Bob Nelson, author of 1501 Ways to Reward Employees, reports that for 99.4% of employees it was somewhat, very or extremely important for them to be recognized by their managers when they did good work. The top motivators were personal praise, written praise, electronic praise and public praise. And guess what?

All of these employee recognition opportunities are totally FREE!

People want more recognition for their work so if you are a manager; this is something you want to keep in mind when motivating your team. The gap between the amounts of praise managers think they are giving their employees and the amount employees actually report receiving is very wide.

Employee Recognition: 6 Low-Cost Ways to Reward Employees

1.Compliment others a lot.

How often do you compliment others at work or home?  I often get busy at work and forget to thank and compliment my co-workers and those working for me for the great jobs that they are doing.  Sometimes, I feel like they already know how highly I think of them so I don’t need to say it.  I think I am wrong.  Who doesn’t want to hear praise and wonderful words about themselves?  We all do!

2. Create an acknowledgment list.

Put employees names on a to-do list each week and cross the names off when you have a chance to acknowledge the person for their performance or behavior.

3. Remind yourself with coins.

Place five coins in your pocket each day. Transfer a coin to your other pocket every time you recognize an employee for good work.

4. Walk around the office.

Make the time to stop by employee’s desks once a week just to see how things are going. Go to each employee at the end of the day and see what went well for them that day.

5. Publicize accomplishments during meetings.

Hold a meeting and have everyone thank someone else for something they have done.

[RELATED: How to Give Feedback at Work]

6. Keep thank you notes handy always.

Have ‘thank you’ cards handy at your desk to jot down a quick thank you to an employee.

“People want to learn new things, to feel they are doing worthwhile work. Few people are motivated only by money. People want to feel that what they do makes a difference in the world.” –Frances Hesselbein, President, The Leader-to-Leader Foundation

What employee recognition opportunities does your company have?