Modern Day Tips

Modern Day Tips to Improve Employee Motivation (non-Monetary incentives)

It is true that the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the global labor market during 2020. Millions of people lost their jobs and while others adjusted working from home as offices closed. Perhaps the most obvious impact on the labour market is the dramatic increase in remote work. The remote work completely changed the landscape of modern employment era. Each process, form Attraction, Recruitment, Onboarding, Development, Retention, to Separation became more challenging. So as to survive in the marketplace, organizations had to change the way they go about processes and adapt to new changes so quickly.

 

Most importantly, gone are the days of compensating their employees with their work and expecting that pay alone be the singular performance motivator, non-monetary incentives became in far more important than any other time. Non-monetary rewards play a significant role in the perception of the employee regarding the reward climate in the workplace (Khan et al., 2013)

 

Non-monetary incentives benefit companies and employees in several ways, such as:

• Enhances employee engagement.
• Reduce labour turnover.
• Helps attract top talent in the market.
• Provides growth opportunities for internal talent.
• Increases job satisfaction and employee wellness.
• Help build long lasting trust.

1. Work Flexibly

This has shown to be the most popular work perk came to light with the Covid-19 pandemic. In North America, most employees were offered to work from home or to switch their hours around their work. Work from home became more effective and productive for most employees as it typically gave them more time, flexible hours to work and focus on what really matters as there is less distractions. Also, some organizations let their employees work from basically anywhere in the world. This paved a way for their workforce to travel and explore many parts of the world experiencing a perfect work life balance. Employers with such flexibility became more attractive and were able to recruit and retain top talent.

 

2. Additional Time Off

The time off employers offer to their employees aside from their vacation accrued or sick days. This another awesome perk that helps keeping the workforce feel more appreciated and re-energized. Offering employees extra Fridays of during the Summer to enjoy a long weekend, and a day off to celebrate Birthday shows that the employer appreciates the importance of the moments in their life makes employees feel encouraged and supported. Also, an additional team day off is a good way to appreciate a great project done.

 

3. Words of Appreciation

Expressing words of appreciation for top performing employees is a way to highlight the individual with the team and organization is a way to help them excel in their role and will help retain employees longer. It can be done in;

In a 1:1 setting: by sending a simple one or two sentence thank you note/email or

Team email shout out:  sending out an email to the full team highlighting that individual’s hard work or accomplishment in a more public manner is not only make the employee feels appreciated but also can encourage other members of the team to put extra effort into their works in hopes of being noticed and appreciated at the next team shout out.  

 

4. Opportunities to Volunteer

2020 has been a year full of challenges and chaos, but it also been a year reflection as well. Many people would like to help a deserving community group, but they may not have enough time in their personal schedule to do so. By providing employees with paid time off for volunteering, organizations can support their employees to helping others. This is one of the ways to show empathetic leadership. It shows the ability of the employers to understand the feelings, actions, and thoughts of their workforce. Organizational leadership will have the ability to connect with employees and form mutually respectful relationship that strengthen bonds between team members and increase team performance. It’s also great for the organization’s image and CSR! According to Businesslover Inc (2021), 93% of employees say they’re more likely to stay with an empathetic employer. Below are some of the effective ways that employees and employers can participate in volunteering.

 

1. Join a larger effort: Joining a community cleanup day, participating in a food drive, entering a charity race, collecting, and donating goods to a charity auction are simple yet great ways to be a part of meaningful volunteering. Since these projects often have event staff to administer and monitor, have simple systems for groups to join in, it is much easier to just jump in and involve on the volunteering work rather than doing a lot of planning and organizing.

 

2. Host an item drive: Planning an item drive for an organization, such as canned food for local food bank, a clothing drive for families, a supplies drive for local schools or community are a great way of making a much bigger difference in the community, and most importantly employees will be able to participate instantly as these don’t take up much of a time or resource planning.

