Who Else Wants to Retain and Motivate their Top Employees? - By: Daiv Russell

It appears deceptively simple, don't you think? "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The Golden Rule appears so universal that it should be a cure-all for all relationships. Just handle everybody the same way you would appreciate being handled and everything will run wonderfully, right?

Just a second... Something appears to be wrong...

Would your company's twenty-five year old top gun salesman aim for the exact same goals from their job that your forty year old office clerk does? Is your technical staff looking for similar opportunities and reimbursement as your secretary?

Apparently, their needs are quite distinct, but many managers institute a one-size fits all approach when rewarding their most important staff. Once a big job is done, everyone is awarded an identical reward, be it a meal or a gas card. Providing an identical reward to each person is what's right, isn't it? But is it actually fair for the top people?

Hold On to the Best Employees

Startlingly few business owners realize that the 80/20 rule lesson about their staff teaches that 2 out of 10 of their staff deliver 80% of your entire team's success. Further, just about every management book refers to case studies comparing the productivity of the top workers to the least capable (yet still useful) workers. The spread between the extremes have been reported as much as 100 to 1. The closest these ratios ever seem to get to one another is at best 4:1. So now how much more does this extraordinary sway in value end up costing?

Assuming that your yearly salary for the company's least capable employee is $30,000, what does it cost for your top staff? Since a decent amount of the costs for staff stay the same, they don't go up in relation to base salary. For the purposes of this examination, let's use some worst-case numbers, $60k. Assuming that your $30k employee delivers $30k of value (otherwise they'd be reallocated, right?). If your top employee is a mere four times as productive as the worst, they deliver far more value for how much more they cost.

If you pays for more training for the low-end players, costs instantly go up, but without any guarantee that productivity will similarly go up. Also consider how much of your salary is factored into the "cost" of this moderately competent employee? Probably none. Management costs are usually invisible, factored away as overhead. It certainly feels like you're being productive - trying your hardest to bring along the strugglers, hoping that they eventually rise above their shortcomings. Consider how much of your time is spent with either of these employees:

The self-managing dynamo who, with speed of a bullet train, handles customer complaints, delivers defect-free results, and even cleans up after himself in the break room

The new guy who has some interpersonal issues, occasional quality issues, problems following instructions, and shows up late on Mondays due to an occasional hangover

Obviously your top performers are worth weight in good. As such, it's incredibly important for every small business owner to keep their best, as this group of your greatest makes up the bulk of your team's value. Their experience with your unique systems together with their talents and ability to get the job done in a pinch makes them practically priceless.

But, what's the most effective way to show appreciation for your top people? How do you indicate to those high performers that they're appreciated, and boost the likelihood that they'll stay with you?

What's the most effective way to reward your best people?

Show them the money. If your $30k worker puts in 80-hour weeks during the home stretch of a key initiative, most exclusively cash rewards would come in at a rate far below minimum wage. Just reconsider this alternative. This can be quite insulting, seen, instead, as a paltry offering to buy them off and ease a boss' guilty conscience. Regardless, once the taxman gets his piece of the action, the net impact of this cash can end up being a lot less than it costs to pay it out.

Send them to extra training. Some folks might be excited about an opportunity to attend a class in a place on the company dime. They may even try to spend the weekend before or after, on their own, just to take advantage of this opportunity to rest up. Be careful though, this could appear to your superstar that you found their performance less than desirable. They might wrongly assume that they should get additional training to be deserving of the real reward that waits at the end. If your worker is thin-skinned, they could be concerned that their extra work they went through was an indicator to you that they were having a hard time. Offering an instructive award in this situation could be mistaken that their struggle was apparent to you, and you've decided to take remedial steps.

Promote them. Though the appeal of a striking designation or tangible benefits accompanying a promotion may encourage some, more and more workers have come to understand the risks of the Peter Principle. They fear that their world will change drastically when they are promoted to team lead. Your superstar staff probably delight in what they're doing right now. That's why they're so incredibly talented at it. Before trying out a promotional reward, be sure that the new responsibility actually leverages the talents and abilities exhibited by these talented folks, or you may end up losing them. If you think it's best to take this chance, ensure your hotshot realizes that they can get their old job again if something doesn't work out in the new role.

Provide extra time off. Everybody likes time off, right? Unfortunately, if you give this bonus to a very dedicated person who is so wholly immersed in their job that they have little else in their lives of work, they may not know what to do during all of this leisure time.

Do unto others as they would have done unto them.

You can see that there are innumerable mechanisms to reward your best. It's dangerously simplistic to give each of your staff the same reward. It's especially dangerous to give them what you would want.

These examinations reinforce an all-important process: communication. Simply put, ask your hotshots what they really want. What reward will allow them to actually feel appreciated? The experiences that leads someone to turn into a talented account manager is quite different than the path of a great office manager. You may be amazed by the answers you get back. In fact, your staff may be amazed, as well, to discover that you are actually listening to their ideas to decide upon the award for their hard work.

Do they want cash?

Do they want more demanding assignments?

Do they want some time off to appreciate their children?

Would they rather have more mentoring?

Do they simply want to be praised at a company function?

What rewards have they received in the past that really made them feel good?

The results can vary notably for each person, depending upon their long-term objectives, how their needs are currently being fulfilled in Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and the current stressors in their life. Don't make the mistake of assuming that the answer you receive today will remain the same throughout your key performer's career.

Ultimately, instead of attempting to reward your staff the way you would like to be rewarded, break The Golden Rule, and spend the time actually learning their needs and wants. By involving them in decisions that affect their lives so directly, you might coincidentally take advantage of the Hawthorn Effect, and encourage your worker by showing you care. You will probably learn that you've produced a work setting that makes your high achievers more contented than they've ever been. Consequently, they will discover ways to push themselves to new levels of productivity, appreciating that their labor will turn into rewards that are actually meaningful to them. You may even earn their respect and allegiance for a lifetime.

About the Author

More information about... The Peter Principle - Hawthorn Effect Daiv Russell is a management consultant with Envision Engineering.

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