Organizations win through their workforce. Translated, this means, the better employees feel treated equals a better return to the organization’s bottom line. This has been demonstrated throughout history; however, the proof can be seen each year when Forbes lists its top 10 “best companies to work for”. When you look at the top companies that employees love to work for, these same companies generally return a profit 3 to 6 times greater than their competitors in their industry (Nelson, 2012).
So, the question is, what benefits can be offered and what strategies can be applied to the workforce to reward them and motivate them for long term success? The answer can be complicated based on factors such as company culture, budget constraints, and other metrics. Therefore, the basis of this research is to offer up some cost effective and proven benefit programs that can be applied to your organization to help them motivate their employees and improve their overall productivity.
First, the concept that all employees want to be happy is to make more money has been proven to be flawed. Employees do expect to be compensated for their efforts and do expect some form of a raise annually; however, there are many other factors that equate to overall employee happiness and motivation. Dr. Noelle Nelson points out in her book “Make More Money by making your Employees Happy”, that employees are looking for a company that takes a special interest in their well being. Dr. Noelle points to other nonmonetary factors that can be used to help motivate workers toward a more productive and happy work environment. Offering employees time off, flexible schedules, promotional and other job growth opportunities, training, family programs, fitness and health benefits, and many other types of programs can be very effective (Nelson, 2012).
The strategy that we will focus on will combine both