Sometimes the one thing that encourages an employee to stay with your company seems like the most insignificant motivation to you. But at the end of the day, any motivation is good motivation, especially if it motivates the right employees.

Here are a few ridiculously simple office perks that cost a little but mean a lot.

Recognition

What costs absolutely nothing?  Words.  And out of all the perks listed, this perk is by far the most important and the one with potentially the most impact.  Don’t ever allow an accomplishment to go unnoticed.  Find a way to integrate employee recognition into your daily routine, and you will notice a difference in both morale and productivity.

Food

Everyone loves food.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we need it to live.  Who knows?  But either way, this global fascination with food can work in your favor and in a really great, low-cost way.  Consider picking up a couple dozen donuts or possibly catering lunch once a month.  You can even take a few packs of granola bars to work with you one day and pass them out.  Your employees will see this and immediately think two things: our boss cares about us and our boss likes us.  Two things every employee should think about.

Trust

You might not realize it, but it’s actually very difficult for some employees to come to their boss and request time off—whether it’s to go to their child’s school function or to make their annual physical exam.  Whatever the case may be, if you want to motivate your employees to stay with your company and to enjoy their job, then you need to encourage these types of activities (even if it hurts you a little in the process).  Don’t play the guilt game and don’t respond to a request to leave early with a short, “sure.”  Trust that they are doing what they need to do and that they will return to work the next day motivated to make up for lost time.

Maintenance

The funny thing about work is that it takes up a lot of a person’s waking hours.  Because of this, people are forced to squish a lot of activities into a short amount of time, activities they probably don’t prefer to dig into what little free time they have.  Understand this and respect the lack of time your employees have.  Every once in a while, offer to have someone come to your business and perform simple car maintenance – like an oil change or a car wash.  Other ideas would be to have a masseuse spend the day at your office building once a quarter, to have a doctor perform complimentary health assessments, or to pick up hams for your staff on major holidays.