4 Innovative Ways a CEO Can Reward Employees Sometimes, simply receiving a bonus is not enough of an incentive to keep employees engaged over a long term.

Who doesn't like rewards and recognition at work? When an employee is appreciated, his productivity level increases. Sometimes, simply receiving a bonus is not enough of an incentive to keep employees engaged over a long term. It can only motivate the team but if you really want to drive employee engagement then creative rewards are your best bet. Here are innovative employee rewards that are even better than an award or bonus cheque.

Celebrate Your Employees' Personal Events:

Employees need to feel that they 'belong' to an organization and don't just work there. Rahul Agrawal, Founder & CEO, WORKSPACE emphasized that the best way a CEO can achieve this is by engaging more with the employees through regular all-hands meetings, sharing updates and soliciting feedback.

"Social connections also play an important role in developing a sense of belonging and one needs to create opportunities for frequent employee interactions. While it is important to celebrate the organization's success, it is equally important to celebrate personal events such as birthdays, weddings, having a baby etc. Fun social activities also help people connect and strengthen bonds with their colleagues", shared Agarwal.

He feels a reward and recognition mechanism that appreciates the contribution of employees helps people feel that their work carries meaning and that they're working towards something bigger.

Give New Responsibilities:

The startup workforce is now more and more populated by the millennials. Ankit Garg, Co-founder, Wakefit.co believes the best way to reward employees is by giving them newer responsibilities and the ability to grow themselves as people.

"Sure, monetary benefits and spot awards are hygiene factors, but we have seen that the biggest attribute of this millennial generation is that they get bored easily and quickly. Gone are the days when a person was comfortable doing one job and growing in that path throughout his/her career. We have seen this time and again that the ability to try different functions - operations, marketing, sales, processes and so on - plays a critical role in getting the employees to be more engaged to the organization," said Garg.

Encourage Employees Through Promotion:

According to Anjan Rangaraj, CEO, Catalyst Properties, when rewarding the employees, acknowledgement is something that the employers usually miss out. It is something, which is defined both as expressing the existence of someone or appreciating someone's effort. More often, they go hand in hand.

Rangaraj pointed out that incentive is something which channelizes one's aspiration to perform better. And it could be in any form.

"Apart from cash, which is a long-term motivator, to engage employees, the employers can also present a holiday which will help employees to make memories. Also promoting one's designation helps the employee to boost his confidence which reflects in his performance," he said.

Flexibility in the Workplace:

For Neha Bagaria, Founder & CEO, JobsForHer, the biggest company reward is knowing the impact of our work on the lives of women.

"There's nothing more rewarding than the stories of women restarting their careers for all of us. Additionally, our team building initiatives include company outings, lunch, and potlucks. Our creative team also gets the flexibility it requires in terms of space, timings and blue-sky thinking in order to experiment and innovate." said Bagaria.