Based on the job numbers tallied in June, the unemployment rate FINALLY fell to lowest in 4 years. we can only hope this continues for many months to come! That said, my thoughts turn to the idea of the people going back to work and the jobs that were offered to them

Did they have several job opportunities to compare or perhaps, they just took the first job offered to them? Did they meet a potential employer that really motivated them and they just had to work there? I think it was probably a mixture of all three. It’s no joke that we have lived through tough times in recent years but the economic forecast seems to be… relief is on the way! As times are changing for the better, is your company prepared to retain and motivate your current workforce while securing new team members? Have you assessed your employee incentives and how you can remain competitive in the market?

When looking at jobs and opportunities most people boil them down to facts and figures. By definition here is where it starts when you breakdown total employment packages:

Salary: a fixed compensation periodically paid to a person for regular work or services.

Compensation: something given or received as an equivalent for services

Bonus: a sum of money granted or given to an employee in addition to regular pay, usually in appreciation for work done

Incentive: something that incites or tends to incite to action or greater effort, as a reward offered for increased productivity.

What can you offer your workforce to engage, retain, motivate and communicate with them?

The basics are this: your salary/compensation package relative to pay is designed to allow employees to live, work, provide food and shelter and manage their life. This number is easily compared to other jobs in the market and even your existing employees can test their “worth” with online job calculators simply searched by job title

Here’s where it could start to get sticky, where you really have to understand what motivates people and how you add additional value. Perks’ Science of Motivation has shown that incentive dollars, simply given in a paycheck, can get lost and is not really seen or remembered by the employee, which minimizes the value of the incentive. When that happens there is no emotional attachment to the award, diminishing the value of the dollars you allocated to the program. I couldn’t have said this better than fellow blogger, Derek Irvine, who recently wrote “Cash is not the currency of employee recognition. Cash IS the currency of compensation. And unless you have your base pay and compensation structured appropriately, no amount of recognition, praise or feedback will ever be perceived as sufficient or good by employees.

Instead, the currency of recognition is tangible and of economic value, but not cash. Strong recognition requires timely and specific messages of thanks and praise, along with a means to choose a reward for one self that is personal, meaningful and culturally appropriate. But it is not cash.”

What Perks’ has proven is that a well-designed incentive program bridges the gap between you and that loyal, healthy, happy and productive employee. An incentive and recognition program that offers a choice of rewards helps to create an emotional and social relationship with the employee. Employees do the math in their head when trying to answer “what’s a recognition ‘event’ of me worth in money“? Who knows – like the credit card commercial says – it could be priceless, if done correctly.