Every company, whether you are small or a large corporation, is always trying to create an efficient work place. Having an efficient workplace not only means profits and more success for your business; it means your employees actually enjoy their work. Nothing is more disheartening for an employee who goes to their workplace with a feeling of somberness because they can not face another day of their work or the kind of environment they work in. Acknowledging and Appreciating employees is one way to make sure your environment is friendly and a nice place to work. While there are a number of different options to recognize employees, here are a few to help you on your way to an efficient and profitable workforce.

Birthdays - Publicly recognize workers for their hard work is important and goes a long way in motivating and creating a good work environment. But you should never under estimate the personal touch. An employee's birthday is a great way do show the work staff the company actually cares about each one of them and it is not all about making money. Assign someone in each department to keep track of everyone's birthday and buy gifts for them and have a cake to celebrate during office hours. Gifts do not have to be expensive (gift cards, vouchers, food baskets etc.), as long as some real effort was done to make the gifts personal. Such as gift wrapping and hand writing a personal message or card.

Attendance Rewards - This seems to be a popular choice many companies are adopting. And for good reasons. The more your workers show up for work, the more productive the business will be. Offering rewards in the form of a bonus or corporate gifts will give the employee a strong incentive not to miss any work days. The value of the bonus or gift must be high, otherwise the workers will not see it as a significant enough reward to warrant any consideration.

Employee Reviews - Most companies have annual, quarterly or even monthly worker reviews. A good way to motive employees is to give out bonuses or corporate gifts to those with good reviews. Reward employees for all their hard work and for succeeding in their jobs. Also, if an employee has been with your business a number of years and they had a good annual review, you can reward them for each year they have given to the company. This will go a long-way in preventing high employee turnover and encourage people to stay with the company.

The bottom line is this - you hand out corporate gifts to clients and customers in-order to keep or get their business and keep your relationship with them in good standing. The same procedure should be given to your employees. Employee reward and recognition programs build a friendly and inviting work environment. It will motivate employees to work harder and actually enjoy their work. The better the work environment, the more successful your business will be.