While major corporations and nationwide business have the resources to offer competitive salaries and great benefits to their employees, your small business may not have the cash reserves to provide similar advantages. However, it's important to reward veteran staff members, recent hires for premium entry level jobs and those with internships at your office for solid performance. If you're unsure of how to keep your workers motivated and engaged, offering creative incentives is a great way to keep office morale high and improve productivity. Here are some strategies geared toward small businesses to help you get started.

Flexible schedules
Offering employees the flexibility to adapt their professional schedules to accommodate aspects of their personal lives without creating an issue is a nice way to show your company understands individual needs. This doesn't mean that you'll be letting your workers duck out early every day; it just signifies that you're open to nontraditional work hours and telecommuting occasionally. Some employers offer flex time during the summer that allows employees to leave an hour early on Fridays, which you might also want to consider.

Office competitions
If you're looking to enhance office productivity while emphasizing a spirit of camaraderie among your staff members, consider implementing some friendly office competitions with prizes and rewards for the winners. For instance, the top salesperson at your company each month could win a $100 gift card to a local restaurant, or the person with who used the fewest sick days could earn an extra two vacations days. Get creative with your rewards and your employees will appreciate the effort on your part.

Food
It's said that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach – well this is also true for your employees. By doing little things like hosting a pizza party at the end of the month, taking everyone out for an occasional office lunch or hosting a bagel breakfast once a week, you'll demonstrate how much you value your staff's consistent good work.


Reproduced from http://www.experience.com/entry-level-jobs/employers/offering-employee-incentives-at-a-small-business/