How To Motivate & Mentor Employees: Reward Is More Than Salary And Bonus

‘Work’ in general is becoming more interesting and less repetitive. We are living and working in a Digital Age and many of today’s jobs didn’t exist 10 years ago, and how we accomplish the jobs that do still exist has been rewritten. If this isn’t exciting enough, our workforce is also changing:

• Boomers want to stay relevant and current – and also want more flexibility to enjoy their families and everything they’ve worked hard for.
• Gen Xers want to make their mark and drive change while also keeping focused on their families and work/life balance.
• Millennials (Generation Y) have entered the workforce and four of the many things they value are continuous learning, wanting work that’s meaningful, wanting to feel a sense of accomplishment and they want autonomy.

So in general, it’s fair to say that employees (even Boomers and Gen Xers), want to do work they feel passionate about. And this is a good thing… but requires us to learn how to manage and motivate employees (and ourselves), differently. And yet, many Boomers (still the largest group of Business Owners / Executives / Managers), have a challenge managing and motivating their employees – especially Millennials at work. For example, they give Millennials a job AND pay them… and wonder why they quickly become bored, want more and/or leave.

Times Have Changed: Motivate and mentor employees differently

Times have changed and Millennials and the emerging Gen Z are going to keep us moving forward. Millennials at work do want more… and so do most employees of all ages. The one thing to remember is that we all excel when we do work we are interested in. That’s the key.

We all excel when we do work we are interested in.

It’s like when we start a new job – we are excited – we are learning new things and meeting new people – we are creative – we ask questions – we even innovate… and then we get bored. The same happens with Millennials except their timeline is usually in months not years. So, how to do managers keep ALL employees of different generations excited? They have to motivate and mentor employees differently – and more specifically, they need to reward differently.

Here’s the thing… traditional reward and recognition systems are salary based with (hopefully), a raise and/or bonus every 12 months. Unfortunately money doesn’t motivate today’s employees for long.

Reward Is More Than Salary And Bonus

Traditional reward systems (salary / bonuses), assume that work is not inherently enjoyable; and 30 years ago most work wasn’t. But our work has changed in the Digital Age and we’ve all changed… we want to enjoy our work.

As Leaders, if we want a motivated workforce who produce at a high-level, more and more money is not an effective strategy (and is the most expensive approach). There are many intrinsic motivators that are rarely used that are proven to increase creativity, productivity and loyalty… and have little/low-cost, like C.A.R.P. motivators:

• C – Competence / Mastery… learning new things – gaining experience and/or using an expertise.
• A – Autonomy / Choice… like what to work on, when and how
• R – Relevance / Purpose… why the work is meaningful – important
• P – Progress… what they are doing is adding to the greater good (the what to the why answer)

Studies have proven that external rewards like traditional salary / bonuses, can have negative impact on problem solving and creativity (as two examples). Why? Because employees soon learn to expect the ‘reward’ and often become unmotivated if/when they don’t receive the ‘reward’ when they expect it.

Alternatively, employees who feel passionate about their work and who feel supported by the low/no-cost C.A.R.P. motivation and reward systems will almost always become creative, higher-than-average performers. In addition, when employees feel proud and excited about their accomplishments they demonstrate greater organizational loyalty and think twice before leaving. And, feeling proud and excited happens all the time – not once every 12 months.

Want Proof? Here’s An Example – Daniel H. Pink writes in his book ‘Drive’

“In a 2009 study MIT study led by MIT Sloan School of Management’s Pierre Azoulay and his colleagues compared two different ways to incentivize creativity in the sciences. They examined scientists who received grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), which emphasis external controls such as “short review cycles, pre-defined deliverables, and renewal policies unforgiving of failure.” Then they looked at scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), whose funding process “tolerates early failure, rewards long-term success and gives its appointees great freedom to experiment.” The result? HHMI investigators produced high-impact papers at a much higher rate than their similarly accomplished NIH counterparts.” Daniel H. Pink

Conclusion

In this busy, fast-paced work environment it’s important employers have confidence in their employees talent and give them enough autonomy to do their work and be proud of what they accomplish. Watching every move – double-checking every task is an ‘old-school’ way to motivate and mentor employees and will only slow down progress / productivity and make talented employees feel less professional and personal influence.

In addition, traditional motivation and mentoring systems will cost more both in money (salaries / bonuses), as well as the cost to replace unmotivated employees who quit after only a few months – or years.

