Emotional Compensation

So many employers are struggling to find the staff they need to even open their doors. We were beginning to see a labor shortage before the pandemic, but it has now arrived in full force.

Look around your city or town. How many “help wanted” signs do you see? If it is like where I live, virtually every store front has a sign in the window or on the door.

And then, we hear every day that many employed people aren’t satisfied in their current jobs. Lots to deal with here.

Higher wages, hiring bonuses, increased benefits packages all sound like possible solutions. Here’s another thing to consider—what’s your environment like and is it having the impact you want on your employees? If not, consider emotional compensation.

Emotional compensation is based on seven universal human needs—what people need to thrive at work. They are:

• Respect

• Recognition

• Belonging

• Autonomy

• Personal growth

• Meaning

• Progress

When these needs are met—or at least some of them—connections develop, and this is what helps to retain your people.

When I work with organizations to develop a retention strategy, I explain it this way:

“If you can develop a connection between the employee and the organization, or the work, or the manager, or their co-workers, your chances of keeping them go up dramatically.”

Gallup’s “State of the Global Workplace 2021” report found that negative emotions among people all over the world have been increasing for years and reached record levels in 2020. They also reported that seven in 10 employees are presently suffering or struggling, and 80% are not engaged or actively engaged in their work.

If those numbers don’t get your attention, they should.

Coming out of the pandemic is a perfect time to focus on how to create the connections people want so that you are the employer that hires the best people and keeps them.

How do you increase emotional compensation? We’ll have some suggestions in future blogs. In the meantime, we’d love to hear your thoughts.