Recognition and rewards are powerful tools of motivation and performance improvement in employees. Rewards can be of two different kinds, monetary and non-monetary. Monetary awards have known to bring about more motivation in employees than non-monetary awards; however recent studies beg to differ. Rewards and recognition usually have direct cost associated to them, for instance stock awards, cash bonuses or a variety of paid perks by the company which may include paid parking, gift certificates, car allowances etc. However other rewards, “non-monetary” that is, may be less tangible but still quite effective. These intangible rewards may include informal or formal acknowledgement of an employee and his work, more enjoyable job assignments, different training opportunities etc.  The primary goal of rewards as defined by Jack Zigon is “something that increases the frequency of an employee action” [1998]. Allen and Helms say that, “rewards systems should be closely aligned to organizational strategies, to achieve desired goals” [2002]. Keller suggests that “people are motivated to higher levels of job performance by positive recognition from their managers and peers.”

Recent research has shown that some employees are chiefly motivated by monetary rewards, and try to improve their job performance to achieve these rewards. Then again, some people see monetary rewards as vulgar and are discouraged by such offers. So it is important to understand, that not everyone can be motivated to increase work performance with financial perks. This second group is more likely to be motivated by non-monetary perks like having lunch with the head or getting an extra day off, being thanked at a departmental function is also a creative idea for motivation. Reinforcing is not the same as reward so the two terms should not be mixed, “reinforcement is intended to create a measured increase in the rate of a desirable behavior following the addition of something to the environment.”[sky]

Advantages of employee rewards

There are a number of advantages of employee rewards for both the employee and employer:

Employee advantages

•    Peace of mind
•    Better productivity because of the intention of reward
•    Pride in company and work
•    Employees enjoy work more because of appreciation

Employer advantages