Many employees unaware of on-the-spot rewards

Rewarding employees on the spot for good performance can encourage staff to become more engaged and increase their productivity.

Instant rewards can range from a box of chocolates or a bottle of wine, to gift vouchers, cinema tickets, restaurant discounts, items from an online catalogue, or experience days.

However, new research shows that many firms are not making the most of on-the-spot employee benefits.

In a survey carried out for specialist rewards and incentives provider Hawk Incentives by research agency Sapio Research, 47% of HR professionals said that on-the-spot rewards are currently offered to the entire workforce in their company. However, a large number of employees seem to be unaware of the rewards they could receive: only 16% of employees said that instant rewards are offered in their workplace -- suggesting that employers need to do more to communicate the availability of these benefits.

The low awareness levels amongst staff are in contrast to the fact that the majority of HR professionals think on-the-spot rewards have a strong effect on staff acquisition (55%) and even greater importance when it comes to talent retention (62%).

What's more, 20% of HR professionals rated the return on investment (ROI) of on-the-spot rewards and incentives programmes as 'highly positive', with 57% agreeing that such benefits showed a positive overall ROI.

Commenting on the findings, Ben Orme, product director for Hawk Incentives' on-the-spot solution Hawk Select, said: "The value of on-the-spot rewards is not disputed in the industry. However, the big challenge -- especially for large businesses -- is to create a seamless experience for line managers and motivators to make them immediately accessible to the members of their team without losing the personal touch."

With previous studies showing the importance of immediacy when rewarding people for individual performance, Hawk Incentives has introduced a new functionality to its Select platform designed to improve the 'on-the-spot' experience for employees and their managers by providing a code which can be exchanged for gift cards, vouchers and digital rewards online.