it is not the offer of higher salaries or stock options that encourages most workers. In fact, one of the most desired benefits for many workers is work/life balance, according to a 2000 study by Wirthlin Worldwide, which was commissioned by Xylo, a company that helps clients motivate employees through the establishment of work/life programs.
In the survey of 1002 workers, 71 percent cited reasons other than salary and bonuses as factors that influence their job satisfaction and motivation. Four factors stood out when employees were asked to indicate what caused them to feel satisfied or motivated on the job:
• 29 percent said additional perks, benefits, and employee discounts
• 25 percent said a good salary and bonuses
• 23 percent said a work environment that is fun and enjoyable
• 22 percent said recognition and respect for work performance
The results of this study are consistent with what other researchers have found. According to another study by the Radcliffe Public Policy Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, white-collar workers value time more than money. This is especially true in workers between the ages of 20 and 39. Family time topped the list of workplace priorities for 82 percent of men and 85 percent of women aged 20 to 39 in the study.
Results of these studies aside, however, it’s important to keep in mind that no two people are the same. No two of your employees are the same. Consequently, no single motivator is going to work with all of your employees. Some employees — and often these are lower-level employees — will be positively influenced by money. Others — those with family commitments — may be motivated by time off or flexible work scheduling. Still others may crave independence and the ability to be involved in decision-making. To motivate effectively, you need to know more than what the motivators are. You need to know which motivators will work with which people.
The needs and values of today’s workforce are very different from the needs and values of the workforce 50 years ago — or even ten years ago. Today’s workers are better educated, less interested in following orders, more loyal to themselves than to the company, and more concerned about meeting their own needs.
Furthermore, today’s employees are impatient. They are not willing to wait years for a pay increase, a promotion, or new opportunities. They will not bide their time in an organization if they do not feel they are being valued or given the opportunities and benefits they demand.
This presents a major challenge for employers and managers. The current generation of workers can be very difficult to motivate. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of people working or looking for work is projected to increase by 17 million between 1998 and 2008, reaching 155 million. This growth will be affected by the aging of the baby-boom generation (those born between 1946 and 1964). At the same time, the number of persons in the labor force between the ages of 25 and 44 is projected to decrease.
As these dramatic shifts are taking place, the number of management jobs will fall sharply. Promotions may not be available.
What happens when an employee works at the same job, year after year, with no chance for promotion? He or she becomes dissatisfied and, eventually, non-productive. To maintain job satisfaction under these circumstances, employers must come up with creative ideas for employee motivation. To do this, they must first determine what motivates their employees.
What Employees Want
Many employers assume they know what their workers want and believe they are providing it. For example, they may point to good wage and benefit packages as proof that they are doing well by their employees. But sometimes, when we think we know what motivates our workforce, we may be wrong.
Sue Marczinke has been with Royal Credit Union (RCU) in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, for more than twenty years. Marczinke started at rcu through a cooperative education program sponsored by her high school. “I started out doing microfilming, receipts, and things like that. I did some receptionist work in the lobby — answered phones and greeted people.” Later she went to vocational school to pursue a degree in accounting, all the while remaining at rcu. She worked in the accounting department for about two years, in customer service for about 14 years, and was recently promoted to a position in the employee services and development department.
What has kept her with rcu all of these years? “I would say the employees that I worked with,” Marczinke says, “I always had really good staff that I worked with. I always felt very stable. I never felt threatened that rcu was not going to be there. I always had good supervision — I think that’s important. If you have a good supervisor that you can trust and that helps you, I think that makes a big difference, and I was lucky enough to have that.”
You may notice that money wasn’t at the top of the list for Marczinke. In fact, when asked about the impact of pay, Marczinke says, “I always felt the pay was fair for what I was doing.”
Employee Commitment
Unfortunately, Marczinke’s attitude is fast becoming a rare phenomenon. A study by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, the WorkCanada™ survey, conducted during the summer of 1999, polled more than 1,600 Canadian employees at all job levels and across many industries about their attitudes toward their workplaces and their employers. The results of the study indicate that employee commitment in the Canadian workplace is on the decline. Of those surveyed, only 49 percent indicated that they are committed to their employers, establishing the lowest level of employee commitment in the firm’s four surveys conducted over the past ten years. In 1991, the level of commitment was at 62 percent, but has fallen steadily since. At 49 percent, the Canadian level of commitment is 6 percent less than that reported by American workers in a similar survey.
In addition, 57 percent said they were not positive about their company leaders, only 52 percent were satisfied with their supervisors, and 60 percent were dissatisfied with their input into hiring and evaluation decisions.
The survey showed that five key factors drive employee commitment, with employer awareness of people issues topping the list. These issues involve: recruiting and retention procedures, valuing diversity, providing job security for good work, recognizing the need to balance work and family responsibilities, providing flexible working arrangements, and preparing people to work in a changing environment. Other key drivers of commitment in the Canadian study were —
• job environment,
• communicating business goals, strategies, and results,
• compensation satisfaction, and
• management performance.
The U.S. study identified seven key factors. In order of importance, they are —
• trust in senior leadership,
• chance to use skills on the job,
• job security,
• competitiveness of rewards,
• quality of company’s products/services,
• absence of work-related stress, and
• honesty and integrity of company’s business conduct.
Notably, the study showed variation between responses from Canadian and U.S. workers, in addition to responses
