Each employee’s background, motivation, and goals (both personal and professional) are different. Yet 95% of the time, employers and mangers focus on the simplest common denominator for praise: money. By finding out what really motivates each individual, managers can tailor rewards to employee’s motivations. The surprising thing is that many times these tailored rewards cost no more than traditional monetary raises, but are appreciated much more.

Some good examples are:

• Additional time off to spend time with family or vacations.
• Flexible working hours to accommodate personal needs.
• Opportunities to participate in work focus groups or committees.
• Public or company recognition during a staff meeting.
• Industry or job specific training.
• Spot rewards (such as cash or movie tickets) for immediate feedback.

With unemployment rates at an all-time low, the growing challenge for employers continues to be retaining key employees. The key is knowing each employee well enough to ensure that motivational factors are taken into consideration. By focusing on each individual employee, not just traditional yearly compensation increases, mangers and organizations can build lasting employee appreciation and loyalty.

Daryl Sisk is Vice President of Sales and Marketing for A Plus Benefits, Inc. You can contact him at dsisk@aplusbenefits.com

This entry was posted on Monday, April 30th, 2007 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Compensation, Hiring, Human Resources, Retention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.