Whoever first coined the saying “Employees join companies and leave managers” certainly hit the nail on the head—and it's more true today than ever before for employees of all ages. The employees most likely to jump ship are (perhaps not surprisingly) members of the Millennial generation.

According to a 2014 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employees between the ages of 25 and 34 years old have a median job tenure of 3 years (down from 3.2 years in 2012). This isn't an issue among only your youngest employees, though: the median tenure for all workers is a mere 4.6 years. On the bright side, older employees tend to stick around a lot longer:

The results of a 2016 CareerBuilder study support the belief that employees have one eye on the door: “76 percent of full‐time employed workers are either actively looking for or open to new job opportunities.”³ In an earlier CareerBuilder study, 69 percent of respondents indicated that searching for new opportunities was a part of their “regular daily routine,” with 30 percent of them actively looking every week.⁴ And such lack of loyalty hurts business. In a survey of executives and managers by the American Management Association, 33 percent of respondents felt that “employee loyalty has a direct relationship to profits” and that a lack of loyalty has extremely negative consequences on employees' relationships with each other and with the organization.⁵

These studies (and many others like them) demonstrate why it's critical for managers to increase their leadership acumen in order to reduce employee job hopping and improve employee engagement and loyalty. The price of turnover can be extraordinarily high for organizations: one expert writes, “For entry‐level employees, it costs between 30 percent and 50 percent of their annual salary to replace them,” adding that the cost goes up (to 400 percent of annual salary) for top‐level employees.⁶ A constant revolving door of employees hurts you as a manager, because you must devote more of your time for training and because excessive turnover can leave senior executives questioning your ability to manage and lead others.

How can you reduce the flight risk of your employees? For starters, think about the managers you admire from your own experiences (whether in school or in a work environment). What traits made them great? Although each person will answer that question differently based on his or her situation, most responses to that question will highlight a manager's ability to inspire through the following actions:

1. Painting a crystal‐clear picture of what performance is required and what goals need to be achieved
2. Providing feedback and coaching that help improve performance and achieve the objectives
3. Offering recognition and rewards when goals are met

This deceptively simple three‐step formula is the foundation of great management and the key to getting the best performance from employees of all ages. If you do not perform these steps well, it's highly unlikely that you'll be able to tackle more advanced management skills, such as motivating four generations to work effectively together in the office. And if part of your structure for goal setting, giving feedback, and distributing rewards doesn't focus on multigenerational cooperation, you may end up pushing employees out the door. Because this formula is so critical for managing employees, it's worth taking a closer look at each step.

GOAL SETTING

Before you can motivate and engage your employees, you need to tell them what you expect of them. And be wary of assuming that, because of their work experience, older employees are already great at goal setting. There's a good chance they (along with younger colleagues) haven't really learned how to do this. Even though a strong correlation exists between a successful company, an effective goal‐setting process, and the employees' actual performance, many organizations rush through formal goal setting (or overlook this process altogether).⁷

Employees who feel more connected to the company have greater motivation to help the organization achieve its goals than employees who have less of a connection and perhaps feel more like cogs in a wheel. Involving all employees (not just those in management) in the goal‐setting process ensures that all are focused on how they can personally contribute to the company's success. As you start the goal‐setting process, keep in mind that each generation will have its own ideas on how best to do this.

