52 Ways to Reward Your Staff

We’ve been talking about self-care for YOU, as the business owner, and stressing the importance of taking care of the relational, emotional, and physical aspects of your life. But what about your staff?   They can also get stressed, worried, and burned out at their jobs. So be sure to reward them, celebrate with them, and praise them for a job well done.

To help you this year, here are 52 ways to reward your staff. Pick the ones that sound best to you…or, better yet, try one every week of the year!

1. Surprise them with a pizza or burgers for lunch
2. Take them to a movie, play, or museum
3. Take them to a sporting event
4. Do team building at a “Breakout”
5. Attend a gala together at your local rescue (or any event that supports the rescue)
6. Give them a day off…with pay
7. Let them come to work late one day…with pay
8. Hand write a thank you note to them
9. Sponsor a food truck or ice cream truck to come to the office one afternoon
10. Pay for their dog’s annual vaccines
11. Create a special trophy that can be an impromptu award that gets passed to a new person doing something right each week
12. Go bowling together or go play miniature golf as a team
13. Do a secret Santa type gift exchange
14. Call them in your office one at a time just to personally thank them
15. Catch them doing something right and praise them in public
16. Sponsor an open house for family and friends of employees
17. Have a movie night and invite the whole family to attend
18. Pay for a month at a health club
19. Post praise, recognition or other accolades on a public bulletin board
20. Recognize employees on Facebook and in newsletters
21. Introduce your clients to your employees so they know how great a staff you have
22. Send them to an educational conference or online course
23. Give them gift cards to their favorite places
24. Ask your customers to write thank you’s to their favorite employee
25. Make cookies or a cake for them
26. Put up a “our staff ROCKS” sign as a surprise one day
27. Wash their car while they work
28. Give them special nametags
29. Give them a special branded item (shirt, bag, etc) that isn’t a part of their uniform
30. Bring in breakfast
31. Send a hand written note to the employees significant other explaining how important the employee is to your business
32. Sponsor a manager dunk tank, pie in the face contest or other similar event
33. Fill in for them so they can take a 20 minute break
34. Have a chili cook off with your staff, award fun prizes
35. Have your staff bring in a baby photo and try to guess who’s who at lunch
36. Do a press release highlighting your staff and send to your local paper
37. Recognize employees volunteer work and family activities
38. Invite their significant other to come to work or lunch one day
39. Buy girl scout cookies to give the staff
40. Give out movie tickets
41. Create a thank you video for your staff and post it on social media and your newsletter
42. Give everyone a lottery ticket
43. Stock the refrigerator with your employee’s favorite sodas and snacks for a week
44. Hire a singing telegram for your staff
45. Buy a book or magazine subscription for an employee
46. Have a “work from home day” and give an employee a special project to complete at home
47. Go to happy hour together
48. Assign specific meditation breaks during the day and let your employees meditate
49. Spruce up the employee break room so it looks clean, spacious and inviting
50. Give out high fives, ask for applause, and recognize innovative thinking at employee meetings
51. Give out dog toys or treats to staff for their dogs
52. Bring chair massages to your office one day and treat everyone to a massage