As a business owner, you want your business to be always 100% efficient. Or, at least, very close to that. But the reality is that the main engine of your efficiency, your employees, do not always put their best efforts. This can happen for various reasons. People feel bored, burnt out, unappreciated, or simply unhappy. The question is: what can you do to make them feel better and involve themselves more in the process?

There are some obvious solutions like a pay raise or position shift, however, they don’t always do the trick. Non-monetary rewards do a much better job in this case. The variety of these is huge and goes from those which will not cost you a thing to some more expensive options. Let’s look at the best versions of benefits and perks you can implement for your employees.

Good Management

How is this a perk, you ask? Well, it might not be very obvious but good management is actually an important benefit. A good Team Lead can make a big difference for several reasons. For starters, people feel much more secure when their manager knows how to do things. This is basically a reassurance of having a steady and well-balanced plan, less stress and a good understanding.

Another thing is, the trust established between the manager and employees. People want to be sure that this is a person they can turn to if they have an issue or an internal conflict. And to know they will get a clam, weighted decision.

Free snacks & food discounts

Many companies provide coffee or tea for their workers and visitors in the office. However, having some snacks in addition to that can be a game changer. Here your possibilities are pretty much endless. You can go for cookies, granola bars, fruits, and so much more. None of this will cost you much.

You can organize a takeaway day for the whole office once a month if that fits in your budget. Just order a few pizzas and have a lunch together. This will also serve as a great bonding experience.

Another possibility is to arrange some special offers or discounts with a cafe or canteen in the nearby area. Might be a bit more expensive, but provides an opportunity for your employees to choose whatever they want. And you can not underestimate the power of choice.

Any of these can greatly increase the overall mood in the office. People will feel taken care of and less worried about getting hungry and upset in the office.

Organize a get-together

Lately, we hear so much about team building. And again, depending on the size of your company and the relations between employees you can go for a few options.

• A night out

An evening dedicated to bowling, aqua park, watching a movie, or a field trip can be great for a team. People get to know each other more, develop better relationships, and relax from the work tension. And before you start calculating in your head how much it will cost you remember that you don’t obligatory have to pay! You can organize something where everyone pays for themselves. Your intent is what counts here.

• Office entertainments

From board games to activities like ping pong or table football, from in-office movie nights to play station contests, pretty much anything goes here. Just make sure people are into what you want to suggest them.

• Office parties

These can be parties dedicated to certain holidays, like Christmas, or just an office custom of having a party every quarter or with every project finished. As long as people go with it, why not?

Flexibility

This is probably one of the most important perks ever. And flexibility at work comes in many forms. This can include working from home when required, being able to arrive or leave earlier in case of need, ability to go to the gym or anywhere else in the middle of the day. Or, this can be simply flexible working hours.

The ability to control their time is extremely important to people. If you make the option available for them, you get extra points by default. Of course, you should not go against the needs of the company and if the schedule should be fixed, so be it. Find other possibilities to give a bit more freedom to your employees to make it work. With a less pressuring timetable, your employees can enjoy their working process more and therefore bring you more value.

Professional training

For this benefit, there are two main possibilities: in-house training and external ones. You can choose one or both for a better effect, whatever suits you. Both options will allow people to get more desired skills and feel more empowered and ensured in the quality of their work.

• In-house training

Hire someone from the outside to perform certain professional training for your employees. As an alternative, you can use your own employees with more experience to be couches for others. These can be organized as seminars from time to time or turned into a regular in-office “school”. Either way, people can learn whatever they need or are interested in.

• External training

If the in-house training is not an option or is not sufficient, you can always send your employees for external seminars. For example, conferences or master classes of their choice or yours. But, be careful here, you want to engage them in taking part, not force them.

Set up an appreciation system

If you have an opportunity, create a system to appreciate your employees. It can be an internal bonus system. Depending on what you do and the company structure, you can assign that to anything you want. Let’s say, points collected based on customers’ reviews, or partner reviews.

You can award a prize to the best worker of the month or create a system where everybody can collect points and get something depending on the number of points collected. The most important thing is that they see a relation between their performance and an award.

Create a wellness program

You want your employees to be healthy and productive and you can help them with this. This will ultimately save you some money on paid sick leaves (if you have any) and just make people happier. You can go as far as providing or partially supporting gym memberships or as little as creating a running or yoga group in the company. Any outside activities, like creating football, volleyball, or any other teams will do a great job too. You can as well provide some simple sports equipment in the office.

Bottom line

In conclusion, we should say that money can’t buy it all. Most of the things people appreciate in life are free or not that costly. Talk to your employees, get to know them, what they need, what they lack in the office. You can allow their imagination go as far as they want. Later just filter the ideas out and choose what you surely can provide. Stay open to suggestions and feedbacks and you will have a happy team and a great performance.