Updating Employee Reward Prgrams in 2021

When you have a positive outlook, even a crisis can be seen as an opportunity. For employers, the pandemic is a great time to reevaluate employee rewards strategies. Once you’ve taken a good look and adapted to account for the current work environment, employee rewards can still be used to inspire excellence, enthusiasm, and engagement in the workplace. Here are a few tips for reevaluating employee rewards programs.

Listen to Your Employees

Employee feedback is invaluable when it comes to letting you know how your current rewards strategies are working. There are several online survey tools that are fully customizable. These can give you a good idea as to the needs and concerns of your present staff. It can also be compared to previous data and results to see how the pandemic has affected your workforce.

Don’t forget to talk to your employees about the concerns they have outside of work. There are many new factors presenting problems in working families. Perhaps their partner lost a job, a family member fell ill, or they no longer have childcare available. Understanding these types of concerns can help you know what employees need when it comes to rewards.

Avoid a One-Size-Fits-All Approach

Many companies in 2020 turned conversations to diversity and inclusion. Many learned about widespread disparities within their organization that they didn’t know existed. Some of these were related to factors such as sexual identity, race, and gender. An honest assessment of your pay-equity can help you find areas that need compensation. It’s an opportunity for you to provide purpose-driven and inclusive benefits that address individual employee’s needs.

The pandemic is likely the most disruptive event most of us will ever live through. Many employers added benefits in response. They added new benefits like:

Extra support for mental health issues
Hazard pay
Pay for remote work
More flexible working arrangements
Childcare support
Medical benefits
Expanded sick leave options

Employers adapted benefits to meet the changing needs of their employees. To do this effectively means learning what employees need and what they need to succeed. Other aspects of reward programs may need to be changed in response to new work environments. You may need to move training and development to online options or allow mentoring sessions via Zoom. And of course, new ways to recognize employees who work remotely are on the table.

Keep an Eye Toward the Future

Some employee rewards solve short-term problems, but ultimately, they are a tool used in long-term planning. Remember that rewards can be leveraged to help the organization as a whole reach strategic goals. When considering how rewards work into your ultimate goals think about questions like:

How do we retain our best employees?
How can we help our employees continue to progress to higher levels?
How do we attract the brightest and best in new talent?
How do we build a collaborative, vibrant work culture?
Do we have an empowered, engaged team that is eager to seize growth opportunities?

To maintain optimism moving forward, it’s important to be concerned about challenges that lie ahead and keep an eye on the future. To ensure success you’ll want to have happy, engaged employees who feel they are valued. Employee rewards help accomplish this goal.

Ready for an Employee Reward makeover?

At Suburban Custom Awards, we have been helping organizations, businesses, and companies recognize and reward employees for decades. Are you ready to set up or revamp an employee rewards program? We can help you with ideas and we have numerous award styles to choose from. Contact us today and let us help you!