Employee Incentive Programs || 21 Types of Employee Incentive Programs

What are Employee Incentive Programs?

Employee Incentive Programs are those that offer a service or product that employees feel is valuable to them. Incentive programs could be as simple as an extra vacation day after a year of employment, a weekly coffee run with co-workers, or a company-sponsored BBQ outside on the weekends. Incentive programs will help keep employees motivated and engaged at work which ultimately makes them more productive. Offering incentives for your staff members also encourage teamwork and communication between departments.

Your employees are one of the most valuable assets that you have — make sure they know it. By offering a well-designed incentive program, you will see an increase in productivity. There will also be a decrease in the amount of time spent looking for new employees. A little bit of extra effort on your part can go a long way towards improving your business and making your employees feel appreciated.

Types of Employee Incentive Programs

Incentive programs are a great way to motivate employees. These are also used as employees motivation programs. They help create a positive and optimistic atmosphere in the workplace. These are some types of Employee Incentive Programs:

Pay for Performance

In this program, employees are paid based on their performance. The company should have a clear set of goals for which they are responsible and the employee’s pay must be directly linked to those results.

Productivity Incentive

This type of incentive aims at increasing productivity by rewarding great work with time off from work, vacation days, or flexible working hours.

Profit-Sharing

This program takes out some of the profits made by a business and distributes it among all workers as a bonus payment. It will motivate them to contribute towards better profitability in the future too.

Bonus Program

It is one of the Employee Incentive Programs. This type of program is a one-time payment to employees based on their performance. The amount given as a bonus can be linked to the company’s financial results or it may be an individual target set by your manager.

Wellness Incentive

These are programs designed with health in mind, both physical and mental. You can reward good behavior such as regular exercise sessions, healthy eating habits, etc., which will ultimately lead to better productivity at work too.

Achievement Awards

Sometimes just recognizing great achievement through monetary awards is enough motivation for workers who have gone out of their way and achieved something extraordinary! It also helps create a culture where more people step up and challenge themselves to improve further every day.

Sales Incentive Program

This type of incentive motivates your sales team to achieve a particular target set by the company. You can also tie these incentives with specific products or services that have been sold successfully during certain time periods, etc., which helps drive up demand too!

Cash Incentive

It is one of the Employee Incentive Programs. Just as it sounds like, this program rewards employees in cash for their hard work and dedication towards achieving targets at work.

Stock Option Program

These are shares given to employees as part of an employee stock purchase plan (ESPP). The idea is similar to loyalty programs where you reward people who stay on board for a long period of time. It will help retain talent within your firm too.

Progression Plans

This type of program encourages employees to move up the ladder by giving them a promotion or salary raise, etc. It is commonly used for entry-level positions and can be implemented from day one.

Casual Dress Days

Your office is a relaxed atmosphere and you want your employees to come in feeling fresh, not uptight. Offering casual dress days one or two times a week can be an excellent way to make them feel more comfortable at work! It also encourages people from all walks of life including women who may have been discriminated against in the past when it comes to how they should walk into the workplace wearing their favorite clothes!

Lunch Breaks

It is one of the Employee Incentive Programs. There are many studies that show how proper lunch breaks help improve productivity by making staff members happier and healthier overall. Providing nutritious meals for free during these breaks will motivate employees toward greater success too. You never know what kind of amazing ideas might pop up while everyone sits together over food.

Work From Home

One perk people value highly today is flexible working hours. With increasing competition around us everywhere, many young professionals want greater flexibility with where and when they go into the office each day. Allowing staff members to choose how much time off between coming into the workplace and starting their official shift will motivate workers greatly too! It may also reduce absenteeism too.

Gift Cards or Vouchers  

This is a very common form of an employee incentive. It motivates them to buy something they like even if it’s not exactly related to their job! You can reward people with gift cards for every occasion, ranging from birthdays and anniversaries all the way through Christmas/holiday seasons too.

Donations

If you run a social enterprise, consider rewarding employees who have gone out of their way to help your cause with contributions. You might also receive some good press for promoting such work too!

