“Congratulations: this year your pay rise is zero per cent. And your bonus is that you still have a job. Given you now have fewer co-workers, you can expect to work even harder this year.”
This is the sort of motivational message which is becoming increasingly common as the recession bites.
All of this is excellent news. It is forcing us, as managers, to think harder about how we motivate and reward people. It is time to go back to basics and manage smarter, without recourse to the cheque book.
The cheque book often demotivates more than it motivates. Pay a financial trader a mega bonus and he will be very happy, until he discovers that the person at the next desk got a mega bonus plus five per cent. Then watch trader throwing his toys out of the pram in a fit of jealousy.
For the most highly paid people with big and fragile egos, money is not about their needs: it is about their self worth. They take badly to being told that someone else is worth more than they are. The bonus leads to tantrums, not gratitude and commitment.
There are some very practical things you can do to motivate and reward people when money is tight. Leading four not for profit organisations where zero per cent pay rises are the norm, I have to practice what I preach:
- Invest in low cost-celebrations. Take teams out to dinner; have a competition for a day out at a spa for the best performing team; be generous with the praise, flowers, chocolates and champagne when someone goes above and beyond the call of duty.
- Don’t mess with the biscuits and coffee machine: free coffee and biscuits are a low cost way of showing you still value your team.
- If the team has to work late at night, let them order in pizza: a couple of pizzas for hours of overtime is a small price to pay.
- Make sure that each team member knows how much they are valued: be specific in your praise: “that new recruiting process you started has really helped us by….” Avoid trite generalisations which no one believes: “you are the best team in the world!” Praise in public: criticize or coach in private.
- Show that you care about the future of each team member. Get to know them; listen to their hopes and fears; give them the support they need. Reassure them that they have a future, and be clear about what they need to do.
If recession reminds us what good management is all about, then it helps those who keep their jobs. The challenge will be to maintain good practice when the good times return.
