9 ways to reward team members
In Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton’s book The Orange Revolution, they offer low-cost ideas for sparking or rewarding employee engagement:
Category: Recognition
Breathe fresh air into staff birthdays
Is having birthday cake in the break room becoming a bit stale? Break out of the rut when it comes to celebrating staffers’ birthdays with these ideas:
Give kudos at staff meetings
Food & Friends has a low turnover rate (more than 70% of employees having been with the nonprofit for at least five years). Among the firm’s retention strategies: “Kudos” are read at weekly staff meetings.
Take stock of your worth to the company
Protect your job—or set yourself up for a promotion—by communicating your quantifiable on-the-job results at a moment’s notice. Warm up with this exercise:
What gives an admin ‘wow’ factor?
Being a stellar admin requires the skills of a mind-reader. So it was a boon recently when admins heard two executives speak candidly at the 18th Annual Conference for Administrative Excellence about the administrative profession.
When the boss steals your idea
Is it a problem when your boss takes credit for your ideas? Peter Handal, CEO of Dale Carnegie Training, says “no.” Making your boss look smart to higher-ups, says Handal, and having your boss depend on you for good suggestions—“is certainly not going to do you any harm.”
Spruce up your executive presence
Janie used to wear a ponytail to work, along with scant makeup, khakis, sweaters and loafers. Then a “Power of Image” workshop changed how she presented herself. Now, when she shares her ideas with senior managers, they listen and buy in to what she’s saying.
Does your job title matter? You bet!
One admin wrote: “Our company just reorganized and changed our job titles from administrative assistant to ‘office assistant.’ None of the job functions changed. I feel demoted. Should we go to our manager and speak to him about our displeasure or just be quiet and not say a thing?”
It’s the little things that count most
To stand out in a competitive workplace, you have to do the workaday equivalent of juggling with fire—say, swooping in to save a crucial project just in the nick of time—while streamlining a dozen different processes and keeping your boss on schedule. Right? Actually, little things may make a disproportionately big impact.
Put more meaning into workplace awards
Imagine you’re up for an award at work … for Best New Mistake. That might not sound too appealing, but at SurePayroll, the award is coveted. Why do they do it? To encourage employees to try new things—even if it means sometimes failing or making a mistake.