A guide to the different types of reward schemes to keep staff motivated

Keeping staff motivated is an essential consideration for any business. Valued and recognised staff typically work more effectively than others, making having a structured motivation scheme in place all the more crucial. But what kinds of initiatives can a firm choose from?

Selecting the right scheme for your staff motivation strategy will largely depend on your individual employees, as incentives do not mean the same thing to everyone. Fortunately, there are a variety of paths your business can go down, so you can select a cost-effective plan that generates real results from your workers.

One such staff recognition policy is an online points scheme. This means that employees will be able to accrue credit for individual projects, whether these are long or short-term.

Once each worker has collected enough points, they will be able to redeem their online tokens in the form of products they want, ranging from experience days and gifts vouchers to CDs and electrical goods.

An added benefit of such schemes is that they also allow you to monitor the performance of individual staff members, teams and departments from a central hub.

Alternatively, you could use gift vouchers to incentivise and reward your workforce. This immensely flexible option allows you to appeal to a broad range of employees, while also showing them the exact value of what they will receive.

With top high street names including Debenhams, HMV and Boots among the 85 UK retailers participating, staff will be able to treat themselves just how they see fit – meaning their reward can be something that caters exactly to their personal taste.

Similarly, your company could also choose to use travel vouchers as a motivational tool. After all, we all crave breaks away from the workplace, whether it's an overseas getaway in the sun to a trip exploring the sights a little closer to home.

This kind of coupon can be put towards a huge variety of holiday products, from flights and airport parking to package breaks, cruises and theme parks.

Easy to redeem and with full ATOL protection, these gift cards can be the ideal way to reward best practice behaviour among your workforce – and thereby encourage this kind of performance to continue and spread among other staff members.

Whichever reward schemes you opt for, you can expect to see a range of tangible, cost-effective benefits for your company. Alongside increased motivation come greater productivity, boosted morale and staff loyalty.