Five ways that reward can motivate employees to stay with an organisation
With the market becoming more competitive, establishing a progressive culture and strengthening an employer brand is vital to attracting and retaining talent. According to Forbes, companies which scored in the top 20 per cent for building a “recognition-rich culture” had a 31 per cent lower voluntary turnover rate than those who didn’t. On the opposite side of this, a lack of recognition will reduce productivity, performance and negatively impact employee engagement.
Here are five areas to consider when you next review your reward strategy to keep employees motivated, performing and striving for success.
1. Let your employees shape your rewards package
Become an employer of choice. Your biggest advocates will be your people. How they feel about working for their employer will reflect in your recruitment and retention rates.
For any organisation that wants to see cultural change the management team has to understand and support new reward polices. Culture feeds from the top down.
Where possible, work with the people that work within your business to build a benefits scheme together. Your employees should be able to express their views and ideas on the business and the reward structure; after all, they are the ones going to be using them. By doing so, you will begin to sow the seeds of a culture where employees are encouraged and actively listened to. Employees who feel appreciated and involved within an organisation are likely to work harder to create a happy, positive and productive working environment.
2. Give people the opportunity to learn and develop
What if we train people and they leave? What if we don’t train people and they stay? Employees want to be employed by an organisation that not only makes their day-to-day role enjoyable, but allows them the opportunity to grow and develop in the workplace.
Keeping hold of the best employees means supporting their growth within and outside of the business. Giving your people access to learning and development programmes and encouraging open conversations with managers to discuss their future career plans, plays an integral role in retention levels.
We have seen a huge increase in flexible working over recent years. Consider whether the same could be applied to supporting employees to achieve personal development goals in addition to those within the business. Support could be allowing individuals to request flexible working to have time to pursue personal development or access to a small fund that can be used towards online courses or books.
An increase in job satisfaction will mean employees are more content and engaged when at work; ultimately this increases retention of staff and productivity when at work.
3. Put yourself in someone else shoes for today
Employees have an expectation of the ‘core’ total reward they expect from their employer. Salary, life insurance, private medical, pension etc. Although all of these benefits are valuable and take up a significant amount of the benefits budget, they are all benefits for the long-term or ill-health.
Take a step back from your role and put yourself in someone else’s shoes. For one day only you’re going to be Sarah from the warehouse. She gets up at 6am every day to get her children ready for school before jumping on the train at 8am to get to work for a 9am start. Think about what benefits you could offer to make Sarah’s life easier; these can be simple solutions, for example the introduction of a discount and shopping site, season ticket loans, financial wellbeing programmes, dental or discounted parking. These are all things that can support everyone ‘today’.
4. A little thank you goes a long way
The workplace is busy, our jobs are task-focused and at times we undervalue the impact a small gesture and a ‘thank you’ can have on an individual. Allowing managers to recognise positive contributions for specific tasks and projects improves moral and can support a successful work culture. A little thank you can be in many forms, a small gift voucher or a box of chocolates.
Reinforce positive behaviours among colleagues and make time for managers and employees to participate. The introduction of a small award once a quarter, allowing employees or managers to nominate those who go above and beyond their role, can help keep employees motivated and engaged with reward.
5. Give your rewards an annual health check
My final tip is to make sure you’re reviewing how your rewards and benefits are performing each year. There’s no value in providing something that isn’t being used, or hasn’t been used for years. By making sure your rewards and benefits have an annual health check, you can make sure they remain relevant, valued and make a difference to your people.
Final thoughts
Salary and monetary elements are only part of reward. It’s the additional elements such as education, flexible working, manager recognition, financial wellbeing, lifestyle and leisure benefits that create a positively perceived reward strategy. Hopefully the five areas above give you food for thought when it comes to reviewing your reward strategy and help you to create an employee value proposition that you can shout about from the rooftops.
The author is Tania Parmar, consultant at Johnson Fleming.
This article was provided by Johnson Fleming.
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