Almost half (48%) of small business owners fail to recognise their staff's achievements and as a result suffer from a demotivated and undervalued workforce, a study by Nectar Business claims.

The research revealed that only 23% of small firms had any kind of reward and recognition programme in place and 60% agreed that motivational practices had not changed at all in the past 25 years.

But despite this lack of recognition, the majority (81%) of business owners felt rewarding staff was linked to having a motivated and successful workforce and 84% agreed that when hard work went unnoticed staff were likely to feel undervalued.

"It is important for any business or any individual manager to make sure that they always respond positively to a job well done, whether through a formal reward process or simply remembering to say it," says Jan Hills, director of HR with Guts and a partner with Orion Partners.

Keep a record of how many pieces of positive feedback they give in a day. You will be surprised how this helps to ensure more balance in your feedback and hence appreciation becomes routine

"One piece of advice I always give to my clients is to keep a record of how many pieces of positive feedback they give in a day. It is easy to do: just put a tick in your notebook or diary every time you give a positive piece of feedback. You will be surprised how this helps to ensure more balance in your feedback and hence appreciation becomes routine."

Money was seen as the main motivating factor by 36% of bosses but 25% pointed to the importance of the office environment - such as décor and team spirit - to staff.

The study also highlighted that reward schemes do not necessarily have to be large projects to motivate staff.

Of those companies that did offer a reward and recognition programme, initiatives included bonuses, team days out, extra holiday provision, travel abroad, flexi-time, early finishing at the end of a week, employee-of-the-week schemes and vouchers.

"Team days out rank very highly as a motivational tactic," said Charlie Humphreys, head of Nectar Business. "It's a great way to bring staff closer together and enabling them to take part in different kinds of activities can really highlight how well they work as a team."