• Because Baby Boomers have been in the workforce longer than other generations, they may (depending on the positions they've held) have more strategic (and tactical) experience than their younger colleagues. Boomers prefer for managers to define the expected results and then give them the flexibility to figure out how to accomplish the goals as they see fit. Boomers are great with long‐term goals and typically don't require many check‐ins along the way (although that doesn't mean you should “dump and run”).
• Generation Xers are also very independent. Like Boomers, they appreciate having their managers outline the expected results and then let them figure out how to accomplish them. More so than other generations, they prefer to work independently once goals have been established. (So set 'em up—then get out of their way!) Unlike other groups, though, Generation Xers often benefit from having short‐term goals on the way to a big goal. With their hypercompetitive nature, the members of Generation X thrive on frequent recognition (say, quarterly rather than just annually).
• Millennials, on the other hand, have always been part of a team. Their whole lives, they have been surrounded by parents, grandparents, teachers, tutors, coaches, guidance counselors, and other adults who have either made decisions for them or given them strong guidance through the decision‐making process. Accustomed to receiving participation awards and constant feedback, Millennials expect more recognition (even just a “Good job!” will do) than other generations. Because they live their lives online, they're used to having everything out in the open and externally validated by groups; consequently, they need more support than previous generations. More so than other generations, Millennials also expect their work goals to help them succeed with their personal goals (they see them as intertwined), so be prepared to help them make that connection. Unlike their predecessors, Millennials need and expect frequent check‐ins and lots of feedback.
• The members of Generation Z are only just starting to enter the job market, and the full impact of their presence there won't be known for a while. But they are likely to share many of the expectations and motivations of the Millennials.

Getting Started

How you establish goals with your employees is just as important as drafting them in general. Your employees' commitment will be much greater if you involve them in the goal‐setting process rather than merely hand them a list of goals and send them on their way. But what does “involve them” actually mean in practice?

As the leader, you define the expected results, then give your employees the freedom and autonomy to decide how to reach the end goal that you've articulated. Giving employees an active role in determining their own actions will greatly increase their motivation. Think about it: if your boss told you to complete a project, then defined exactly how to do it, do you think you'd feel particularly motivated? Under those circumstances, the project would likely feel much more like a task list than something that needs your brainpower and expertise. Sure, you'd probably get it done (because you place a high value on personal accountability). But your enthusiasm (and therefore your attention to detail and commitment level) for this project wouldn't be nearly as great as what you'd feel for the projects you own when you're in charge of the whole process.

One incredibly effective strategy I use when starting the goal‐setting process is to partner my more experienced Baby Boomer and Generation X employees with Millennial employees. Such pairings promote team building, intergenerational cooperation, and understanding of each generation's value and contributions. Before the pairs go off to work on their goals, however, I explain that everyone is expected to share his or her goals and discuss the others' goals. So the older generations aren't just advising the younger generations—the Millennials are expected to give their thoughts on the goals of their Generation X and Baby Boomer colleagues, too. Such reverse mentoring ensures that the organization isn't just engaging in business as usual but tackling problems and goals from a fresh perspective each time. This new approach can be a bit bumpy in the beginning, and you'll need to ensure that everyone is listening to one another. But making a point to include all voices in your team meetings about goals will demonstrate to employees that everyone matters. Remember, you can't just say that you're an inclusive manager: you need to lead in a way that shows that you're an inclusive manager.

I've also found it quite useful to assign every employee the individual goal of promoting intergenerational cooperation in the department. When I ask, “How will you personally contribute to the successful operation of the department as a team?” I am always amazed by the many powerful ideas that my employees come up with. Their responses also help me identify anyone who is struggling to achieve that goal and who might need more direct help in making the adjustment to having older or younger coworkers. Additionally, adding “promote internal cooperation” as an individual goal (and one that gets discussed during performance reviews) underscores the priority placed on having all generations get along. If you want employees to take employee inclusion seriously, then they need to be evaluated on how they accomplish—or fail to accomplish—this. Without consequences, you're just giving it lip service.

What if your company doesn't have published goals and objectives? First, if you're in human resources or management, push your executive team to establish goals. Use the preceding diagram to bolster your argument that employee performance plays a strong role in the company's ability to achieve its goals. Be sure to point out that when the company lacks goals, any work being done might not support (and might even undermine!) senior management's priorities.

