In last month’s Reader Connection, we asked you, our readers, “How is your organization rewarding employees in these tight economic times?” Thanks to all of you who wrote back. We promised to pick one lucky reader to win a free seminar, and our winner for this month is Marsha S. from Georgia! Here’s what she had to say ...

“Overtime is certainly an issue when finances are tight, so why not cut down on overtime in a creative way. At our office, we split the staff into two groups and every Friday, one group gets a half-day off. Our office is slow on Fridays so that works out great for us.

“Another idea is to reward with a flexible schedule. Maybe one of your employees who is a parent would like to be off one day each week to go volunteer at their child’s school. They could work 9 or 10 hours 4 days a week and be off the other day.”

“Another idea is to have an employee of the month or quarter program. Employees with outstanding performance have their picture posted in the lobby and/or company newsletter. Maybe even a special reserved parking space. This would work better for larger offices.”

Other ideas are:

• Casual dress days.
• Handwritten Thank You notes for a job well done.
• Contracting with a credit union for employee savings accounts. Our office does this through our hospital where our doctors do surgery. There is really no cost to the office: The employee designates what amount of their net pay they want deposited into the credit union account. And once the employee is a member of the credit union via the savings account, they have access to all of the other great services provided by the credit union. It really is a nice benefit here.
• There are some entertainment facilities (theme parks, theaters, etc.) that will allow employers to set up a deal for reduced ticket prices for their employees. There may be a small cost in setting this up or a small cost per year to maintain the relationship, but it is an idea worth checking out.
• If an employee comes up with a really good idea for improving business, let them pitch it to the management team. A show of confidence in the employee is a GREAT no cost reward.

Most of the answers we received have a common thread. No one has escaped the financial downturn that has affected the country these past few years and we heard some innovative ideas for recognizing and rewarding employees. But there is one recurring theme: Money is not the top motivator when an employee feels that he or she is important to, and valued by, his or her employer.

But the one thing that kept coming back over and over is that if an employee truly feels valued by the company, monetary rewards fall way down on the list of things that motivates them to do even better.

According to management expert, Kelli Vrla, the best rewards for outstanding work comes from the heart, not the payroll department.

“I once worked at a radio station and had an absolutely huge month with $100,000 in sales. The station owner waltzes by my desk on a Friday, coat over his shoulder, briefcase in hand, and flips a wad of money to me with a ‘Have a good weekend, Kel’ as he walked out the door. It was over $1,000, but that was supposed to make me feel appreciated?”

“Now don’t get me wrong, I like money, but if he had come to my desk with no overcoat, no briefcase and NO MONEY, looked me square in the eye and said, ‘Kelli, I just want you to know that I appreciate what you’ve done for us. You’re the reason there are lights on in this place, and the reason that we can keep on going and do what we do … thank you!’ I tell you what, I would have killed for that man. I would have loved it!”

Vrla says the three things that most employees want should be common sense to any manager. Employees want to feel valued, appreciated and understood. But how exactly are you supposed to discover what it takes to make your employees feel this way?

“Easy,” says Vrla, “you ask them!”

Vrla promotes the idea of Customized Appreciation. In a nutshell, CA is when you simply ask each of your employees for a list of 5 things that THEY would like YOU to do for them. The beauty of this is, even if there’s only one thing on their list that you can actually do for them, at least you’ve nailed that one thing — and that’s a lot better average than many managers and supervisors have when recognizing and rewarding employees.

You might get answers that you can’t give (like the smart aleck in Marketing that says he wants a Porsche), but most of them you should be able to handle. Some may want simple things like being able to leave an hour early on a Friday, or coming in an hour later on a Monday … an extra half-hour for lunch once a week to run errands.

And even those old stand-bys like T-shirts, caps, coffee mugs and small gift certificates can be used wisely to give employees a warm sense of satisfaction. The University of Southern California recently created a rewards and recognition system where the HR department gift-wraps these items and gives them to USC employees at a monthly “celebration” with all of management in attendance. Even though the gifts are small, it’s the formal acknowledgement that the employees value the most — even if they act like it’s no big deal.

The other critical factor in making rewards mean something is to make the reward immediately after the action or performance. With the exception of annual Employee of the Year awards that many companies make during the holiday parties, you should NEVER wait more than a month to recognize outstanding effort.

Many companies have monthly company-wide meetings which are perfect opportunities to speak out for your employees. Getting praise from their boss in front of the rest of the company absolutely positively gives those employees a rush that most checks won’t provide. And you can bet that an employee who’s been acknowledged in front of their peers in a positive way will become YOUR biggest advocate in terms of loyalty and production.