Dig Deeper: 5 Atypical Employee Benefits
Create a Culture of Acknowledgement
In many small businesses, spending money on extraneous prizes is not feasible, but other rewards options still stand. Especially in growing companies, employees are rewarded most through verbal acknowledgement for a specific idea or simply being part of a team that daily embraces innovation.
"In terms of traditional compensation rewards, it tends not to motivate our employees," says Missen about Foursquare. "It's not why a lot of us joined. We have a lot of unmitigated stars in the company that receive press and praise. Recognition and idea implementation are more important."
The FruitGuys, Mittelstaedt constantly reminds himself to call attention to those collaborating under him. Inspired by the "five R philosophy" his company employs with their customers, he makes sure his employees are remembered positively for their efforts. (The other R's include being respectful, responsive, realistic and responsible.)
"A leader is not the greatest person in an organization, so they shouldn't be the one getting the glory," he says. "Helping other people get the glory or acknowledge a success is in our unwritten code of conduct."
For smaller companies, like The FruitGuys' 25-strong, such personal recognition is manageable. Other alternatives like having employees nominate one another and training managers to recognize ideas as they emerge prevents upper management from overlooking great ideas no matter how small and also helps maintain a sense of intimacy no matter how large a company grows.
Dig Deeper: Rethinking Employee Awards
No Two Employees Are Alike
From its research and experience with clients, Maritz postulates that the best reward programs involve purposeful choice on the part of both employees and employers. Roughly only 30 percent of employees who want to be recognized in a certain way – for instance with cash bonuses, public recognition, or symbolic awards – are recognized in that way. Communication about what employees want versus what the company is able to provide helps determine the best options.
"Rewards always need to be meaningful, memorable and motivating, but there's not a one size fits all solution," Barbee says. "By offering choice to your employees you get much more engagement and can drive the kind of results that they want."
Open and frequent communication with Firstborn's 70 employees is a key part of how the agency determines its reward policies. "Some people need that time away more than others. Others may want a nice bonus instead," LaCivita says. "As a company you employ individuals and you are a team, but at your core you're still individuals with different feelings and different needs. You really need to talk to everyone and know who they are as people to really know how to reward them."
As important as honoring all your employees' accomplishments is, companies should be wary of overcompensation. At ngmoco (stands for "Next Generation Mobile Company"), a free-to-play gaming company, rewards are limited to those ideas that exemplify the core values of delight and ownership.
"Delight means setting and exceeding expectations, ownership means carrying a project through to its end," says Justin Hall, ngmoco's director of culture and communication. "If you just reward people for working long hours you're rewarding them for being inefficient and if you reward people for being on time, you're rewarding them for something expected. You have to make sure your expectations permeate across the organization so that the great ideas have a chance to be recognized."
With rewards and recognition natural sense of competition may arise, something healthy for companies seeking a truly innovative culture. Companies should recognize a group with great ideas when merited, but LaCivita maintains that there's nothing wrong with recognizing an individual doing something incredible.
"If a group comes to the table and one person has had the eureka moment that inspires everyone else, I don't think it's wrong to tell or show that person how much his work mattered," he says. "That's how innovation works."
Dig Deeper: 10 Tips for Boosting Employee Morale
Give More to Get More out of Your Workers
With one critical eureka moment often comes the expectation that more great ideas will follow. One of the easiest ways to both recognize innovation and guarantee more in the future is to let your most creative employees take on more responsibility.
At ngmoco, two engineers realized the benefits of creating a gaming platform that would allow downloads both for android and iOS devices. Today ngmoco's efforts center on that platform. The two engineers serve now as vice president of global technology and director of first-party technology, respectively. Similarly, The FruitGuys' head of customer service worked her way up from answering the phones thanks in part to her creativity in leading weekly meetings.
Added responsibilities do not necessarily translate to promotions, however. Given the freedom to choose their next projects or assignments allows great innovators to work in the most inspiring possible environments. "Foursquare's employees come in wanting to work on anything they think they could help the company improve," says Missen. "It's the low fruit, the slow gazelle, and they can fix it."
For Moss, Ravenmark has provided new opportunities for new creative projects. While Frima's jury considered Ravenmark's future for a week before reaching a decision, Moss estimates deliberations took ten minutes for his most recent pitch. "Just showing that level of trust and confidence in the fact that I know what I'm doing, that's all I need," he says.
The employee loyalty built by Frima's recognition of innovation turns any short-term costs long-term investment. "It's important to find creative people, great resources," Couture says. "But it's even more important to keep them when you have them. We keep them by rewarding them."
Dig Deeper: Managing: Unleashing Employee Creativity