Second, if your company lacks goals and your management team is slow to establish them, don't let that stop you from creating your own department goals. (Your Millennial and Generation Z employees will demand them.) Use your company's mission statement or founding principles as the basis for department and individual goals. Pretty much all companies have a mission that includes selling their services and products to consumers or other businesses, so at the very least the goals for your department (and corresponding individual goals) can address how to help the company achieve those sales. If your organization isn't well established yet, don't worry: it's not unusual for new companies to lack detailed specific goals beyond selling their services and products. In fact, at Oxygen we didn't establish formal company goals until four years in. Right from the beginning, though, my employees always had individual goals that supported helping the company sell our services and spend efficiently.

EVALUATING EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

To reiterate: before you can give effective feedback to your employees, you must define goals for them. In the absence of well‐crafted goals, feedback is meaningless because without the context that goals provide, it cannot distinguish good behavior from bad and cannot provide clear direction on how to improve performance. So your first step toward becoming a successful manager of employees of any age is to create SMART goals. Once those are in place, you'll be able to improve your employees' performance through feedback and coaching. Many people use those terms interchangeably, but the two practices are actually very different from each other. Feedback focuses on past behavior and is instructional (i.e., you're telling the employee how tasks should have been completed or how performance should improve). Coaching, on the other hand, focuses on future behavior, is advice oriented, and aims to help an employee discover—and unlock—his or her performance potential.

Before examining each concept in detail, it's important to review each generation's expectations for coaching and feedback:

• Baby Boomers: This generation was raised in a working environment in which very little, if any, feedback was provided (and coaching was pretty much out of the question). From a manager's perspective that could be a good thing, because Boomer employees don't have high expectations. You may be surprised, however, to see employees of this generation blossom through effective coaching. Managers need to tread carefully with this group, though: because Baby Boomers generally prefer to figure things out on their own, it's important not to micromanage them.
• Generation X: Coming of age in the wake of corporate downsizing and economic downturns, this group of employees is fairly distrustful and wary of management. Help mitigate those feelings of angst by providing feedback and coaching to this group at regular intervals. Just as they benefit from having short‐term goals (as part of a larger project), Generation Xers also benefit from regular (and more frequent) feedback and coaching, which together can help you win their loyalty.
• Millennials and Generation Z: Both of these generations require more frequent updates and feedback (daily, or at least weekly) than their predecessors, and they expect their managers' support and involvement to help them achieve their goals. The members of these generations won't allow managers to take a hands‐off approach and will actively seek your guidance if you don't offer it. One sign that your Millennial is disengaged is if he or she stops asking for your feedback—an indication that he or she is about to leave for the next opportunity. Both Millennial and Generation Z employees need short‐term goals, and they both expect to be rewarded when they meet your expectations. Rewards can be small (as little as a “Great job!” can suffice), but even that little bit will go a long way toward making them feel secure in their decision to stay with you as their manager.

My management style is fairly direct: rather than guess how much feedback or coaching employees want, I ask them how much they want—on both the project level (e.g., “Do you need more frequent check‐ins to give me the number of updates I need?”) and on their personal goals. Providing feedback and coaching isn't a task you should carry out on your own. For those processes to be effective, you have to work with your employees on them. By involving your employees, you make sure they have as much (if not more) ownership of their success and career development as you do.

YOU GET WHAT YOU REWARD

Once you've established a clear baseline of expectations, managers can be ready to reward and recognize superior performance when it occurs. Why should senior leaders take an interest in their companies' recognition and rewards programs? Because the old adage “You get what you reward” rings especially true in the business world.

It almost goes without saying that everyone likes to receive recognition and rewards. Unfortunately, however, managers often underestimate their value. A 2012 survey of over 800 organizations by Bersin & Associates (now Bersin by Deloitte) highlighted how critical it is for companies to offer recognition and rewards programs. For example, companies with such programs see both significant improvements in their employees' work and dramatic decreases in voluntary employee turnover. Perhaps most significantly three out of four companies have a recognition program, but only 58 percent of employees believe their organizations have these programs. This disconnect indicates that despite the money organizations invest in recognition programs—about 1 percent of payroll—many employees do not even know their programs exist.

