One of the things that promotional products are never really considered for are for businesses employees. This may seem a bit weird but it is true. Many business owners forget that those who make their business happen can use the occasional reward or motivational gifts to continue to provide quality work.

While on one side it can be argued that an employee is paid and that should be ample motivation, the other side is that even the most motivated employee has periods where they have a lot going on and may need a little extra incentive to get their job done. Another reason rewards and motivations are a good idea is that such things encourage employee retention. Very few things can be as expensive as loosing an employee and having to train a new one. Doesn’t it make sense than to take steps to encourage an employee would be cost effective even if it means spending a little money?

The Link Between Employee Happiness and Productivity
There has been numerous studies done about the relationship to employee happiness and productivity. The basic gist of the reports are that employees who are happy tend to be more productive, not only that, but they also tend to have less sick days, workplace accidents go down, and overall they benefit the company far more than what they cost the company to keep them happy.

Given that not only is this information known, it is widely accepted as true, why then do so few business owners try to make their employees happy? The reason many claim is cost. While they know that a happy employee makes a productive and thus cost effective employee, the business owner may feel that taking steps to make them happy is to big of an initial outlay of money. This is not true. One of the cheapest and most effective ways to make an employee happy is to give them cheap but useful promotional products.

Even the Small Gestures Count
Sure a ball cap may not seem to be a big thing to you. However, imagine how it will affect an employee who has worked extremely hard for you. It’s a small gesture, but at the same time it’s a gesture they will remember, and just like a customer, most gestures are remembered positively and thus tend to come back in a positive way. The main trick when giving any employee a gift is to make sure that the gift won’t be seen as an insult, this may mean choosing a gift that is a bit more expensive than the cheapest promotional products, but when it means saving the business both time and money, it is worth it.

Motivating Employees
Another use of promotional products with employees is as motivation. Nothing creates motivation better than prizes that people want. Again this means spending a bit of money, but at the same time, when done right the amount of money spent will be made up by far during the contest and this is the same as making money all on its own. So when you want to get your employees motivated it is a great idea to find something everyone wants (or better yet a few something’s) and put it up as a prize. After all the only thing you have to loose is a loss of productivity, and that alone is reason enough to provide motivation.

There are those out there who say that a better way to encourage employee retention and to create motivation is to create a culture of fear in the business. Maybe at one time this might have been true, however, in today’s work place this is not any where close to true. Businesses that use a culture of fear tend to not last long so this is very bad advice. If you want to promote a positive work environment then the best way to do this is to do positive things. This may mean spending a bit of money, but the potential benefits far outweigh the negatives, and not only that, such things can often be used as tax breaks, and every business likes to have those. This may sound like an attempt to get you to be a better person, but its not, it is merely meant to show you a way to use promotional products to benefit your company in a different way.