These surveys come out on a fairly regular basis. There is a part of me that believes 20 years down the road we will still be seeing similar results to the findings in Inc.com’s Employees Feeling Underappreciated.
Of more than 500 full- and part-time employees surveyed nationwide, 35 percent said the company they worked for was ineffective at rewarding strong performance, according to OfficeTeam, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based staffing services firm. At the same time, 30 percent of 150 senior executives surveyed admitted that employee recognition wasn’t a high enough priority.
The reason I mention this survey is that that Gen Y/Millenials have a different take on employment. They value work/life balance and look for different rewards from their employment (skill development, authority, horizontal organization, purpose). I don’t think these topics are new, but their prioritization of them is.
Retaining employees requires effort from their immediate managers. Understanding the employee’s motivations and rewards provides the recipe for building a stronger feeling of appreciation.
Most managers make the mistake of showing their appreciation by using rewards that reinforce their own personal motivation. I worked for one boss who always wanted to reward our team by taking us and our spouses out to expensive dinners. As nice as the meal was, I never looked forward to these outings. No matter what the setting, he was still the boss so the meal was not relaxing.
A $50 bill would have been far more pleasing to my Utilitarian motivation.