Non-Financial Rewards

Rewards and Recognition
By Sherry Ryan
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|Like a child being given a chocolate cupcake and a big hug after cleaning her room, rewards and recognition can be powerful tools |
|for employee motivation and performance improvement. Many types of rewards and recognition have direct costs associated with them,|
|such as cash bonuses and stock awards, and a wide variety of company-paid perks, like car allowances, paid parking, and gift       |
|certificates. Other types of rewards and recognition may be less tangible, but still very effective. These "non-monetary" rewards |
|include formal and informal acknowledgement, assignment of more enjoyable job duties, opportunities for training, and an increased|
|role in decision-making. This paper focuses on non-monetary rewards, and as we will see, these types of rewards can be very       |
|meaningful to employees and so, very motivating for performance improvement.                                                       |
|But first, let's take a quick look at the primary goals of rewards and recognition. Jack Zigon defines rewards as "something than |
|increases the frequency of an employee action" (1998). This definition points to an obvious desired outcome of rewards and         |
|recognition: to improve performance. Non-monetary recognition can be very motivating, helping to build feelings of confidence and |
|satisfaction (Keller 1999). Another important goal is increased employee retention. An ASTD report on retention research           |
|identified consistent employee recognition as a key factor in retaining top-performing workers. (Jimenez 1999).                   |
|To achieve desired goals, reward systems should be closely aligned to... [continues]

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