How many
people do you know that were born with a silver spoon in their mouth? If I had to guess, I would say not many. Sure, there are some rich folk that decide to
go to work out of sheer boredom, but as for the rest of us we go to work out of
necessity. We have to pay for such
things as a mortgage or rent, food, utilities and kid’s activities. As a result, every Monday morning we have a
strong desire to call in sick because we are in fact “sick” of our jobs.
This is
where the idea of corporate incentive gifts comes in.
Remember in
school when the teacher would bust out candy and suddenly the whole class would
be trying to get the right answer? This is the same idea. Even a small gift incentive
can bring a new feel to the workplace and reignite people's motivation.
One
advantage of having an ongoing gift incentive program is that you can adjust it
to the company's current needs. For example, if the worker's seem to be
slacking in one area one month, you can reward people for improving in that
specific area. The next month, since the previous problem is fixed, focus on a
new area. This specific approach can help motivate people more than just
general pay for general work.
It's also
good because you can reward little things that wouldn't necessarily merit a
raise or bonus. Remember, the bigger the reward the harder they will work.
Giving out little things like pens and mugs won't do much, but when the gift is
in the $300 to $500 range, people become more motivated.
So now the
question is of what the incentive should be. There are two different ways to
approach this. The first way is to offer the same incentive to everyone. When
using this method, it is best not to offer one incentive for the men and
another for the women. Even though this will most likely cater more to the
employees' tastes, some may see it as discriminatory. This can be more
difficult when offering more expensive gifts, because general gifts tend to be
cheaper.
One way to
solve this is to use approach number two. With this approach, a point system is
needed. Fortunately, there are websites created exactly for this purpose. Each
employee will have a profile in which they can keep track of the points they
earn. Depending on the number of points they have, they can choose from a
variety of gifts on the website. This way, you can include more specific gifts
while still making everything available to everyone.
On top of
having a gift incentive program, remember to always take care of your
employees. Take steps to ensure they are eating right and sleeping well, so
that they will be healthy and able to perform at their best.