Recognitions/Titles

This is another form of recognition through voting by fellow staff members or management at certain intervals throughout the year. It’s very common in small businesses where everyone works together toward one big goal! It creates healthy competition among team members and encourages them to do even better next time around as well.

Team Bonus/Awards

Group efforts are always more powerful than individual ones when it comes to achieving something great! Rewarding teams that have completed projects successfully will encourage other groups to push harder too. Incentive programs are a great way to motivate employees and boost their morale. They help create a positive and optimistic atmosphere in the workplace. In this blog post, we will discuss 12 different types of incentive programs that you can implement at your company right now!

Food and Drink

Who doesn’t love a free lunch? Providing company food and beverages during certain hours can be great for staff morale. It also makes them feel appreciated as well!

Team Outings or Events

Getting together socially outside of the office once every couple of months helps build stronger bonds among co-workers. It’s also very common among small businesses where everyone knows others personally on top of professional lines as well!

Time Off

Why not reward your staff with time away from the office? Providing a certain number of days leave each year can make them feel more refreshed and ready to go back to work too.

Longevity Bonus

Many organizations give out annual bonuses for employees that have been on board for a set period of time. This is one way they thank people who have stuck around through good times as well as bad ones! It’s also an easy way to acknowledge their hard work toward company success over the years too.   

Steps to Follow for Successful Employee Incentive Program

These are some of the steps to follow for a successful Employee Incentive Program

Establish a Goal

The first step to a successful employee incentive program is to establish the goals of the company and then match those goals with the needs and desires of employees. This may sound like common sense, but it’s surprising how many businesses overlook this important first step. It’s not enough just to offer incentives for your employees; you need them to be meaningful. For example, if your goal as an employer is to increase sales, make sure that any prize or reward offered for achieving this goal will appeal directly to the people who are responsible for making these sales happen in the first place — namely, your staff! If you can do this successfully, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a talented team working hard for you for years to come.

Consider What You Can Offer

The second step is to consider what your company can offer. When you are using an incentive program to improve performance, it has to be something that provides immediate value for the employee who is rewarded with it. Obviously, cash incentives and gift cards aren’t going to cut it here; you need a product or service that employees will be excited about! So if sales were your target in the example above, why not reward salespeople with a new phone at the end of each quarter? Or give them tickets to their favorite team’s home game every month? The possibilities really are endless.

Create Plan of Action

Once you have considered these factors and determined what kind of offers would be best for both your company and your employees, all that remains is making sure they know about the program and how it works. For this, you will need to create a plan of action to communicate with employees throughout their employment.

One good way to do this is to choose a specific date each year when you will announce any changes in your incentive program. These can be related to new awards or the removal of old ones. For example, if an employee has been working for you for five years and you would like them to achieve the next level in your company’s ranks (and why wouldn’t you?), then make that announcement on their fifth anniversary! The reason I suggest doing this only once per year is that it could get very confusing otherwise; we all know we can’t count on every single person reading memos that are sent out to all employees.

So there you have it – an effective way to cut down on turnover, keep valuable workers around for longer, and build a strong team of talented individuals who want nothing more than to help your business succeed.

Benefits of Employee Incentive Program

Some of the benefits of an Employee Incentive Program are:

1. Incentive programs aren’t just about rewarding employees; they also encourage your staff members to work as a team and improve communication between departments.
2. When you offer valuable incentives for employees, they feel like their work is valued and can make them more productive in the long run. A good incentive will not only keep your employees motivated but will also give them more time to do what they love at work.
3. Also, if you find out what your employees want and need, then you can tailor your incentive program accordingly, this leads to even greater success in the future.

A Word From Mantra Care

The Employee Incentive Program is a good idea for your business because it can be profitable. Also, employees are hard workers when they believe in what they are doing. An incentive program will help them to feel rewarded for their work. At last, you should know that there are many benefits of having an employee incentive program in your business. So do not hesitate to create one.

Do you want to keep your employees happy, healthy, and productive? Join our employee assistance program and get a healthier workplace.