Employee Motivation Techniques

Over the last decade, "Money and Promotion combo" has been one of the most widely used employee motivation techniques. These traditional incentives have lost their absolute power to shape employee motivation.

What do these facts tell you?
According to the Compensation and Benefits Review, 80% of employees do not receive any reward for increase in productivity.

60% of seniors report that their compensation will not move up if their performance rises.
Only 3% of basic salary separates average from outstanding employees.

It is obvious that the traditional system of rewards in business is losing its effectiveness.

Here are some more facts for you -
Only 48 percent of the employees would recommend their organization.
58 percent would want to change their company even for a marginal pay rise.

So which employee motivation techniques should be used?
Part of the problem comes from our over dependence on financial rewards and neglect of potential reinforcers.

According to Peter Drucker, "Economic incentives are becoming rights rather than rewards." To deny a merit raise becomes a punishment. The increasing demand of material rewards and lack of employee motivation techniques is destroying the resourcefulness of managers.

Moreover, in an era of increasing competition and cost cutting, companies today are less able to offer their high achievers promotions or similar rewards. Therefore, you cannot afford the old fashioned system of motivating your employees.

This actually gives rise to a new way of looking at Employee Motivation Techniques - the rise of non traditional incentives. This non tradition approach is known as RECOGNITION. Think of the impact recognition could have on an employee if it’s used on a daily/weekly basis, instead of once a year.

Pick your employee motivation technique from this survey
Some of the reasons why people stay with a company:
Career growth, Learning and Development
Challenging Work
Meaningful Work
Good People
Being a part of the a team
Good Manager
Recognition
Autonomy
Fair play and Benefits

Please Note: Managers need to build their employees around the foundation of salary and benefits, but these are not the main reasons that motivate employees.

This survey also found that the number one reason why employees leave is "Limited or Zero Recognition and Praise."

Recognition and Performance are closely linked
Recognition has a positive impact on the job performance. If you are serious about motivating your employees, you have to get serious about Recognition.