Increasing Employee Engagement – There’s No Silver Bullet
by SEAN CONRAD | Apr 26th, 2010 | Employee Engagement & Retention | 
| Tweet |
I’ve written in the past about pay for performance and the value it has within organizations. I’ve seen firsthand with our customers what these programs can do when they are managed as part of a larger, cohesive talent management program. Recently I read an article from Corporate Executive Board that shares ways for organizations to reward employees beyond the bonus. As the article explains:
Our research shows that the number of highly disengaged employees has increased from 1 out of 10 in 2007 to 1 out of 5 in 2009. This is bad news for companies because disengagement quickly leads to decreased performance. Many leaders are throwing up their arms saying “Tough times lead to unhappy employees – what can we do?” Tough times do lead to stress and uncertainty but it’s in your power, and is in fact your responsibility, to keep employees engaged and motivated no matter what the market is doing.
The piece then goes onto to explain that pay for performance alone doesn’t motivate employees, and suggests four no or low-costs ways that organizations can increase engagement:
- tokens of appreciation,
- public acknowledgement,
- development opportunities and
- perks.
I’d argue though that development shouldn’t be grouped with perks or tokens of appreciation. Do all of these things help with employee engagement? Absolutely! Pay for performance cannot be successful if it operates without all of these elements supporting it.
While I appreciate that the article is discussing development opportunities as an incentive or reward for high performers, from my perspective it should be part of a disciplined, uniform approach to helping all employees learn and grow.
In this context as suggested by Corporate Executive Board, “special” development opportunities can be low cost, and offer a good way to recognize and reward employees. That said, these lower cost opportunities for recognition should be part of an overall strategy. On the whole, development requires a big investment and needs to be integrated as part of a strategy with coaching, performance management and true pay for performance. Low cost options alone are no substitute for having a strong approach to talent management. Employees may be happy to take a perk now and then, but without coaching, pay for performance and performance management, there’s likely to be little impact on overall morale in the long term.
