5 tips to make incentives meaningful and retain employees

Joshua ReevesCo-Founder and CEO, ZenPayroll

Ben PetersonFounder and CEO, BambooHR

Why do we really need to give incentives?

in•cen•tive\in-ˈsen-tiv\noun

a thing that motivates or encourages one to do something.“employees have an incentive to increase their sales”synonyms: inducement, motivation, motive, reason, stimulus, stimulant, spur, impetus, encouragement, impulse

5 Tips to Make Incentives Meaningful and Retain Employees

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Reward and Recognition

Reward = Extrinsic Recognition = Intrinsic



Incentives of the past,present and future

Money is only the 3rd most important thing to employees and less than 1 percent of employees care about free food. Advancement and

work/life balance are what your employees really care about.



Why do incentives matter?

“Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson



Incentives help companies recruit new talent and retain current talent.



If you don’t incentivize,your competition will nab your talent.

86 percent of companies have a reward and/or recognition program in place.



Good incentives will get yourdesired outcome.

“Incentives can focus on a single behavior and can be turned up and down quickly depending on the effect you need.”

—Paul Hebert, Fistful of Talent

Tip 1: Make it personal

For employees, the recognition is as important as the reward. When you tailor your incentives to match the employees and their contribution, you’ll

get an additional boost for the recognition.



Recognize Good Work

“From having a little card that says, 'I caught you doing something well' to just going over and shaking someone's hand in front of everybody, there are tons of ways you can recognize your employees. The key is to do it publicly in

front of other employees.”

—Paul Facella,Everything I Know about Business I Learned at McDonald’s



How You Can Make it PersonalGive company-wide “kudos”



How You Can Make it Personal

● Give personalized gifts

● Match charitable contributions

● Offer continuing education



Care is Motivational

“Fortunately, in a tight economy, what motivates employees most are free things, such as being praised and receiving care and compassion.”

—Larina Kase, Ph.D., The Confident Leader

Tip 2: It’s not all about the money.

“People think more frequently about noncash tangible incentives (merchandise and travel) than cash incentives and that as the frequency of thought increases, performance increases,”

—Professors Scott A. Jeffreyand Gordon K. Adomdza, Human Performance.



Offer flexible hours and work/life balance.

“As long as the employee is deserving and doesn’t abuse the privilege, this can go a long way to building trusting and mature relationships with key workers.”

—Richard Martin, Alcera Consulting Inc.



Thank your employees personally.

“The two most underused words in corporate America that get the highest ROI and ROT are the simple words 'thank you,'”

—Michael Guld, Guld Resource Group



Make work a great place to be.90 percent of employees find a fun work environment very or

extremely motivating.



Give your employees growth opportunities and chances to advance.

30 percent of employees desire growth opportunity in the company as a type of recognition.

Tip 3: Institutionalize your

IncentivesWhile it’s great to reward your employees uniquely and personally, it’s also

important not to create too many one-off perks. Haphazard rewards are inefficient and can create confusion for your employees.



How to Create a Perks ProgramTo institutionalize your incentives, follow these three steps:

1. Make it transparent2. Make it flexible3. Make it fair



Perks You Can Institutionalize● Flexible Vacation Days● Flexible Bonus Spending● Bring the Perk In-House

Tip 4: Measure thesuccess (or need for improvement) of your

incentive program

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”—Albert Einstein



Did you think about the details?

“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”—John Wooden



Some things can’t be measured.

“Incentives help engage employees, and engaged employees enhance your bottom line. So yes, incentives are an indirect route to bottom-line results. And no, you shouldn't let the indirect-ness of their link to the bottom line discourage you.”

—Intelispend

Tip 5: Don’t Forget Your Culture

Your incentive structure is a reflection of your company culture. How you manage and deliver perks is one way to make your company stand out.



Inject Culture into Your Incentives

ZenPayroll: At ZenPayroll, we have a special monthly award given to an exemplary employee, voted on by her peers. The winner gets a $1K bonus, $500 of which is to be spent on the office at her discretion.



Why it Matters

Culture is the differentiator between you and your competitor, which can be impactful to hiring and retention in this improving job climate.

What can you do today to make incentives work for

your company?



Thank you!



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