Employee recognition vs Fair Compensation?
Qudsia Ali
25 replies
If a company's employee recognition is fantastic, but its compensation is inadequate. Do you believe staff will be motivated?
Replies
Arsen Misakyan@arsen_misakyan
I truly believe it is a matter of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. It I've occupied different people management roles and I can surely state 3 main principles of people management:
1. Know your people
2. Know your people
3. Know your people
TL;DR: Depending on different cycles of their career path, your team members will have different motivating factors. But a couple of things for sure: (a) you have to meet the bare minimum expectation of compensation and (b) ensure a positively challenging environment in your team.
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WorkHub
@arsen_misakyan I agree having a positive environment and culture with the minimum expected salary is an excellent way to keep them motivated.
I feel like you can break down into a few cases. It mostly depends on the employee and their view of the situation:
If the employee does not know that they can get better compensation else where then good recognition is very effective in motivating
If the employee does know that they can get better then it depends on whether they know you are doing the best you can to compesate them fairly. In which case good recognitiona and some affinity for the company will motivate them. If you they feel like you are in a position to compensate them fairly and don’t then the recognition comes off as quite fake and disengenious since you recognize they provide the value but won’t compensate them fairly for it.
Obviously this is a gross simplification of the situation. Overall, I think that you can always have good employee recognition; it is a choice. But compensation obviously depends on many more external factor. There is no excuse for not properly recognizing you employees.
PS: some people are very pragmatic and will just work wherever they get compensated the most. Nothing wrong with it. People have different views of how work is incorporated in their life.
WorkHub
@pablo_fatas I completely agree with you. Eventually, the employee will realize that he can get better opportunities elsewhere, and then the employer will lose a valuable asset of his company.
@qudsia_ali But I also understand that sometimes you are not in a position to compete compensation wise with competitors and this is when having good sincere recognition of employee value is key. I think every company has the ability to properly treat and recognize its employees value/work.
The best talents should get the best compensation. No compromise.
Hey!
So we have a startup that actually had over 36 people on our team....we are also pre investment and everyone has been working on a volunteer basis. We have found that engagement and team/culture at our company has been able to retain most of our employees becuase of an amazing culture. I can't imagine what will happen after investment, but we have been able to retain everyone becuase of the culture and excitement we each contribute to our project!
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@nicole_ogloza That is great, and I am so happy for you that you could retain all the team members and focus on the main goal.
Aquila
Why do you have to choose one over the other. Both are essential, I think.
WorkHub
@conversionspree I agree, both are important, but I am asking about when you have to choose one then what you will choose?
I believe both are important. Everyone understands that compensation is always a top priority. However, if you only focus on money and fail to recognize your staff for their contributions, they will soon get disengaged at work.
WorkHub
@jennifer_123 Agree. If companies want to motivate their staff to work harder and better, they should pay them more and make sure they know that the company values their hard work by giving them some feedback.