How Can We Create a Fun and Motivating Workplace Without Monetary Rewards?

Hi Everyone,

I wish to discuss the non-monetary rewards that encourage the employees and keep them motivated. We all know the importance of these rewards. My primary motive here is not to have ideas for RETAINING the employees but creating an overall healthy environment and encouraging a fun workplace for all our team members.

We are an IT company with a team size of 30 and already have lots of facilities for the team members like free lunch at the workplace, games, and books, etc. We go for coffee outings, movies, etc., on a monthly basis. This changes the work monotony.

I would really appreciate some nice innovative ideas from the experienced members of this community.

Looking forward to some really innovative ideas.

Thanks in advance,
Ketaky Sharma

Hi Ketaky,

It's pleasant that you have already been encouraging your employees, and Jhawahar has already given you a valuable and meaningful link where almost all the ways are provided. To add on, the following can also be considered:

- Always send an appreciation/thank you email to the deserving individuals (if desired, you can also cc others in the email) for their contribution, idea, or work.
- Have frequent individual meetings with your employees to receive their feedback and opinions. This way, you can understand what they are up to, what they expect, or sometimes even how it might be in favor of your work.
- You can also give away awards on a quarterly basis for performance, cost-saving, etc.

Dear Members,

I am inclined to feel that Non-Monetary rewards have a very limited shelf life and scope. The boss should do some homework before deciding on the appropriate reward or reward event for each person or team.

- The same reward should not be repeated in the span of the next one year or so, as its novelty would be lost.
- Emotional quotient plays a major part in these rewards. Monetary value does not.
- In fact, there is a need to coin an entirely different term for these, as these cannot be equated with rewards.
- The aspects of caring, emotional bonding, and personal touch need to be highlighted and emphasized.

With some creativity, these rewards can be a great hit for get-togethers and bonding. It has the power to convert an underperformer to come online; an errant employee to understand his deviations and a rebel to become part of the team.

By calling them non-monetary rewards, we have effectively ignored and assigned a second-class citizenry to these initiatives. I am convinced that HR should stand by these as they reflect the penchant of HR for Human relations.

Can we try some new terms for these initiatives?

Apart from all the above suggestions, I would like to add one more thing. Please allow the employees to work on what they would like to work on. This would really increase their productivity, bring revenues to the company, enhance loyalty towards the company, and also improve the work environment.

Kavitha, I really like your inputs. Whereas, Mr. Murthy, I agree that these rewards or perhaps little gestures or initiatives that the management takes are short-term, but at the same time, I feel that these hold a lot of importance. As you mentioned, it can really encourage an underperformer. I'll surely accept these ideas and will try to implement them as and when I find an opportunity to do the same. But let's keep the ideas rolling; I am sure we'll have some brilliant ideas. Let's try to look beyond something that's already there in the system. I know that most of the rules and policies are dependent on the team size, work culture, and lots of other factors, but this is just an initiative to think differently and keep a fun work environment.

Regards,
Ketaky

Hi,

We can celebrate birthdays and issue gift coupons on their birthdays. We can take them for a day out.

Regards,
Kishore