Fun incentive program ideas

Spontaneous late arrival or early departure days are always a motivator. Go enjoy it. Give out coupons for 15 minutes of time off as a spot award.

Employees can collect them to add up to leaving an hour early one day or coming in late one day. On a hot day, have the leadership team go around the office with a cart handing out ice cream e. Develop a peer recognition program that lets employees give each other on-the-spot accolades on a community bulletin board or internal website.

This allows employees to recognize their peers directly. Each month, the employees receiving awards could be entered into a drawing for a gift card or other award. Make employees feel special on their big day. Host a team lunch, throw a small party, pass out cupcakes — there are many simple ways to let them know you care. Develop a points system for a reward program. This provides a perfect platform for ongoing recognition. Employees receive points every time they go above and beyond.

After accumulating a certain amount, employees can redeem their points for gifts. You could offer a variety of rewards for the employees to select from.

Incorporate some fun, healthy competition into the workplace — such as college football team brackets — and award the winner. Give your employees an opportunity to work on special projects beyond their regular responsibilities. Doing this will allow them to grow, and will also demonstrate your confidence in their abilities to do a good job.

When an employee goes above and beyond in a truly significant fashion, you could pay for a major payment or purchase for that individual. This might be a mortgage payment, automobile payment or major home appliance. There are two key considerations for making this a success. First, the reward should be tied to a significant achievement that resulted in huge savings or brought in additional revenue. Second, you should communicate to the employee, as well as the rest of your staff, how this behavior helped the organization succeed or gives the company a competitive advantage.

The shapes should reflect the cause the employee cares about. For instance, if the employee volunteers with military veterans, the cookies might be in the shapes of stars and flags.

Create a traveling trophy e. Decorate the station with positive messages on signs e. Recognize departments on a rotating basis. Each month a designated bulletin board highlights their contributions to the organization, the individual employees, their greatest achievements, etc.

Designate a day to change-up the dress code , e. Post team results in common areas being sure to include the names of each member. It may be a chart or graph that shows positive improvement or it may be a simple description of a project that highlights the benefits to the organization. Have all employees draw a name of another employee.

Hold a contest to design a t-shirt that includes the company logo. The winning design is used on a t-shirt to be worn on a special day or for a special event. Redecorate break rooms and continue to ensure they are clean and maintained regularly. Employees want to know the organization appreciates their hard work and are deserving of a quality space to rejuvenate.

Invite employees to represent their department at a meeting they typically would not attend. Have them report back to their team. Ask customers or vendors to recognize employees who have contributed to their positive experience with the company by providing them with a card or unique item to present to the employee of their choice. The employee can then turn the item in for an additional award.

That means less work gets done, productivity suffers, and your team members will wonder why they came in. Take the week off to avoid all the problems and stress that the holidays can bring.

They could walk, bike, rollerblade, carpool, take the train, or ride the bus. If they do, they are reimbursed the cost of that transportation up to a set amount per day in their paycheck. When your employees are relaxed, they are better able to focus on the job at hand. If you want better focus and better work, bring in a masseuse once a week to give free or minute massages to all team members.

Some companies subscribe to the adage that innovation requires inspiration. To keep the creative juices flowing, include an inspiration account in your employee incentive program. Provide each team member with a set amount of money that can be used to further their personal growth. Yoga lessons? Guitar lessons? Monday is laundry day at one Venice, California-based media company. After a long weekend of fun in the sun, all 80 employees can turn in their clothes to be washed, dried, pressed, and returned to them by the end of the day.

When you offer the option of flexible scheduling to your employees, you give them a bit of freedom within a very structured system. Ditching the , or at least being flexible about when hours are worked, helps your team members feel in control of their own schedule. Here are a few examples of flexible schedules that might work in your business:. Flexible work hours are a wonderful incentive for your employees, but they are also a nightmare to schedule.

Instead, incorporate a cloud-based employee management app, like Sling , to give you and your employees the ability and freedom to create the schedule that works for your business.

Employees can access Sling anytime from their phones, mobile devices, or desktop computers. They can request time off, find their own substitutes, tweak their schedules to fit their needs, and so much more. It also gives you, the manager , the ability to track the hours your employees have worked without your physically being there.

This power and flexibility even extend into the next entry on our employee-incentive-program list. With the proliferation of the internet and the interconnectivity of all things, telecommuting has never been easier. In fact, team members no longer have to report to an office every day — or even live in the same state, country, or continent.

Managers can direct the activities of their team members with apps and software, like Sling, that were unheard of just a few short years ago. Sling allows employees to clock in and out from any device with an internet connection.

This feature works whether your team assembles in your restaurant every morning or is spread all over the globe. Sling offers features like Tasks and Messages that let you manage your employees from anywhere, communicate freely and easily, and stay engaged at all times even if everyone works from different locations.

That makes telecommuting a feasible perk that you can offer to all your team members. Make it easy for your employees to improve their skills by reimbursing part or all of their tuition when they take a class that is relevant to their job. Want to improve productivity and morale?

Incentives that recognize team effort and success will naturally lead to your team's overall satisfaction with their jobs. This job satisfaction also leads to greater productivity and performance because employees will value their work as they know their managers recognize their contributions.

Increases in your team's productivity, performance and development in sales can lead to an overall improvement in the way your team works together.

Providing incentives for the entire team rather than implementing a single reward for an individual leads to an improvement-based effort within the team. They'll be more likely to recognize each other's contributions, find creative ways to solve problems and implement creative strategies that ultimately support the achievement of company sales goals. When teams improve their collaboration efforts, increase their productivity and feel recognized for their work, they'll be more likely to have an upbeat and positive attitude in the workplace.

This boost in team morale is highly crucial for completing meaningful work, meeting objectives and adding value to the entire organization. Satisfied and content employees are also more likely to be highly supportive of their teammates in reaching objectives rather than focusing solely on their individual needs.

When integrating a sales incentive program, it's important to develop a rewards system that is meaningful to the team as a whole, each individual on the team and to the organization's bottom line. Consider the following tips for an effective and successful sales incentive plan:.

Figure out what motivates everybody on the team. For instance, create a simple survey to find out what the majority of your team members enjoy, what they're interested in and what motivates them.

Find similar interests and motivators that your team has in common, and then discuss these ideas with your team. You'll likely receive valuable feedback into what your team would like to see as an incentive, and this is important because it will set you up for providing something truly meaningful as recognition for your team's accomplishments. Ensure the objectives you set for your sales team are reasonable.

You can use individual objectives to create an overall average for the entire team. As an example, think of a car sales team. An individual objective could include each team member's sales amount with a team objective that takes the average of these individual amounts. In this case, the team is working toward a collective goal while further improving their individual skills that support the achievement of these goals. Set measurable criteria that tell you when your team meets objectives.

For instance, this can be a daily amount in sales, a weekly quota of products sold or another metric that you can easily measure to evaluate achievement and performance. Additionally, the metrics you implement should be fairly simple and not overly complex so you can easily and quickly measure performance and progress.

It's also important to alternate between incentive ideas, especially with teams who have diverse interests and motivators.