So how can we reward our employees in ways that actually motivate and engage them? And do expectations (and definitions) of rewards change as individuals (both employees and managers) gain more experience in the workforce?

Before developing specific strategies for rewards, consider these key factors regarding motivation:

• Motivation is personal. Each and every employee has his or her own expectations and understandings of what constitutes a reward. Therefore, a one‐size‐fits‐all approach to recognition and rewards won't cut it.
• Motivation is not a constant. What motivates an employee changes over time. Whether you're rolling out a formal recognition plan now or have an existing program, you must review your recognition plan annually to make sure it meets your employees' needs and hasn't gone stale. Organizations—and people—change all the time, so think of supporting employee motivation as a process and not as a one‐time task.
• Motivation is intrinsic. For all this talk about motivation, when it comes right down to it your employees are the only ones who can truly motivate themselves. You can't do it for them. But you can set an example and create a motivating environment—that is, an atmosphere conducive to success.
• Motivating employees starts with motivating yourself. Interestingly, when you hate your job, it seems as though all of your team members hate theirs, too. When your employees see that you are stressed out, the chances are good that they will be stressed out as well. Just as negativity is contagious, so, too, is enthusiasm. When you're excited and motivated about your job, it's much easier for those around you to feel the same about theirs.

It's important to note that recognition is not about spending more (whether money or time) but about spending smarter. Recognition that actually matters to the employee will be more motivating and effective, particularly in the long run. As discussed in the previous chapter, having a yearly conversation with each employee about his or her long‐term goals (and how those goals may have changed) can help you identify rewards that connect with intrinsic motivations and are far more effective (and enduring) than those rewards based on external factors (such as money).

SENIOR LEADERSHIP VERSUS PEER‐TO‐PEER RECOGNITION

Management's job is to define the company's mission and strategic plans. But managers can't just issue decrees and expect employees to excel at executing them. Leaders need to find ways to reinforce what is valued (or even required), and recognition is one key solution. By tying individual employee goals to department goals (which, in turn, are tied to company goals), rewarding and recognizing individual performance ultimately help the company achieve success. In departments of all sizes, no matter how far removed they are from the CEO's office, the manager's job is to define the mission and goals of his or her department, then reward employees who successfully accomplish those goals.

Recognition efforts can also increase your employees' motivation to help the company achieve its objectives. Like personal accountability, motivation in the work environment manifests as an employee's enthusiasm about and internal drive to accomplish his or her assigned goals. So the more motivated an employee is, the more likely he or she is to put forth his or her best effort on behalf of the company.

HR managers have long operated under the mistaken belief that recognition from company leadership carries the most weight among workers. But employees actually tend to place a much higher value on recognition from their peers. Why? For starters, peers know what each other is doing on a day‐to‐day basis, so a “Thank you” or a “Well done!” from colleagues can carry much more meaning than one from someone who does completely different work in a completely different context. Peers also generally have the best understanding of what their fellow employees are actually working on (and its level of difficulty), making recognition from someone who knows (i.e., a respected colleague) more meaningful. Additionally, top‐down recognition is often viewed as being connected to office politics or workplace social networks, and because the giver and the recipient usually have some distance (in work assignments, in authority, and even in terms of physical office locations) between them, this type of recognition rarely reaches the company's quiet—but critical—high performers.

To counter some of the negative associations with top‐down recognition, some businesses have adopted peer‐to‐peer recognition programs that let anyone in the company publicly acknowledge someone else's achievements. Although such social‐oriented programs are fairly new (but rapidly growing in popularity), these forms of recognition actually aren't much different from the certificates or trophies that companies have been awarding to employees for years. Instead of displaying items on their cubicle walls or desks, however, recipients can now see their recognition publicly displayed on leader boards or on the company website, for example.

