Benefits of communicating rewards

- Recently I was talking with a small business owner about rewards and benefits and she told me how angry she was that no one in her office ever thanked her for her very generous 401K match. Here she was, matching above the average employer and no one cared. The thought of her employees being so ungrateful hurt her feelings and she wasn't sure what to do. She was considering pulling matching altogether. So, I asked her to consider two reasons why people might not care about the matching. One, maybe they would prefer a different benefit. Or two, maybe they don't know much about the matching program. She insisted that wasn't the case. She told me she'd sent out a letter announcing when she first started matching and her offer letters to new employees mentioned it and that was it. This business owner made a common mistake, she didn't promote her rewards program and she didn't seek input on rewards from her employees but if you work with employees to identify what rewards really motivate them and then you promote your rewards program like you would a product to your customers, you can build a powerful alliance with your people. They'll see that you care about them and what they want. In turn, you'll see more job satisfaction, more loyalty, better quality work, and better results. Don't create your benefits and rewards programs in vacuum like my friend, the business owner, did. And don't make the mistake of assuming that one letter is enough to educate people about what you offer. Your total rewards communication program will drive the success of your benefits programs, it will ensure people are capitalizing on them. Bottom line is that your total rewards and your communication of those rewards should tell employees they are valued and that you are interested in partnering with them.