Compensation And Motivation

Very few employees will leave your agency simply for more money. They will usually have other valid (to them) reasons that, when also combined with a higher salary, push them to seek employment elsewhere. If a review of the compensation survey results (from another Middleton letter) confirmed that your agency is paying people within a reasonable range of 'average,' the level of compensation should not be of major concern. What you do have to worry about is how you are paying those dollars and how your management philosophy and style complement the overall compensation administration plan.

Paychecks do not necessarily motivate today's workers. In the absence of other factors they will only do enough to keep them coming. To get the most out of the compensation dollars paid, agency owners and department managers have to make the workplace a win-win situation for everyone. People are energized when they have a desire to accomplish a goal and can see the opportunity to do so within the structure of the agency. You will get a group of motivated and productive employees by providing what these employees need to satisfy their personal goals.

If all employees wanted the same thing, personnel management would be a cinch. But each employee is different, and choosing suitable potential rewards can often be very frustrating. Most of us tend to see the behavior of others from our own viewpoint and we don't really know what goes on in their minds, nor are we even sure how to find out. Trying to understand people's needs is tough work. Accordingly, many agency members back away from the task and try to motivate people by throwing more money at them. It doesn't work. You end up with a highly paid group of employees whose level of commitment to the overall success of the agency is no higher than it was before. Before you make changes to the compensation plan, take some time to figure out what turns each person on and to assess whether it is even within your power to provide this (or a suitable substitute) within the organization.

From your daily interaction with the people who work for and with you, you should be able to guess what needs some of them are trying to fill. Just keep in mind that people and circumstances change over time so someone may not be motivated by the same things that they were five years ago when you last stopped to think about all of this. The best information about these people will usually come from having frank discussions with them, either during the annual planning process or at the time of their review. Straight talk is always preferable to games.

Employees are human beings first and workers second. Maslow's hierarchical order of needs still has relevance today. Ideally, a firm will be able to meet the human needs while maintaining a high level of staff/sales productivity. Which of the following levels of need does you agency environment respond to?

• physiological [food, sleep, clothes]
• safety [security from danger, deprivation]
• social [belonging, acceptance, kinship]
• ego [achievement, recognition, autonomy]
• self-actualization [fulfilling potential]

Most agencies have provided employees with the opportunity to satisfy the first two levels of human need and maybe even the third. The agencies that have the most highly motivated staffs have figured out how to recognize and fulfill the ego and self-actualization needs of the majority of the employees. People act and react according to what they perceive to be in their own best interest. It may sound like a contradiction, but the best way to build a cohesive team is to meet each member's individual requirements for fulfillment. If they are not directing their energies toward meeting unfulfilled 'selfish' needs, they are much more prone to band together with others for the common good.

In evaluating each of the employees, remember that it is the unfilled needs that are going to be the primary motivators. Salaries primarily help satisfy only the 'level one' needs for most people, although there are some employees who treat their level of compensation as a symbol of success. Money takes on increased significance for these people. But for most employees, it's the quest for the nonmonetary things that will really turn them on. They may be looking for the public and/or private recognition, opportunity for growth, power, more positive feedback, security, loyalty. More leisure time to spend with their family may be a major consideration. Or do they want to have a job in which they can use what they learned in school and in other places of employment? Do they crave the opportunity to keep on learning the same or different types of things?

You might want to design a form like one below to use either as a guideline in your talk with employees or to have them complete before the discussion. The purpose of such a questionnaire is to afford them the opportunity to specifically detail what they want, and to give their perceptions of how well the agency is providing those things that are most important to them. There may be items that you want to include in addition to those that we have suggested. There also may be some things that you'd rather not bring up. If there is no chance of agency ownership, you may not want to know if it's an issue for them-or maybe you should find out!!