Let’s presume that you’ve done all of the things theoretically necessary to land the very best talent and enable them to make an instant impact at your company: post your vacancies in the most appropriate places, invest in the right candidate management software; refine your onboarding process… what’s still missing? Oh, yes: money.

In theory, anyway. In truth, simply throwing more cash at a prospective or current worker doesn’t necessarily get the best out of them – often, they’ll simply be excited for the five minutes after you’ve told them the news, and then carry on giving you the same performance they have always done.

If you want to really reward your employees in a way that benefits your firm’s bottom line, you may want to consider the following non-financial employee recognition rewards…

1. Empowering them

High-achievers want to be given the responsibility levels with which they can make a difference – so if you are still trying to micromanage your workers due to an insecurity about it all going terribly wrong, try to take a few steps back

Allow your employees to act on their own, do things their own way and even fail from time to time, as long as it doesn’t imperil your company’s prospects. Your best staffers will thank you for it.

2. Employee Recognition through Thanks

On the subject of gratitude, it really is the case that something as simple as acknowledging your workers’ accomplishments – whether informally with a few pats on the back, or formally through some kind of awards scheme – can make an immense difference to how they regard you as a boss.

We all like to be appreciated for the good work that we do, and thanking your own employees can be key to encouraging their loyalty to your firm.

3. Aiding their growth

Do your employees feel like they have been doing the same thing for you for years? If so, it should hardly be surprising that the best of them scout around for other opportunities.

You can help avoid this by continually challenging your workers with new, higher-level responsibilities, giving them the opportunity to join training programs and showing a genuine interest in their wider personal and professional growth.

4. Helping them to learn

Related to the above point, the finest workers are always seeking new sources of stimulation and knowledge.

So why not try to embed opportunities for this throughout their role, such as by directing them to interesting training materials, suggesting new techniques for them to try and/or pairing them up with more experienced people in your company who can act as mentors?

5. Making life at work fun!

Do your employees turn up at work expecting eight hours of drudgery, peeling out of the office at the earliest opportunity at 5:30pm, or do they turn up earlier and leave later than their contract states?

Making your workplace an enjoyable place to be may seem like obvious advice, but it’s also crucial to making many of your most important employees feel truly rewarded.