But I have no money!!!
you can still reward..


In the article, how to reward employees when your budget is tight, Scott Miller gives tips about how to reward employees when an organization’s budget is low. Obviously, happy employees produce more. Statistics showed that when employees’ attitudes improved by 5 percent, customer satisfaction rose 1.3 percent and revenue grew 0.5 percent. However, in tighter companies, rewarding employees is harder; increasing salaries is almost impossible. Employees always accept competitive salaries, in other word, employees are satisfied if they’re paid the same as those in competitive fields, but money is not always a satisfying factor. Surveys showed that the highest factor that employees consider when choosing a job is an open communication factor, where salary ranked the 16th most important factor. Other studies showed that being recognized by managers is the most important factor of choosing a job. The book says “to maximize motivation in today’s diversified workforce, management needs to think in terms of flexibility” (p335)

Salaries are not the only incentive of being motivated in a job. Companies with tight budget can always reward their employees in different ways.

1. Managers can personally thank employees on specific work done showing personal appreciation about the quality of the outcome.
2. Managers could send thank- you note in a letter. An employee will feel recognized when he/she knows that his/her boss spent time in writing a special letter for that employee.
3. Sharing information about the company with employees even those who are not really involved in a certain issue.
4. Managers should make employees part of the decision making process.
5. Gives opportunity to learn skills while working. So many employees, especially those new ones, are concerned about learning and gaining experience, a manger should exploit this chance to gain employees’ satisfaction.
6. Mixing fun with work and celebrating success: managers must celebrate with employees after each project’s completion, or any other job done.
7. Provide free time and flexibility.

The book also gives three tips to reward employees and improve their motivation and morale and decrease their absenteeism. The first one is what’s called “flextime” which is a scheduling option allows employees to select what their work hours will be within some specified parameters. The second is “job sharing” which is a type of part-time work that allows two or more workers to split a traditional 40- hour-a-week job. The last tip is the “telecommunication” which is a system of working at home on a computer that is linked to the office (p340,341).