The Great Resignation is seeing employees across the industries reconsidering their options and their expectations from employers. If you take your staff for granted, you could find yourself struggling to attract and retain the talent your business needs to compete.

Employee loyalty must be earned, and offering attractive reward programs as part of a wider benefits package can make your staff more engaged, satisfied and productive. But personalising rewards to connect with the diverse individuals in your organisation can be a challenge without help.

Benefits of employee rewards

Business to employee (B2E) reward programs benefit companies in many ways.

Engagement 

Introducing a formal reward program can increase the engagement of employees by 64 per cent, according to research by Aberdeen Group.

Staff who are more engaged in their work are more likely to do it well, improving productivity and results. Engaged employees also means more satisfied customers, increasing revenue and referrals.

Retention

More engaged employees are more likely to stay with their current employers. Around two thirds of highly engaged employees say they have no plans to leave their position, compared to just 12 per cent of disengaged workers.

Retaining staff means you'll avoid the drop in productivity when valuable personnel leave and the expense and time involved in training their replacements, maintaining consistency in your business.

Recruitment

Attractive reward programs can make your job offers more appealing and improve your chances of attracting the top talent.

The growth of reward programs in Australia means they are now expected by many job candidates, who will notice when they are absent or lacking compared to your competitors.

Challenges of reward programs

Reward programs may offer financial incentives or other benefits for employees, but it's important to recognise that a standard rewards package won't have the same appeal to everyone or across different roles.

Programs may even cause problems and affect employees' attitudes or engagement if rewards are considered unsuitable or too difficult to attain, or if a program is poorly managed.

To succeed with employee reward programs, employers need to ensure they are offering rewards that are relevant, attractive and attainable. This can mean offering a wider choice of discounts and benefits from a range of merchants.

Self-managed reward platforms

Setting up and managing a diverse network of reward partners yourself can involve a lot of time and cost, which is why more businesses now rely on established ecommerce platforms.

My Rewards International (ASX:MRI) is a global leader in fintech by providing white-labelled loyalty, reward and engagement programs for businesses and consumers.

They serve more than 100 leading corporate clients providing over 5.5 million members with discounts and special offers from a network of over 4,500 individual merchants. These services are delivered through a self-managed cloud-based ecommerce platform.

To keep up to date with their news and progress, and for more information about loyalty and reward programs as a whole, subscribe to the My Rewards International Limited Chairman's List.