Peer‐to‐peer recognition can take many forms. The online retailing giant Zappos has come up with many innovations in this area. For example, one program enables employees to reward coworkers with Zappos dollars (Zollars) that can be spent on Zappos‐branded items, traded in for movie tickets, or converted into charitable donations. Employees have the option to reward each other with real dollars, too: through the Coworker Bonus Program, employees can each give $50 a month to another employee who goes above and beyond his or her regular responsibilities. (Notably, managers cannot receive money from or give it to their direct reports.) Such recognition programs have been enormously successful at Zappos (when I toured the company's headquarters, every employee I met praised them), but that doesn't mean all companies need to replicate those same strategies. However a company recognizes its employees—and whether that recognition takes place in weekly department conference calls, in monthly company‐wide town hall meetings, or in another setting—having a good peer‐based program in place can help any organization improve employee motivation.

THE BASICS OF RECOGNITION

Basic forms of recognition are those that address the physiological/survival and safety elements of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. In this category, the main drivers for employees of all ages include the following:

• Salary commensurate with position: Money is a contender in motivation—but many managers erroneously think that money is the only thing their employees want. Granted, if an employee isn't earning enough—or is earning just enough—to cover basic needs (rent, food, etc.), then salary will play a greater role in motivating that individual. For proof of this, just look at the high turnover in low‐paying hourly positions: those employees are more apt to leave such jobs if doing so means earning as little as 25 cents more an hour, because even small changes at that pay scale can make a big difference to people struggling to meet their basic needs. That said, once those basic needs are met, money has less influence as a motivational tool (for example, among seniors who've amassed healthy savings, Millennials and Generation Z employees who can rely on parental support, or Generation X employees who live in dual‐income households). Keep in mind, too, that high‐performing employees of all ages are likely targets for poaching by your competitors—and if those other companies have better recognition programs than yours, your employees may not stick around. Yes, you can and should offer raises, but it's tough to sustain employee motivation over the long run if the workplace lacks motivation‐driving elements beyond salary.
• Job security: Fear of losing a job can demotivate employees of any age. Even workers who have enough financial security so that the paycheck itself isn't their top priority for working (such as seniors who opt to stay in the workforce for continued connection and mental stimulation) can experience a great deal of stress if they constantly feel that their jobs are on the chopping block. While consulting for numerous companies in the midst of broad organizational changes, I've seen firsthand how common it is for employees to disengage when they're worried about their financial future. And not only can job instability decrease engagement, but it can also keep employees constantly looking elsewhere for opportunities with more job security.
• Understanding in a personal crisis: In any workplace and with any employee, sometimes life just happens. When employers understand that problems arise outside the office and are willing to work with employees in times of a crisis, that can go a long way toward building the goodwill that's key to securing an employee for a longer tenure. For example, one of my direct reports at Oxygen was barely able to hold it together during those first few months after he had twins. Thanks to stress and sleep deprivation, his work suffered. Up to this point, his performance had been outstanding, and I knew he was going through a rough patch. So instead of punishing him, I eased up a bit on assigning projects to him. He was able to catch his breath, and after four months his performance sprang back stronger than ever! Because I helped him through his difficult period, once it passed he was even more committed to me and to the company.

INTRINSIC MOTIVATORS

As previously mentioned, motivation that comes from within an individual has a more lasting effect on that person than external rewards (such as money, titles, corner offices, etc.), whose positive effects soon fade. Here are some strategies for helping employees develop intrinsic motivation.

