Business Management ABCs

What Employees Want Is Free

Employers have long thought that the chief motivator in recruitment and retention is the amount of money placed on the table. �Although�historically correct, in recent years money has become less of a motivator. �

Money was first taken over following the Enron, Tyco, Adelphia, and Kmart scandals by The Trust Factor. �People wanted to work for a company they could trust. �They wanted to know that their expense of energy was for company executives that were committed to building the company – not their executive bank account. �They wanted to know that their employer was concerned with their future. �

Although trust is still very important to employees, A new book from Barbara Glanz, “Balancing Acts”, shows the chief motivator has once again changed. �Her book, published by Dearborn Trade Publishing, looks at a variety of surveys to make her case:

• Aon Consulting’s America at Work Study found that of 17 factors that correlated significantly to workforce commitment, salary did not make the top 10. �The main thing employees said affected their commitment to their employer was “an employer’s recognition of the importance of personal and family time.”�
• The Families and Work Institute (FWI) found that 88 percent of us say we work very hard, and that hard work causes negative spillover into the rest of our lives. �For example, 26 percent of American workers feel emotionally drained by their jobs, 28 percent don’t have energy to do things with family or others, and 36 percent just feel used up at the end of the day.�
• A study titled Workplace Trends: America’s “Attitudes about Work Employers, and Government found that 95 percent of working adults said they were concerned about spending more time with their immediate family; 92 percent said they want more flexibility in their work schedule to take care of family needs.
• A survey commissioned by the Merck Family Fund titled yearning for Balance found that people commonly said that three things would bring their lives more into balance and make their lives more satisfying. (1) spending more time with family and friends; (2) reducing stress; and (3) doing more to make a difference in their communities.

The finding of these studies is simple: people want to work for companies that respect their private lives. �By understanding this motive and how to translate this into a recruitment and retention program, a company not only benefits from reduced turnover expenses, but enjoys a higher productivity rate as employees become more connected to their employer.

Author Rick Weaver is President of Max Impact Corporation, a leadership and strategy development company. He offers more anecdotal leadership lessons in his book, “Life’s Leadership Lessons”, a collection of 53 anecdotes about his life. Rick reveals how the people, events, and things he has encountered in his life taught him valuable leadership lessons. The book is available in paperback, e-book, or a Kindle download. For more information or to download the first chapter to preview, visit: Life’s Leadership Lessons.