Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. This is Liam Martin from Running Remote. And in this video, we're going to be talking about 10 simple ways to boost employee recognition at your company. Let's go. Employee incentive programs needn't always be a cash reward. Hopefully not, because otherwise you're going to be out of money. Actually, non-monetary rewards will increase the loyalty towards employers even more because they can improve life work balance and create long lasting memories. Plus, you can keep a couple bucks in your pocket. So to get started, here's what you need for designing and implementing an effective employee incentive program. Number one, decide your criteria for the reward. Number two, allocate a budget. And number three, pick your reward. Regardless of whatever your budget is, honestly, it's just making that reward very, very special is the most important component of this. So choosing something unique that may cost you not that much money, but is incredibly valuable to someone else inside of your organization is usually the best way to be able to do this. Here are 10 ideas for awards that your employees will be happy to get. Many companies struggle with employee burnout. So let's start with some rewards that help improve employee well-being and life work balance. Number one, how about an extra day off apart from the set vacations day? How about some quality health care as an example? Maybe you can actually get an upgrade to a lot of the private health insurance if that particular team member has private health insurance inside of their country. Also, a gym membership is a fantastic one. Remember, you have to actually look at local laws to be able to figure out whether there's any kind of tax issues connected to that. But a gym membership, as an example, is a huge plus. I know that a lot of people see that as a huge value because a lot of people go to the gym, but it actually doesn't end up costing you that much from an employer perspective. Another type of reward that I'd like to cover are experiences or special events that will leave some memories. So here's what you can offer your employees. Number one, wine tasting or a brewery tour. Remember, make sure that no one has any drinking problems. Obviously, before you award them, I had one person who is a friend of mine that ended up having an issue where he gave a wine tasting to a alcoholic that was 10 years sober. Definitely something that you do not want to do. Another one is a spa day. You know, they cost like 50 dollars for a pretty good spa and they're pretty fantastic. So go check that out. Again, you just have to really read the room as someone comfortable with spas or not. This is an interesting one that I actually have done quite a bit, which is dinner with the boss or another important person who can make the employees more motivated. They're usually pretty fun. They're usually a lot less stressful than the team member would necessarily think they are. And you can usually take people out to a really expensive restaurant. Fun fact, the most expensive restaurants I've ever been to have been the ones that the employees have suggested that we go to. I'm a little bit cheap with my money in that context. But I said, hey, you know, you guys want to go to a restaurant and I've been taken out to some amazing places, which obviously I had to pay for. Last one I suggest is go to some cooking classes. Cooking class is really fun and people love it. I know for me, I actually went to this place called Schwartz's, which is in Montreal, which is where I'm from, which is where this video is currently being recorded. And Schwartz's is the place that invented the smoked meat sandwich. And I was able to actually see their entire process from beginning to end of how they smoke their smoked meat sandwiches. It was really, really cool and an experience that I probably wouldn't have actively chosen, but I was really excited to be able to get it. Finally, a more traditional way is to honestly just go with gifts. To be on the safe side, you need to offer something suitable for anyone on your team, such as number one, tech accessories. We've given out air pods. We've given out Oculus Rift headsets, that type of a thing. Those are really great. Another one is you can get personalized care packages. It can include some delicious snacks, well-being stuff, workplace accessory, plants, notebooks and more. We actually have something really cool here, which is we give out an employee onboarding box when people join the company. So it has a lot of cool stuff. It has like air pods, mouses, a really nice water bottle, that kind of stuff. And it just kind of shows people, yeah, this is a real company. And we're not just people that kind of play on the Internet. Another one is just give people straight up gift cards. Again, that's probably the least engaging one because it requires the least work to actually get it off the ground. But if you've really got no options and you got to go pretty quick, gift cards are really nice direction as well. Another way that you can honestly manage this is through EMPs. So what I would do is try some of these techniques and then see whether or not this gives you a boost to your EMPs. Do people feel more trusted or engaged with getting those meaningful gifts? I know for me, this has actually increased our numbers by a very small amount, but absolutely worth it for the amount of money that we've put in. And again, people don't need raises as much as they need to feel part of an organization and feel like they're on a mission. So those little gifts there to make them feel special are really important. And if you can't offer them more money, at least you can hopefully make them feel more appreciated. So do you have any ideas on how to make your employees feel more appreciated? Put them down in the comments below while you're down there. Why don't you like this video and subscribe to this YouTube channel? The first five people that actually comment on this video are going to be in a raffle towards a free ticket to the Running Remote Conference, which we do every single year. And you definitely want to check out. You can check it out down in the links below. Other than that, I will hopefully see you in the next video.