The best employee reward system helps you motivate staff, strengthen your workplace culture, and attract new talent without exhausting your human resources with piles of extra work. After testing over 50 options and giving and receiving hundreds of kudos over the past five years, we’ve experienced firsthand how easily such a platform can foster a culture of appreciation, especially when paired with its sibling employee recognition software.

What is the best rewards program for my staff? How much does it cost? Any pitfalls and adoption mistakes I need to bear in mind? These are some of the questions we’ll help you answer in this guide.

• Matter: Employee rewards system inside Slack and MS Teams
• Cooleaf: Great point-based employee rewards system for global enterprises
• Reward Gateway: Reward system for employees with excellent mobile experience

An effective employee rewards system strengthens workplace engagement, boosts morale and HR efficiency, and reinforces company's core values, all while cultivating a positive culture.

Improved Employee Engagement and Retention

With 77% of employees performing their best when engaged and appreciated, rewarding worker contributions has a tangible impact. That does not just stop at better staff performance; it also helps reduce turnover rates. Gallup found that organizations that prioritize rewards at work see a 56% decrease in the likelihood of employees seeking new job opportunities

You would also want to consider a program fostering peer-to-peer recognition, as recent data suggests that employees who feel recognized by their peers are five times more likely to feel valued and to invest in their work.

Increased Productivity and Innovation

Employee recognition statistics demonstrate that employees perform better and feel more motivated when their contributions are recognized. According to Gartner, a well-designed recognition program can lead to an 11.1% increase in average employee performance.

Also, when employees receive regular recognition, they are more likely to offer creative solutions and strive for higher performance. For instance, those recognized monthly are 36% more likely to report feeling productive and engaged compared to those recognized quarterly.

Higher HR Efficiency

Too often, HR professionals wear many hats and have multiple aspects they need to attend to, so any opportunity to streamline the processes should be seized. The best solutions have all manner of automation options to ensure that rewards programs are implemented consistently and fairly. These tools can automate everything from milestone celebrations, work anniversaries, and birthdays to onboarding—all in one user-friendly interface.

Strengthened Company Culture and Employer Brand

Implementing a well-planned rewards strategy with the help of employee rewards software is a surefire way to build positivity around your company brand.

Rewards don’t have to be financial, either: Plenty of well-known companies have received positive press coverage for the non-monetary incentives they offer to reward staff.

There are generally two employee reward types:

• Monetary rewards are directly linked to an employee's performance, achievements, or contribution to the organization. Examples of monetary rewards for employees include bonuses that comprise a percentage of their salary, a commission on a sale, and a bonus allocated to reaching a specific metric target.
• Non-monetary rewards don’t involve direct financial compensation but aim to motivate and recognize individuals by gifting a specific item or experience. Some ideas for non-monetary rewards include an employee award title, peer nominations, an employee wellbeing program, paid days off to rest after hard work to celebrate a big achievement, and company-sponsored training opportunities that an employee wants to pursue.

You can use either one or both. The center point here is to ensure that the rewards initiatives (as well as the employee recognition programs) are: 1) meaningful to the recipients (your employees) and 2) aligned with your company values.