Leading a serious business is actually a lot more than being able to pay your employees at the end of each month. The competition out there is pretty tough, so you need to put in your finest effort to keep every member of your team happy, no matter if you’re a head of a large company or a small business. The concept here is quite simple – if employees are taken care of and they have something to look forward to, your business will grow and your office will spread out.
Usually, when companies need to work on boosting productivity they tend to use incentive programs, which can work pretty well but it’s not enough, because a large percentage of them have deadlines. In order to solve this problem, you should devote yourself to coming up with various perks which will keep your employees on the edge. If you do introduce them to your business, there will always be something fun going on around the office, so you’ll actually be working on productivity and entertainment at the same time. Check out these ten perks, maybe they turn out to be the perfect match for your working environment!
1. Incentive Monday
Mondays are slow. Even though most people use weekends to recharge their batteries, it can be difficult to devote one’s attention to work. That is why you should take initiative and motivate your employees and introduce something called Incentive Monday to your business. Start by creating a weekly task that needs to be completed, and offer some kind of bonus to the employee who achieves your expectations. By doing this, you’ll improve the quality of your services because everyone will try harder because of that award you’ll grant, and the best one will enjoy its perks! Besides, every Monday will be like having a clean slate, so every member of your team will be motivated to do better next time.
2. Loyalty Cards
Not all perks should be funded from your company’s budget. Once you settle on a certain location, your business will affect all other ones near you – for example, during breaks and after work, a number of your employees stops by to the closest shop to get groceries, right? This is something you should use by making a deal with that shop and together, you can create some kind of loyalty program. Therefore, you’ll have a positive effect on local economy, and you’ll make your employees happy by those discount perks (which should come as a result out of your agreement). If you have no previous experience in this area, check out this list of ten quite successful loyalty projects from which you can learn a lot.
3. Office Library
If you want to become a truly successful leader you need to work on your education constantly, but you also need to encourage others to do the same. This can be provided by conducting direct strategies, like organizing courses, but there’s a more subtle way of doing it. If you invest in an Office Library project you’ll enable employees to have a quiet place where they can enjoy great books. Apart from giving the world one more library, you’re also providing members of your team with a place where they can relieve from and gather more useful knowledge, which can only turn out to be good for your business. Having books around the office is an awesome perk!
4. Family-Friendly Office
Every office can and should develop a family-friendly attitude, no matter what kind of business you’re in or in which stage of growth you’re at. Pick a day, any day of the year, and make it an official Family Day for your company – you can organize small tournaments, educational seminars or some kind of a treasure quest. By introducing this perk to your business, you’ll actually be investing into future generations that might inherit the work positions of your employees. Besides, this kind of organization encourages having and developing family bonds, which is exactly what society needs right now.
5. New Gadgets & Software Updates
It’s pretty common and recommended for a company leader to enable the technology necessary for completing their tasks, but why stop there? There are all sorts of new, cutting edge pieces of technology which aren’t just useful, but pretty entertaining as well. If you’re worried about costs, you should look at the whole thing from a different angle – many startups and small businesses have great ideas for new gadgets that need testing and promotions, so there’s always room for making new deals. If you do some research, you’ll encounter a lot of free things you can use as perks, like this PowerPoint plugin for example, which can help a lot when it comes to visualizing of your services.
6. Travel Perks
Keeping in touch with your partners and establishing new arrangements worldwide is important for any type of business but this can be exhausting and time-consuming. You could outsource this job to an employee who deserves this position, and allow them to enjoy traveling perks while spreading the good word about your company. Again, this is one other way to enable your employees to widen their horizons, which is always a good idea. Besides, this is an excellent opportunity to create a new partnership with an airline, and broaden the diversity of your travel perks!
7. B-day Perks
If you want your employees to be happy, you need to let them know you care. Everyone looks forward to their birthday, even though some may say they don’t really like celebrating it. Taking an hour out of your work hours to share a cake, exchange some cards and have a nice conversation should be just enough, but you can always go a step further and invest a bit more perhaps. For example, you can extend your loyalty card deal we have mentioned earlier and enable your employees to have additional discount perks on their big day.
8. Snack Day
The fact is, everyone loves free food. If you introduce food perks to your business, you’ll definitely cause the level of dopamine to rise around the office. If you don’t have enough funds to do this on a weekly basis, you can have your Snack Day each month in the beginning. Additionally, you can focus on providing energy snacks and drinks in order to increase productivity, so you’ll end up with happy and hard-working employees. It would be great to pick the slowest day in your office and make it an official Snack Day, so you can speed up the pace. Before you do, make sure you do some homework and find out which snacks are healthy and nutritious but tasty at the same time!
9. Nap Time!
In order to reach maximum productivity around the office, you should encourage your employees to take a certain amount of breaks. It’s a scientific fact that breaks help a lot when you want to get more work done. If you want to enable your employees this amazing perk you should know that the best way to do it is to provide them with energy pods! When everyone get used to them, your energy pods will become a quiet place where they can rest their minds. Obviously, after a short but effective nap every member of your team will be able to continue their work with a new-found enthusiasm.
10. Suggestion Box
This is a pretty old method, but that doesn’t mean it’s not efficient. People in your office need to know their voice counts, and that they have the power to adjust their environment according to their needs. This awesome perk won’t cost you a dime, but it will be a significant change when it comes to the working atmosphere. Besides, I’m sure you’ll be able to learn about many great ideas, and find a way to indulge their requests when the time comes.
By introducing these perks to your business, you’ll create a unique environment for your employees, which will make them proud to be a part of your company. This will obviously affect their ambitions to stay on their current positions, to try harder and show real progress. I hope you decide to make at least some of these perks part of your work routine, and if you do, I’d like you to let me know how it goes!
