(This is a contributed post)
Employees remain the most important aspect of every business. You never appreciate the benefits employees bring until you see what happens when they’re no longer there. Hardworking teams will help you generate leads and make lots of sales. The trick to cultivating teams with a hard work ethic is to keep them happy and motivated. A lot of the time, this means rewarding them financially. Money talks, and your employees will be eager to stick around and work hard when their bank balances are rewarded.
As it happens, there are three very smart ways you can financially reward employees within your company:
This is an idea for employees that have been consistently performing to the best of their abilities. If they are always surpassing targets and making a huge contribution, they deserve some extra recognition. A raise is a perfect solution. Take their annual wage and increase it. This way, they don’t just receive a one-off boost, they will make more money throughout the year. It’s a fantastic way to inspire loyalty as your employees suddenly realize that they can increase their salaries by working hard and sticking around.
Salary packaging is a really clever way of increasing employees’ take-home pay while reducing the amount of tax they pay. It’s one of the smarter benefit schemes out there to financially reward your team. The concept is relatively simple. First, you work with a reputable salary packaging company to set this benefit up. Then, you take some of your team’s salary and use it to pay for various expenses. This might include their mortgage payments, car payments, phone bills, and so on. Yes, you are technically deducting from their wages, but the money goes towards things they need to pay for anyway. On the flip side of this, these deductions technically reduce their salary, giving them less tax to pay on the remaining amount. Compare this to the normal method of payment and your employees will have to pay more tax, but will also still need to pay for their regular expenses. Overall, salary packaging helps your workers save money on tax payments and end up with a higher take-home.
The previous points have been about long-term financial benefits. But, what if you wanted to provide one-off rewards now and then? This is where bonuses are very handy. A bonus can be offered to employees if they reach certain targets. Or, it can be a reward for hard work during a certain period. Lots of companies offer Christmas bonuses to help teams get through the costly holiday season, and as a thank you for the hard work throughout the year. You can distribute your bonuses whenever you like. It is a brilliant way of showing your employees you care and appreciate their work. Bonuses also act as extra motivation if your team knows some extra money can be earned!
Ultimately, it benefits your business to financially reward your employees. Think of all of these ideas as investments. Invest in your employees, and they will reward you with improved performance and loyalty. In the end, this saves money in the long-term and helps you make more as well.