It’s becoming more apparent that money isn’t everything when taking the next steps in our career.

This shift in society opens the door to incentives that suit the work life balance and shared family responsibilities employees need.

In a way, incentives are investment. The can reduce staff turnover, increase productivity, and improve the quality of work.

Let’s look at some popular incentives.

Flexible working hours

Also known as, flexi-time, is when an employee can alternate their working hours, patterns, or location. The agreement is part of the employment contract but can be negotiated if both parties agree.

Parents, carers, the disabled, 55+, and abuse victims are eligible to make a request for flexible working arrangement. As flexi-time has been so beneficial to those eligible, employers offer it as standard to all staff as an incentive.

Staff training

Benefiting the company and employee, staff training is a positive way of developing skills and improve the company.

Customer service training, skill gaps, technology training, are just a few areas where training can benefit.

Before you decide on which areas of your business would benefit from training, it’s important to know what the long-term goals of the business are to ensure you grow your staff effectively.

Socialising events

Small work events whether it be a quiz night or something the company had sponsored is a great way of making staff feel appreciated.

Studies have shown that social events are a great way of team building and forms workplace friendships. These studies state that friendships in the work place make staff more productive as they enjoy the workplace becomes more enjoyable and reduces stress.

Group and personal bonuses

Meeting targets individually can come as a bonus or commission.

Companies are now using quarterly team targets as a way of motivating staff. Once they hit their targets, they win a trip away, night out, or experience.

This incentive is another great way of benefiting your staff that has a positive outcome for the company too.

Personal project time

More and more we see people who have a side business or idea. Allowing staff to work on their passion businesses or way to make more money can be encouraged to spark creativity and productivity.

This means they when the employee has a set period that they work on this resulting in less disruption to usual business.