Rewarding Your Staff Properly

Although we may believe that it's possible to be great at managing projects, dealing with customers, sorting out the accounts and keeping employees happy, the reality is that most of us will fail in at least one of these areas. It's easy to become disappointed by this, but it's worth remembering that we can't all be brilliant at every business area.

In fact, this helps to explain why most people within a large organisation tend to specialise in certain core areas. Hence, you may end up with experts in marketing, sales or finance. Few people are able to bring a level of expertise to all areas.

Working in a small business environment often requires that you do try to master all areas. If you can't master them, then you may need to muddle through. So let's take a look at how you can reward your employees. This is clearly a particularly important area of running your business.

Keeping employees motivated will be something that can have a major impact on their productivity and your income. If you have members of staff who do a good job, then you'll want to make sure that you don't lose them to rival firms. How is this best achieved? It seems clear that you need to reward them when they do a good job.

When many employers think of rewards, they naturally consider financial inducements. It might be expected that employees will react positively to pay rises and cash bonuses. Although this may well be true, it may be the case that you have a limited budget available to you. In such circumstances, you may not be in a great position to offer a significant pay rise.

If this is the case, you'll need to be more creative in your thinking. Individuals don't simply react to financial benefits. They also like to be shown that they are valued in other ways. You might approach this by offering them occasional small rewards, or even by showing increased flexibility to show that you trust them and value their presence.

Think of your staff as one of the key assets of your business. If you treat them well, you'll find that they help to make your business more successful as a result. Don't fall into the trap of assuming that rewarding them will involve vast sums of money.

Most people react well to a thoughtful, inspirational boss. This is what you should aim to become.