of coherent reward and recognition programs. I am confident that any business which perseveres with these kinds of programs will have only to gain in the long run. Of course, big businesses already have in one way or another implemented this concept already, but I believe that size is not an issue, so programs like this should become commonplace in small businesses as well. There are many ways to create reward and recognition programs, but today I will try to show what the goals of these programs should be, in order to make it easier for managers to choose which programs would work best for what they had in mind.

1.    Create a positive work environment. One of the most important roles of the reward and recognition programs is to create a positive work environment. A job where people feel they are appreciated for their work, and where the idea that if you work hard enough you are going to get a reward makes the whole work environment much more positive.

2.    Create a culture of recognition. This I believe is the single most important benefit of reward and recognition programs. The concept of recognition should be the most important one from a company’s point of view with regards to its employees. This concept has the role of eliminating frustrations between employees. If it is correctly applied, than no one can just say that they were cheated out of a job, because someone else got, not on merit. If there is a culture of recognition formed at the work place everybody will appreciate everybody else for the work they do and will recognize when somebody deserves to get a reward when they have done outstanding work.

3.    Motivate high performance. This the reason that everybody thinks of in regards to reward and recognition programs. Although I personally don’t believe that it’s the most important one, it is the most easily applicable and at the same time it has fast and palpable results. The concept is of course very simple. Do your job well, or better than expected and you shall be rewarded with a bonus, a raise, or some sort of prize. The key behind it though is for it to be applied justly and unbiased.

4.    Reinforce desired behaviors. Another important goal of these programs is to conserve and encourage desired behaviors of the employees. This is a big issue because it is much easier and cost efficient to conserve a certain way of working than to train people or retrain them in that specific way.

5.    Increase employee morale. Employee morale can be the force that will get through rough patches that will inevitably appear due to outside factors, like an economic crisis. A very important role in maintaining a high level of morale for the employees is through these reward and recognition programs which make them feel appreciated.

6.    Support organization’s mission. This is a target that few CEO’s take into consideration. An employee will be much better motivated if they feel they are an important part of the company, and that the end product has been made partly to his efforts, and that he should be proud of that. Reward and recognition programs should be targeted to do just that make the employees feel they want to support the organization’s mission.

7.    Encourage loyalty. Loyalty is something you should put a big price on. If you find you have an incredibly talented employee, who has been working for you for years, and has just started to shine, you will have a hard time keeping him. If he get’s a better offer from a competitor which you can’t match financially, than your only weapon is how you have treated him along the years. If his loyalty has been rewarded throughout, than he might just stay with your company because of the history and stability you have provided.

Reward and recognition programs have become indispensible form my point of view for big companies. At the same time, I believe that they should be applied to every kind of business no matter the size. These programs affect how your employees feel working for you. If they are happy you will see it in the efficiency of their work, and of course in the quality of the finished product.              

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