Labour day is the celebration of the workers of the world and there is a lot to celebrate in Canada. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, Labour Day was first celebrated here in 1872, meaning Labour Day is just a few years younger than Canada.
Of course, workers get the day off for Labour Day or they get paid more if they happen to be working on that day, but aside from a day off or higher pay, there are other ways you can show your franchise employees that you appreciate them. Let’s take a look at some of these ways you can show some love to your employees all year round.
1. Good Benefits
One of the ways people compare places of employment is via the benefits packages they offer. A good benefits package shows employees — especially loyal, long-term ones — that you care about their well-being and you want them to live happy and healthy lives.
Visual, dental and prescription benefits are especially important for people to have and you’ll get bonus points as an employer if you also offer some extras like massage and mental health benefits.
Some new trends in Canadian employee benefits include financial coaching programs, employee wellness programs and benefits portals that are both easy to use and make benefits easy to understand.
2. Transit Reimbursement
More and more employees are opting to take transit or have to take transit because they don’t own a vehicle. This can add up and eat into a person’s wages quickly. If biking isn’t an option for them, consider having a transit pass reimbursement program where you help employees with their transit expenses.
You can also help them by seeing if any of them can carpool together and then trying to schedule those employees for similar shifts so they can take advantage of carpooling. In big cities that have carpool lanes, it can be beneficial to your business to work out a schedule that allows employees to utilize the carpool lanes and get to work with less hassle.
3. Employee Recognition
Everyone loves to be appreciated and you can show your employees how much you appreciate them by recognizing their accomplishments and milestones. Years with the company, big sales, exceptional customer reviews and other such achievements are a reminder to employees that you are paying attention to them and you do notice their hard work.
You can use recognition like this to your franchise’s advantage by offering incentives for people to strive for. Gift cards or some other small prize for a job well done can motivate employees to be their best.
A little friendly competition never hurt anyone, either. Having an employee of the month or pitting different teams against each other, if done right, can add a little extra competitive boost to the proceedings. The caveat with this is that if one person or team constantly wins, the competition quickly grows stale.
Recognizing employees’ birthdays is also a good way to show them you care. It’s important to be aware, though, that not everyone likes having a big deal made about their birthday, so it’s best to check ahead of time, like during the hiring process, whether or not people are comfortable with birthday announcements.
4. Skills Training
Any good employer should want their employees to be able to learn new skills and grow as people within their business. Giving employees the opportunity to advance their skills is a way to show them you want to see them stay with your company and move up the ranks. Obviously not all employees can do this or it would get crowded at the top, but you should indulge any employee who shows an interest in learning a skill that you offer training for, even if it is beyond the scope of their job.
With this one, the caveat is that employees might want to learn new skills not so they can move up in your business, but so they can move out of your business, thus making the training a bit of a lost cause for your franchise. That’s why it is crucial to be able to give employees the opportunity to use any new skills they learn on the job. They will appreciate that you are investing in them.
Labour Day may be gone for this year, but you can celebrate your employees all year round with these four ways of showing gratitude for their hard work. Before you recognize your franchise employees, you have to have some to recognize. For that, there is FranNet. Sign up for a free FranNet franchise search and consultation today and let us help you on your way to Canadian business ownership.