Are Pay Raises Enough To Maintain Employee Engagement?

With the economy beginning to warm up again, employees may be expecting pay freezes to thaw as well. A new article from TalentManagement.com contributing author, Thomas O. Davenport, discusses how employees expect reciprocation from years in a slump.

Is the thaw in pay freezes enough to rebuild and sustain employee engagement?

In the last quarter of 2010, there was a significant increase in the importance employees place on pay and rewards. These financial elements of the total rewards portfolio usually fall to the bottom of – or completely off – Towers Watson’s Top 10 ranking of engagement drivers. Over the last three months of 2010, however, pay and rewards made it to No. 5 on the engagement driver list.

Maybe employees are currently giving increased attention to pay because it’s an indicator that their employers are genuinely worried about their well-being. A pay increase says that employers do care about their employee’s financial health. When employees feel that their employers care, that employee increases their willingness to support the company and work hard at their jobs.

Just because pay increases are in the air does not mean that there are not other aspects of the work environment that are below par and employee expectations.

For instance, work/life balance and workplace stress, key contributors to employee well-being, declined from the third quarter to the fourth quarter of 2010, and remained below the two-year peak reached in the third quarter of 2009.

As a talent manager, this information shows that wage and salary increases are alone not enough to rebuild and sustain positive employee relationships. Employees need more than extra cash to remain engaged in your organization.

To read more about what your organization must consider beyond pay raises, click here for the full article.

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