Research from just three years ago
showed that:
“half of employees who
don't feel valued by their employer intend to look for a new job in the next
year. Among those who feel valued, just 1 in 5 (21%) will send their resumes
elsewhere.”
With labor market shrinking as it is
today, that % may double. While you are
doing everything to find and hire new workers, you also need to do what’s
necessary to retain your current ones.
Lots of studies show that employee
recognition is one of the factors that will keep your employees from job
hunting. The first factor of course is
pay and benefits, but when you reached the plateau on those and there’s not
much more give in those budgets, you need to look at other ways to get things
done. Monetary compensation is not the
only reason employees stay with a company.
Behavioral psychologists know that
you appeal to a workers' sense of value when you reinforce their performance
with positive consequences. Employees
that feel valued at work, tend to stay at work with that company. If it’s that
easy, why do we constantly work with clients who are having problems with their
current recognition efforts? Could it be
a simple matter of management training?
According to David Ballard, PsyD, an
assistant director of organizational excellence at the APA:
"Most managers
and supervisors are never really trained to give effective recognition, and
don't track the effectiveness of programs that they have in place.” Managers need to be trained "in the
basics of recognition and reward theory to make sure that recognition is
closely tied to the behavior that they're trying to recognize and
encourage."
No single reward strategy will
appeal to all your employees. Everyone
has a unique way that they like to be recognized. And the front line manager is the best suited
to bring that recognition to the employee, to know what they want. Once they know what their employee’s value,
if they make it a priority to implement a reward system that addresses that value,
you will get more of that type of performance.
And, while you’re at it, you may
want to institute a recognition system to reward those managers who are going
the great job of recognizing their people.
For
more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white
papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net
