What motivates staff?
Those of you in business that are currently looking to hire more staff would already be well aware of the present difficulty in finding great people. With the unemployment rate in Victoria at around just 4.5% (and bearing in mind that there will always be a percentage of the working age population that are either not willing or not able to work), there is bound to be a shortage of talented people. This means that the age-old economic theory of supply and demand will inevitably ensure that market salary rates in many sectors will go up and availability of great staff will go down. Now, more than ever, it is important for businesses to not only attract the right staff but also to be able to retain the existing valuable staff that they have.
If you think about it, solving both issues amounts to exactly the same thing and I believe that the five methods of doing this identified by Morgan McKinley in late 2020
1. Provide Meaningful and Challenging Work
2. Improve Employees' Lives.
3. Recognise Contribution
4. Ensure Adequate Compensation and Benefits
5. Create the Right Culture
Dealing with these in order: I truly believe that in general employers do not ask enough of their staff. I am not talking about increasing workload here, I mean assigning real responsibility. There may be a variety of reasons this does not happen (lack of trust, perceived staff workload, lack of thought etc), but staff perform best when they feel they have a level of control over what they are asked to do.
There is not a one-size-fits-all solution to improving employees’ lives as each of us has different needs and requirements, but understanding what these are is a must. For many of us, work/life balance is a constant struggle so enabling flexibility in people’s schedules is highly likely to be well appreciated.
Recognition for a job well done is a fundamental human need that always figures in the top 3 staff motivators for work. Everyone wants to feel that the work they are doing is worthwhile, that they are contributing to something meaningful so the more opportunities leaders can take to do this, the more satisfied their workforce becomes.
It is well known that money is typically not a good motivator, but paying below market rates can mean that even the most dedicated staff member gets tempted. While it should not be the only criteria, many recent articles on employee satisfaction indicate benefits are becoming an increasingly important factor and the current job market, rising prices and anticipated interest rate increases mean that this will become a major consideration for employees thinking of leaving or joining a company.
This past week I spent some time with the excellent Narre Warren Business Group talking about the importance of company culture. When staff are asked about what keeps them at a particular company or part of a certain team, many will say that it is the people that they work with that matters most. This sense of camaraderie often stems from the sharing of similar values and purpose and the more this is supported and shared within a business, the more stable the workforce tends to become.
Ian Ash ACC, AInstIB
Managing Director
OrgMent Business Solutions - www.ombs.com.au