How To Motivate Employees Without Money

A 2017 study by the Incentive Research Foundation found that 80-90 percent of high-performing organizations used non-cash reward incentives, while average-performing organizations were less likely to do so. Employees are especially motivated by meaning, which requires more than just cold hard cash. 

Here are some great ways you can motivate employees without cash rewards.

Recognize Employees with Meaningful Messages

By integrating Assembly into Slack or Microsoft Teams, you can easily send a recognition message that is tied to a company value. Why is this important? To maintain a strong company culture and an engaged team, employees need to know expectations and feel confident in their decisions. When you recognize their successes by tying them back to a company value, both the employee and their colleagues are able to see how specific efforts and behaviors impact overall company success.

Motivate Employees with Rewards That Fit Your Culture

If you want to motivate your employees without money, have a solid understanding of who they are and the culture you are trying to create.Assembly enables you to set up rewards that you think will excite your team members and includes a library of more than 50 personalized ideas. You may have one employee who would love a gift card to their favorite store or a donation to their favorite charity. On the other hand, someone else may be motivated by lunch with the CEO or a team party. Ask what people want and consider how each reward fits in with your culture and engagement strategy.

Keep Your Teams Motivated with Special Team Events

Team projects often occur over a longer period of time. It’s easy for employees to get burned out or lose sight of the end goal if there’s no opportunity for a pause and appropriate praise. You need to recognize your teams throughout the course of longer projects, but there are better ways to do so than cash. Instead, let your team take a breather and celebrate progress or results together. Consider a team outing like an escape room, bowling, or a catered picnic with games.

Motivate Employees with Development Opportunities

Employees need to know that their leaders understand their strengths and career goals. Oftentimes these things are only discussed during onboarding or performance reviews. Instead, use opportunities throughout the year to motivate your employees. If you notice they’re having great success in one area, ask them if they’d like the opportunity to lead a project, serve on a committee, or attend leadership meetings to share their knowledge. If you know they’d like to move into a leadership role, take time to offer them coaching or allow them to mentor a new employee.

Rethink Cash Rewards

You don’t have to completely throw cash awards out the door.Instead, think about them differently. Rather than performance-based awards, think about more timely awards. Smaller cash-based rewards spread out over the course of a year give you multiple recognition opportunities. If you are giving cash, just be sure it comes with a meaningful message. Why is the employee receiving this cash award? What was the impact of their contribution?

There are countless ways to recognize employees without cash, so don’t be afraid to get creative and integrate helpful tools and resources.