No matter what business you are in it is hard to find the right people for your team. In a competitive labor market it may be even harder to keep them once you find them. After all, the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence for just cows. Most of us have a little tendency to look on the outside of a company and think it might be better than where we are, especially if the pay is a little better. If people have valuable skills that businesses want they might be tempted to move for just a little more pay and let’s face it, if people are willing to move for a little pay then a big pay difference is pretty hard to overcome. However, if we have our wages and compensation priced competitively there should be more we can do to retain good people.
When we hire a subcontractor or employee and spell out the agreed on price, the scope of work and we agree on a certain set of expectations such as being at work on time or how performance will be measured etc. but we also make unvoiced assumptions and so do they. For many many years in employers hired their workers with the assumption that the reason they came to work predominately was for pay, nothing else. In fact early management philosopher Frederick Taylor quoted that employees were in inherently lazy and untrustworthy which validated that assumption that there's no other reason for people to work other than for pay. And there are just as many employees and contractors that believe the same thing. Fortunately it is simply not true! As psychological research progressed it wasn't long before that assumption was disproved, yet it is still widely held by large and small businesses around the world. Or is it? Information about other motivating factors that contribute to productivity, quality, employee retention and engagement has been around a long time now, yet the belief that pay is the prime motivating factor stubbornly holds its grip over most managers as the number one tool to be used in motivating employees. The question is whether this is truly a widely held assumption or if it's the number one tool because it's the most accessible and requires the least amount of effort?
They say that money isn’t everything but if you don’t have enough it is just about the only thing. However, if people have enough money and plenty of work, money ceases to be a motivating factor above a certain threshold. It has also been found that the threshold changes with circumstances. Prior to 2007 that threshold was about 75 k on average in America but after the great recession the threshold had dropped to just over 50 k. So, if people are making enough money to meet the motivator threshold it ceases to be a reason for job satisfaction and engagement and then other factors become motivators. It doesn’t mean that a worker will not leave for higher pay, they might, because workers believe the same myth and many will pursue happiness solely through a paycheck. But there lies the opportunity, if we take time to educate and communicate some of the finer points of what makes people satisfied and happy about their jobs, they may be less likely to jump ship and pursue the higher pay for happiness myth. It takes a little more time and effort to define and or create the benefits of a better work environment but it has lasting effects. Communicating that your care about more than just your bottom line that you actually care about them and their goals is a big start toward capitalizing on some intrinsic motivators. It is also beneficial to quantify other benefits that will help them measure and compare your company to others, such as consistent repeat business, interesting and challenging work, the fun factor, flexible time off, pay on time and the like. Sometimes these things can be taken for granted or not even noticed until they are spelled out. But be sure you don’t make your conversation/ education a “you owe me” talk.
Try to make your business and what you do mean something. Even if it is something as simple as hanging drywall or bagging groceries if you can connect it with something meaningful to your team it will make a big difference. For example if you work with a hard working drywall hanger who never gets to see the finished product, send him a picture of the beautiful finished remodel so he can connect what he does to the bigger result. How many of us are willing to do something meaningful for free, let alone for pay? Again, once you have taken the time to help people, they are a lot more likely to help you. Even if it is just teaching about retirement investing, it is still adding value to them and can be interpreted as part of the total package.
When we hire a subcontractor or employee and spell out the agreed on price, the scope of work and we agree on a certain set of expectations such as being at work on time or how performance will be measured etc. but we also make unvoiced assumptions and so do they. For many many years in employers hired their workers with the assumption that the reason they came to work predominately was for pay, nothing else. In fact early management philosopher Frederick Taylor quoted that employees were in inherently lazy and untrustworthy which validated that assumption that there's no other reason for people to work other than for pay. And there are just as many employees and contractors that believe the same thing. Fortunately it is simply not true! As psychological research progressed it wasn't long before that assumption was disproved, yet it is still widely held by large and small businesses around the world. Or is it? Information about other motivating factors that contribute to productivity, quality, employee retention and engagement has been around a long time now, yet the belief that pay is the prime motivating factor stubbornly holds its grip over most managers as the number one tool to be used in motivating employees. The question is whether this is truly a widely held assumption or if it's the number one tool because it's the most accessible and requires the least amount of effort?
They say that money isn’t everything but if you don’t have enough it is just about the only thing. However, if people have enough money and plenty of work, money ceases to be a motivating factor above a certain threshold. It has also been found that the threshold changes with circumstances. Prior to 2007 that threshold was about 75 k on average in America but after the great recession the threshold had dropped to just over 50 k. So, if people are making enough money to meet the motivator threshold it ceases to be a reason for job satisfaction and engagement and then other factors become motivators. It doesn’t mean that a worker will not leave for higher pay, they might, because workers believe the same myth and many will pursue happiness solely through a paycheck. But there lies the opportunity, if we take time to educate and communicate some of the finer points of what makes people satisfied and happy about their jobs, they may be less likely to jump ship and pursue the higher pay for happiness myth. It takes a little more time and effort to define and or create the benefits of a better work environment but it has lasting effects. Communicating that your care about more than just your bottom line that you actually care about them and their goals is a big start toward capitalizing on some intrinsic motivators. It is also beneficial to quantify other benefits that will help them measure and compare your company to others, such as consistent repeat business, interesting and challenging work, the fun factor, flexible time off, pay on time and the like. Sometimes these things can be taken for granted or not even noticed until they are spelled out. But be sure you don’t make your conversation/ education a “you owe me” talk.
Try to make your business and what you do mean something. Even if it is something as simple as hanging drywall or bagging groceries if you can connect it with something meaningful to your team it will make a big difference. For example if you work with a hard working drywall hanger who never gets to see the finished product, send him a picture of the beautiful finished remodel so he can connect what he does to the bigger result. How many of us are willing to do something meaningful for free, let alone for pay? Again, once you have taken the time to help people, they are a lot more likely to help you. Even if it is just teaching about retirement investing, it is still adding value to them and can be interpreted as part of the total package.
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