What do employees really want from their work? What turns a job into something that’s emotionally satisfying? What is really going to motivate your employees to give a higher level of effort? If you guessed a paycheck guess again.
When you evaluate the total reward mix, i.e. the total breakdown of cash and non-cash components, you should know how each component does—or doesn’t—drive employee engagement.
Aon Hewitt tracked 6.7 million employees working in over 2,900 organizations worldwide in an effort to determine what the top drivers of engagement are.
What is interesting to me (but not surprising) is that recognition—an unfunded form of compensation—has a distinct advantage over “pay” as a driver of engagement.
Yes people want to be paid fairly for what they do, and they expect so every payday. But acknowledging their efforts is what makes them feel part of the company’s success; it’s what increases and sustains their emotional and intellectual connection to the organization and it’s what motivates them to contribute higher levers of dictionary effort.
For companies that really want to drive employee engagement they should start by recognizing their employees more often.