In today’s environment, when every dollar counts, you may be looking for ways to provide more benefits to your employees without breaking the bank. Listed below are a few ideas to consider with little to no expense to you.

* Do all annual reviews on time. Most companies tie annual pay raises to the annual review. By doing the review on time, employees receive their raises when they should - not many months later. If you are consistent with doing reviews on time, it shows the company’s commitment to provide its employees timely feedback and monetary rewards. In this day and age, the much-needed pay raise is needed when it is due. And, if you consistently do reviews on time, you can use that fact to market yor commitment to your employees as you seek out potential new employees.

* Initiate a New Employee Program that sets up a first week (or a shorter period of time if that’s more appropriate) of scheduled events and meetings to make sure each new employee is made to feel welcome when they join your company. Assign specific tasks to existing employees so the new employee and staff get a chance to meet while at the same time, the new mployee is learning how your company operates. Be sure to include lunch plans the first week with an officer or management staff.

* Provide a Flex Hours Program. If it’s possible, allow employees the ability to set their “own” hours. Depending on their commute, coming in around 6 AM or after 9 AM might make all the difference in how well they perform their job. One suggestion if you do set up flex hours once they select their work hours, they need to stick with them or you will have chaos. You might offer the ability to select new flex work hours once (or possibly twice) a year.

* Most banks offer an Automatic Deposit program. Pairing up with a local/the company’s bank allows you the ability to offer automatic deposit of paychecks for employees. This benefit eliminates the hassle for the employee to run to the bank to deposit it on payday. And, when an employee is on vacation, their paycheck is automatically deposited for them! Although this is a convenience for them, you eliminate the need to generate checks every payday. It can also strengthen your company’s relationship with your bank.

* Initiate a Recognition Program. You can determine what type of behavior you wish to reward (and how you will reward it), but some ideas on recognition programs include: length of service, perfect attendance (for a selected period of time), customer service (when recognized in writing by a customer) or meeting deadlines consistently over a certain period of time. You might set up this type of program so they are distributed once a quarter or only once a year. A free way to give the employee recognition is to post the awards on your web site. This goes a long way in rewarding the employee but it also gives your current and potential clients and idea of how you value your employees.

This is just a sample of ideas you can use to continue to reward your employees during any type of economy.