Rewarding our employees doesn’t have to be nearly as monetarily challenging as we think. Though large bonuses are nice, employees are often content with smaller prizes. Recognition for their hard work can make them feel appreciated and wanted by your office. Best of all, it doesn’t cost you thousands of dollars to make an employee feel good about what they do.

So what are a few small tokens of your appreciation that an employee might like?

Allow Remote Working and Flexible Hours

If an employee is truly dedicated to their job, they will often appreciate more flexible hours. If you trust them or they’ve been working at the company for a large amount of time, you can reward them with more flexible hours. Say the workday is from 8-5. Let your shining star come in at 9 or 10 instead if they prefer. Alternatively, you can allow working from home one or two days a week. Often, work done on the computer can be done from any computer. TYour demonstration of confidence in your employee will lead them to be more confident themselves.

Offer Choice Parking Spots

If your office is a larger one – or you don’t have a very big parking lot – good parking spots may be of value to your employees. Consider offering a special parking spot to an ‘employee-of-the-month’. The next month, choose another excellent employee to have the best spot in the lot. Keep the spot open for the best employee of the month so you can always keep the contest going.

Give an A+ for Effort

Much of the world is results-oriented. Though results are essential and are the bottom line of your company, that doesn’t mean you can’t reward effort as well. Just because an employee didn’t finish a project on time doesn’t mean it wasn’t done perfectly, and they deserve credit for that perfection. You can often tell who gave their all from their work, and that effort should always be acknowledged. Even just a kind word or two may make an employee feel more appreciated.