Handy tools for tough times

In an environment where redundancy, pay freezes, and even pay cuts, are now common, companies need to come up with creative ideas to retain and motivate their staff. Melanie Fotiades, Consultant at ER Consultants Ltd, guides.

An option is to take a fresh look at understanding employees’ needs, and offering non-financial benefits that lock into how staff are actually motivated. At organisational level, set a shared strategy and goals with your staff in real terms. Get everyone focused on delivering the required business outcomes by setting tangible, achievable, goals.  

Renew your focus and agreed behaviours. Clear behavioural principles need to be set, so that the creative talent within your organisation still has room to flex, test and thrive. Create a shared understanding of what ‘good’ is. Develop a means to recognise high performance that is clear and consistent across the organisation. Recognise the right behaviours and let staff choose how to be rewarded: To keep employees focused on shared goals, reward the right behaviours with a choice of relevant benefits from which employees can choose.

At management level, involve managers. As they have a direct influence on staff performance, managers need to buy-in to any new approach and be involved in the development of retention mechanisms. Create development opportunities: Look at varying opportunities for individuals to develop their skills and their career.  Give them an opportunity to work in another area, exposing them to different aspects of the business.

Be flexible with staff working hours and location: Being flexible about where employees work, and the hours they work, is a powerful way to build trust, shared ownership and loyalty. Establish recognition schemes that balance team and individual achievements: This will reinforce the notion of shared goals, and could involve certificates or vouchers, which link the individual or team to the specific behaviour their manager would like to reinforce.

Winning strategies means involving staff, and being creative with your reward strategy, you can create an environment that truly differentiates your organisation from your competitors. These non-financial approaches can help develop a loyal and committed workforce.