• Keep employees in the know. No one enjoys feeling like a cog in a wheel. Employees are more engaged in their work and with the company if they have a sense of the big picture, not just their small slice of the company. So give them insight into how the company operates (and how it is doing financially). With this knowledge, employees are more likely to feel that the organization is their company, not merely a place where they work in accounting or HR or marketing.
• Assign interesting and engaging work. Management theorist Frederick Herzberg once said, “If you want someone to do a good job, give them a good job to do.” So give your employees good jobs by making sure that their responsibilities include something of interest to them. Even in jobs that are inherently boring, having at least one or two stimulating projects can motivate employees to perform well in the mundane tasks, too.
• Invite involvement and ownership in decisions. Most companies don't prioritize involving employees in decisions that affect them. Perhaps it's time to reconsider that practice. Keeping employees in the loop is not only respectful (and makes them feel like part of the company), but it's also practical: people who are closest to a situation typically have the best insight on how to improve it. Employees on the ground floor of an issue often know what works (and what doesn't) and can provide valuable insight into how to resolve a problem quickly and effectively. In addition, employees who have a hand in crafting a solution feel ownership of it and are therefore more invested in working toward its successful implementation.
• Increase visibility and opportunity. Don't make assumptions (particularly any based on an employee's age) about how much visibility and opportunity your employees want. Through experience managing thousands of employees, I've found that everyone (regardless of age or position) likes to be recognized and noticed by more than just his or her supervisors after doing a good job. Whether or not they want promotions or more challenging work (two things that are likely to be of more interest to Generation Xers, Millennials, and Generation Z employees than to Baby Boomers), all employees flourish when they receive more visible recognition and opportunities that are personally meaningful. At Oxygen, for example, I assigned a Baby Boomer employee to a task force that lay outside the scope of her day‐to‐day work but was still within her skill set. This employee placed a high value on her experiences with other companies prior to joining Oxygen, and she flourished in this new role. Being given this responsibility confirmed to her that her input still mattered—a belief that motivated her on all of her subsequent projects!
• Provide autonomy. Employees value the freedom to do their jobs as they see fit. So if your employees are able to get their jobs done (and done well) on their own, leave them alone! When you give high‐performing employees more autonomy, you increase the likelihood that those employees will continue to perform as desired. Even with new recruits who haven't yet proven themselves in your company, you can provide autonomy in work assignments by telling those employees what needs to be done without dictating exactly how to do it.
• Be loyal. This can be a challenge for employers, but as a boss you should demonstrate loyalty to your employees. This can include being transparent (when possible), providing accurate feedback designed to improve the employee's performance, and giving credit to employees for their work (rather than taking credit for it yourself).
• Show appreciation. It's amazing how many managers don't thank their employees for completing tasks. Yes, it's their job to do that work, but why not take a moment to say a simple “Thank you”? Employees of all ages like to be appreciated (and Millennials in particular will be completely turned off—and looking for another employer—if they aren't), and whether appreciation takes the form of small gestures or big statements, it can go a long way toward motivating and retaining them.
• Cultivate a fun environment. It's common sense that when people like their workplaces, they're more likely to stay with their companies longer and put more energy into their work. (Millennials place an especially high value on having a fun workplace.) Even if your company is a more buttoned‐up or formal environment, you can still try to inject some fun into it even at just the department level.

CAREER AND DEVELOPMENT RECOGNITION

When considering how to motivate your team, keep in mind that growth opportunities are a great option that in many instances doesn't require spending additional money. In fact, such opportunities can actually help a company's bottom line, because employees who believe they are continually expanding their skill sets and abilities are more likely to stick around longer. The moment the learning stops is the moment an employee starts looking for the next opportunity. So keep providing your employees with more challenging projects, even if they don't necessarily equate to different jobs. Growth opportunities can take many forms, such as leading a team, being in charge of a project, or getting more exposure to senior‐level executives. Talk with your employees about their long‐term career and personal goals so you can tie career recognition opportunities to their interests. People are much more motivated to accomplish goals when they have a personal stake in them (and aren't just working to benefit the company).

As far as recognitions and rewards are concerned, one size definitely does not fit all, particularly in an age‐diverse workplace. When managing workers of any age, it's important to understand their motivations and what rewards they value. While younger workers may be gunning to get that next big promotion as quickly as possible, older workers (more than other age groups) typically prioritize an environment in which they're valued and respected for their knowledge and experience. Older workers often also value a more flexible work environment that requires fewer hours but includes more vacation time and maintains their benefits. (The latter is particularly important to employees near retirement who aren't yet eligible for Medicare.) Older workers aren't the only group who value flexibility, though. A 2015 report by EY, for example, found that Millennials (just as much as Generation Xers) value jobs that give them more flexibility and help them achieve greater work‐life balance.¹¹ So if you want to know what rewards and recognition your employees value, you need to ask them!

