Yesterday talked about the three most important desires most people have (To make a difference; to be treated fairly; and to matter [to boss and colleagues].

What else can a manager do to motivate people without killing the budget? There are lots of tangible ways to show appreciation, reward effort, lighten the deadline-induced stress and just have fun.

Here’s a starter list to get you thinking

• Chocolate—in any form.
• Beyond chocolate use any/all kinds of food, fruit, cheese, etc.
• Buy annual family memberships to various museums, zoos, etc. (several to each). Most offer special visitation nights to special member-only exhibits and holiday showings. (The memberships may even be tax deductible.) Use the specials as rewards along with loaning out the memberships.
• Create company money worth $X that can be added together and redeemed for cash to use as they choose. You can have different denominations that add up over time with a max of ten bucks. Remember, it’s not about money it’s about fun.
• Check out custom fortune cookies and fill them with prizes ranging from candy to meals out.
• Plants (and their good for the office air and good Feng Shui, too:)
• Buy stuff that can be taken apart so that each part becomes a prize. People can trade and swap parts with each other to complete their thing faster. (Stuff like small fountains, gadgets, etc.)
• Coupons to music and book stores. (New/used stores are better since the $$ buy more; online stores use up the money in shipping.)
• Take the team to lunch for hitting deadlines.
• Have one or more daily hero awards with a special trophy or cap to wear the following day.
• Give annual Hero Awards (like the Oscars) at an awards dinner (maybe combine with your Holiday party). Projects and sales worked on could be like movies with various categories. Employees do the voting. This balances the instant gratification with longer term rewards.
  

Whatever you do, don’t forget your admin and support staff. They usually get left out of rewards/motivation programs, but they shouldn’t—they are the oil that keeps that machinery humming and things sure don’t run smoothly without them!

This post is meant to get your own creative juices flowing, and I hope you’ll take the time to share your ideas by commenting.

Your comments-priceless

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 30th, 2006 at 9:03 pm and is filed under Business info, Compensation, Culture, Motivation, Retention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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