In an era of hyper-personalisation, it comes as no surprise that employee rewards and recognition programmes are increasingly getting tailored to individual likes.
Today, if the employee is an outdoor person, the workplace reward could be a trip to a nature camp, or a tent and a pair of binoculars. If the employee is a foodie, the reward could be kitchen appliances and a fine-dining experience.
A recent conference of the Society for Human Resource Management showed up an emerging trend: smart companies are moving away from standardised rewards and once-in-a-quarter recognition events.
They have real-time performance dashboards and HR analytics on employees that enable them to give on-the-spot recognition and meaningful rewards.
Companies such as IBM and Accenture have tech-driven rewards-and-redemptions portals driven by a points system. Just as shoppers who buy more get rewarded with points that they can redeem for gifts of their choice, high achievers in a company can gather more points and redeem these against products or experiences they want.
Andrew Mitchell, CEO of Rewardian, a rewards-and-recognitions company that offers SaaS platforms to companies says: “There is increasing recognition within companies that employees are consumers too.” There is also the realisation that “millennials want instant gratification and spontaneous feedback,” he adds.