Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey, welcome to another episode of financial Snickens. I'm your host, Alisa McCabe. And today we're talking about rewarding those awesome employees. So a common task as business owners come to the end of the year, they start to think about. What kind of bonuses raises that they're going to do for employees.
They look at their numbers. They got their tax planning done and they're looking at what kind of profit they have and what they're going to do with it. So one of the things that many business owners want to do is to reward their, their one thing that many business owners want to do is to reward their employees.
So we. I want to share this success with our team because we want our employees to know that they're valued [00:01:00] and appreciated for their dedication and hard work. I know I adore my team and they are just so great at their work. And so I want to do something when, you know, it comes to,
when it comes to rewarding our exceptional team members. There's various avenues to consider. So, and each has its own unique advantage. And these are some of the things that I've done that I have found to work out really well. So, profit sharing programs. So, you can implement a profit sharing program that allows employees to directly benefit When the company is profitable.
Now I love this because it really aligns the employees with company's growth. So they want the company to have a [00:02:00] profit because they benefit from it. So. It can be done quarterly, it can be done annually, or it can be done as a part of your contribution as the employer contribution to the 401k. Think about doing this.
I have found it to be incredibly valuable and gets people invested in the company and wanting to achieve great results. Secondly, you can do straight out pay raises. That's always something that people appreciate getting more money. And it can be, you know, merit based off of reviews that you've done. And it's also a clear signal that contributions are valued and that you've invested in their personal growth.
Another thing that you can do either in conjunction with a raise or instead of a raise. Is offer the employee paid time off, offer them additional free time that
they get paid for. Hmm. It's kind of like [00:03:00] getting a raise. So in my company we actually have something called unlimited vacation time and there are certain employees that get to a level in the company that they are offered this and it's like a raise.
They can take off as many days as they want. And they get paid for them. So it just depends on what your employee values as the best compensation. Do they want the money or do they want time off? It's something to find out ahead of time. So another way to reward amazing employees promotion. You can also recognize them and move them up into, uh, new challenges and opportunities for growth within the company.
Now, you have to decide, are they really good at their job and they should actually stay there and teach other people to be really great at their job or should they be elevated? And manage those [00:04:00] people and it's not always the same skill set. Some people are amazing at their job and that's where they should stay.
So maybe you want to pick another type of reward for them. Thoughtful gifts are a very good way to reward employees. So if you think about it, there are things that happen in people's lives. There's birthdays, there's work anniversaries, there's babies being born, there's things that happen in their life.
They get a new puppy, whatever it is. Sending them a gift, no, sending them a gift lets them know that you heard them. You heard it when they mentioned about their new dog, when they talked about something and you squirreled away that little memo of how you could show them that you do care about them. And that there's nothing better than someone who knows you sending you a gift.
Another way to, that we have done to [00:05:00] recognize awesome employees is we started with a program called Bonusly. So what this is, it's an online software and you set it up and you put all your employees in and you give each employee. A set amount to reward other employees with. So we have our first steps, financial dollars, and each team member has a certain amount of money that they can give away to another team member for doing something outstanding.
We also use this app to celebrate work anniversaries and birthdays. And when an employee puts in a reward, they have to put in a hashtag. For that other employee that they're recognizing and they have to say what it's for. Is it, um, you know, like, oh, they did a great job helping me out learning this new concept.
Hey. You know, one of our our core values is collaboration [00:06:00] hashtag collaboration. Um, and they can pick any amount that they want to give. So, or, you know, we also have the hashtag rock star. We have the hashtag team player, and we have found that everyone becomes engaged in each other's success. And. We can view who we can view all these statistics on who participated, who got the most rewards, and what was the most used hashtag.
Okay. Did you think there weren't measurables being involved? We're accountants here. So we love it because we know like who's doing an outstanding job in different areas. And it helps us to understand how the team's doing and they're getting rewards. So they can take these rewards and then at the end of the month they take those accumulated rewards and they can use it to get gift cards or merchandise or whatever the site has [00:07:00] available.
And we love it. The team loves it. So doing something like this and, and creating a situation where you're rewarding amazing employees, the effectiveness effectiveness of each approach varies depending on the culture of your company and. Combining these, and you might want to combine these strategies to cater to everybody's,
you might want to do a system where you combine these strategies, and that will help you meet your workforce's needs. And also, maintaining open lines of communication with your team is crucial. Seeking out what forms of recognition really resonate with them, this will not only ensure what their preferences are, but it also ensures that The culture of the company is [00:08:00] transparency and trust.
So how do you do this? How do you find out what your team values as compensation? Send out a Google form, ask them to rank what types of recognition, send out a Google form that asks them to rank what types of recognition they prefer. And don't guess. It's better to ask and get what they're really thinking.
Look, ultimately, the goal is to create an environment where employees feel valued, motivated, and eager to contribute their best to the company's success. They are the backbone of your company. And mine and recognize that in their efforts and meaningful ways is really going to go a long way and strengthen those bonds that you have with them and help your company survive and thrive.
If you want to get more ideas, [00:09:00] head over to my website, first steps, financial. com, check out our blog section. We have some more information
over there about rewarding employees. Looking forward to seeing you over there.