That said, some reward strategies have very broad appeal across job functions, industries, and demographic groups (including different generations). With some tweaking, you can likely adjust some or all of these to suit your employees' needs. And rewarding and motivating employees don't necessarily have to break the company bank: all of the options below are low‐cost or no‐cost programs.

• Have your employee present his or her findings or project successes to senior management. This strategy is particularly effective for those seeking promotions, because it gives them an opportunity to show their chops to the bosses.
• Arrange for the employee to have lunch with a senior executive of his or her choice. (At Oxygen, outstanding employees got to have lunch with the CEO or COO, with the conversation focused on mentoring and coaching the employee—a simple yet powerful reward that was very popular.)
• Include the employee in your meetings with senior leaders to expose him or her to your responsibilities, then discuss the meeting afterward to find out what he or she learned from the experience.
• Have the employee expand his or her knowledge of the company by job shadowing another executive. (Don't limit this opportunity to young or junior employees: I've found it to be highly valued by employees of all ages. Even Baby Boomers who may be nearing retirement and aren't seeking for a promotion appreciate gaining insight into the senior‐most workings of the company.)
• Send a note to the employee's home touting his or her accomplishments. This is particularly effective with Millennial and Generation Z employees, who often still live at home with parents who are involved in their work lives. But Generation X and Baby Boomer employees respond just as positively when their bosses praise them to the employees' spouses or partners. (Who doesn't want close family members to know how great we are?)
• Encourage the employee to accept an assignment in another department. This isn't a transfer but a temporary arrangement based on discussions you have with the other department's leader to identify quantifiable projects that someone unfamiliar with the department could accomplish. For example, one of my assistants had an interest in public relations, so I arranged for her to spend approximately five hours a week helping the PR department prepare for a major company event. (She did a fantastic job for them while still keeping up with her existing duties.) Another employee who wanted to increase his financial acumen helped the executive who managed my department's budgets prepare the rolled‐up financial statements every month. (This turned out to be terrific training for getting a better understanding of the department—so much so that I eventually required all of my employees to do this!)
• Arrange for employees to sit at the company‐sponsored table at a fundraiser or other community event. Someone who isn't in sales or marketing (and therefore doesn't do this all the time) might really appreciate—and benefit from—the opportunity to get a different perspective on the company's outreach.
• Help your employee pursue leadership opportunities. Recommend your employee to the CEO's new task force, for example, or let him or her take the lead at your next staff meeting. Find out your employee's career aspirations, then identify assignments that will expand his or her skill set in the desired direction.

Millennial and Generation Z employees will expect their managers to provide these sorts of opportunities. But more seasoned employees will also welcome these opportunities to continue to develop their skills. The increased productivity you gain by providing interesting projects beyond day‐to‐day tasks will, by preventing jobs from becoming stale and helping people feel more motivated and engaged, more than compensate for the time your employees are away from their regular jobs.

Notice that rewarding an employee does not have to entail spending money. The key is to come up with rewards and recognition that have meaning and value to that particular employee. You can't come up with these ideas in a vacuum: you'll need to have a conversation with each employee about his or her goals. One of the biggest mistakes managers can make is thinking that they know all about their employees' preferences without actually talking with those employees. Each person has his or her own personal criteria for what makes a good reward, so be sure to discuss this with each employee annually (or even more often).

Not all rewards have to be career oriented, of course. For example, I've given employees movie passes and time off to go see a movie during the workday (a decadent treat that everyone appreciates!). Giving an employee some of his or her favorite candy or soda (after finding out what those are by actually asking the employee, not by guessing) is another simple and effective way to say “Thank you” (and one that won't break the bank). If you spend some time thinking about each of your employees, you'll discover plenty of recognition options—and the personal touch will help build their loyalty to you as their manager.