Happy communicating, mentoring, motivating… and training.

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Bruce Mayhew Consulting facilitates courses including Business Writing, Email Etiquette, Time Management and Mindfulness.

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How Executives Lead: Finding Three, Four or Five Generations Working Side-by-Side

Imagine… for the first time in history we’re finding three, four or five generations working side-by-side.

Generational differences at work create fantastic opportunities that are critical to sustained peak performance and reduced workplace turnover. Yet morale issues, productivity and financial setbacks are rising from the different generational goals, experiences and communication styles.

Managing a team with diverse personalities, responsibilities, ambitions and expectations can seem overwhelming – yet this diversity is an amazing competitive advantage for your business.

Organizations that embrace generational differences are able to cultivate a great employee/employer working relationship by helping employees at all levels focus on shared objectives as they motivate, mentor and even rely on each other from a perspective of collaboration. When different generations cooperate there are more opportunities to experience high-impact change with low economic and emotional risk.

Gen Z – Millennial – Gen X – Boomer – Traditionalist

Hire The Right People: Share The Company Vision

With the high cost of hiring and training new talent, companies cannot afford to lose employees after only 1 or 2 years. And while Gen X and Boomers will often stay longer, we see from experience that even with high unemployment levels, Millennials and now Gen Z seem ever ready to quit in search of greener pastures.

The best first step to increase employee retention, satisfaction, productivity and multigenerational collaboration is to hire the right people. Don’t hire the people you like… that is old-school. Teach everyone who are responsible for hiring a formal interview process like Behaviour Event Interview (BEI Training), so your leaders can hire the people with the right skills AND those who are the best cultural fit.

Once you hire the right person then treat them well. Happy employees will be more productive and treat your customers well. Share the company vision, provide clear direction and expectations, then measure results and expectations regularly. Do not wait for quarterly or especially annual reviews…. things are moving far too quickly for that. In many cases weekly project reviews are quite valuable.

Help Different Generations Recognize Each Others Strengths: Everyone Is Valuable

Whether you are an owner or you are working your first job, you are valuable or you would not be there. What is important to realize is that everyone has a unique set of experiences and skills; all are great and all are required. This is where collaborative teams are important.

When you work in a collaborative team it’s imperative that everyone understands the project objectives. In addition, everyone within the collaborative team is there for a reason – either because of his or her expertise and/or experience. The goal is for members of a collaborative team to support each other AND the project in order to achieve the project objectives.

For example: Millennials are often technologically proficient but they may have only a few years work experience. Boomers have lots of work experience but may be challenged with technology and social media. A collaborative team Leader can support and encourage multigenerational mentoring and collaborative teams by helping each member recognize the others strength and not feel threatened.

Reward & Motivation

In the last 40 years our choices of how we live, work and learn have increased exponentially. Some traditionalists are embracing technology. Others – like my mother refuse to have a computer in the house or a mobile phone.

It’s important to look beyond generational and cultural stereotypes and to ask each employee what they want. Are they looking for job security, money, to learn (which might include additional training/education), workplace flexibility and/or the opportunity to be creative or to travel?

Different people from the same generation and cultural background will want different things. If you know what employees want – you will be able to motivate and reward them properly. For example, a salaried employee who loves to travel may be thrilled to work an extra ½ hour each day as this would add up to between 2 and 3 weeks of additional time off each year. As I mention in my interview on Global television, this may be far more motivating to them than a bigger bonus (which they will lose half of in taxes), and financially less expensive for the company… a Win-Win.

Don’t assume you already know how to motivate employees who are older or younger — ask them and then develop incentive plans that reflect your employees.

As I write in my article ‘Train Employees Well Enough So They Can Leave’ when you make employees feel valued and respected they will be loyal. Your employees will work hard AND they will not want to leave because their personal and career needs are being met.

Conclusion

Employees from every generation are changing rapidly. Lets learn to step back and work with and for each other.

Happy Hiring, Keeping and Motivating Employees. 

Click here to join our priority list of people who receive our latest Business Communication blog posts. If you enjoyed this post we think you’ll like:

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Bruce Mayhew Consulting facilitates courses including Email Etiquette, Managing Difficult Conversations, Multigenerational Training, Time Management and Mindfulness.

Find answers to your Professional Development questions / needs at brucemayhewconsulting.com.

Give us a call at 416 617 0462. We’ll listen.

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I’d enjoy reading your comments on this post.