 

3. Offer Mentorship or Training Programs: There are lot of people in the community struggling to find a way to gain the knowledge or the right skills required to get the foothold in the job market. Employers can use the skills and expertise of their workforce, and the utilities they already have, to help the community in need. This also doesn’t require lot of time or cost, those who in the program can offer much of their time shadowing and work with willing team members. After the training and mentorships, employers may even find a new talent to recruit for.  

 

4. Volunteer Virtually: This is one of the best ways that an employee can volunteer without scarifying too much of a time or energy. There are many skills-bases opportunities an individual can participate, such as; Photography, graphic designing, web developing, employee handbook development, creating business or marketing plans, project proposal writing, financial analysis, bookkeeping, telephone assurance for seniors, translation, editing or proof reading of documents. Though these type of volunteer works are low-cost and low-energy, they still can be very effective and server better for the community in need.

 

5. Professional & Personal development Training

McDowall and Fletcher formulate it (2004, p.8): “It is in an organization’s best interest to focus on effective staff development strategies, since companies strong on training and development may be preferred (by employees) over those offering the greatest rewards. Investing in workforce through providing with access to professional and personal development training opportunities is one of the best investments an organization can make. Some of the most common ways an employer can support its workforce includes

 

(A) Tuition reimbursement: to gain academic qualifications relevant to their carrier. 

In 2012, Amazon launched the Career Choice program, providing hourly employees with access to educational benefits after being a part of the company for as little as one year. Career Choice offers tuition and fee coverage and textbook reimbursement rates of up to 95%.

(B) Interactive learning and digital skills

Employers can use interactive online tools such as EdApp, Loop, Talentsoft to create courses, track performances, and apply their learning. By actively interacting with their learning, employees are more likely to remember key concepts and important information. Since these courses are prepared and frequently taught by industry experts, and are customizable, they are more practical and relevant.

 

(C) Pay for Professional subscription to support on industry accreditations and professional memberships. Having certified professionals create a more trustworthy face of the company to their clients and customers. It also ensures that employees’ knowledge is current. Therefore, employers tend to pay employee professional membership dues and subscriptions.

(D) Mentoring and networking to learn from others:

Being a mentor and coach to others no matter the individual differences can turn a formal or informal mentoring or coaching relationship into personal one, whereas, both parties will win (Burns, 2013). Overall, remote workers are more enthusiastic about remote work, regardless of whether its full-time or part-time. However, they can flatter in fostering connection among other co-workers and the leaders of the organization. Video Chats, Voice calls, Coffee chats, and Lunch & learn are few of the effective virtual mentoring actives that an employer can practice in present days. When building a relationship from a distance, it is important for mentors;

1) To be prepared and plan: create a plan about what you will discuss, write down questions to ask, make sure to stay flexible to openly talk about issues that were not on the agenda.

2) Connect often: It is important to develop a reliable schedule that allows to stay connected and remain accessible on a flexible regular frequency.

3) Give and ask for feedback: Make sure to ask whether the guidance helped them grow, is the mentoring style effective. Honest and actionable feedback help mentee to do good and helps mentor to succeed.

4) Consider setting SMSRT goals: Setting specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound (SMART) goals will ensure both mentors and mentees have a clear and defined plan for the path ahead.

(5) Job Shadowing: Offering to partner with someone who has experience in the next-step role shows that employers are encouraging their employees’ professional development and it will help retain employees and recruit internally rather than hunting external talent. Which can save great deal of time and money spent on recruitment, selection, training & development of a new hire.

 

Reference:

Burns, E. (2013). Millennials and mentoring: Why I'm calling out "bullpucky!" on generational differences and professional development. Pennsylvania Libraries

Businesslover Inc, (2021), State of Workplace Empathy: Executive Summary, p16

Khan, I., Shahid, M., Nawab, S. & Wali S. S. (2013). Influence of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards on employee performance: The banking sector of Pakistan. Academic Research International,4 (1), 282-292.

McDowall, A., & Fletcher, C. (2004). Employee development: An organizational justice perspective. Personnel Review, 33: 8-29.