OK, you’re a boss and you want to know more about what you can do to keep your people happy on the job. You’re thinking of suggesting some whopping pay increases for a few high-performers, but will that do the trick? Perhaps you may not use your favorite headhunter as a source of ideas, but recruiters do know something about employee motivation and what makes people stay happy in their jobs.

Recruiters work from the other side of that issue—we look for ideas to motivate those top candidates to consider a move to our client company. And after years of talking to people about what they like and why they might consider a move, I’ve found that this is a very individualized process of learning what an employee’s motivators are, and then ensuring that those are a good match for the environment they’ll be moving into.

Sure, your idea to throw money at them could work for a time, as cash is never NOT on the list of things that make people happy. But the point of my article this month is that it’s definitely not number one in people’s minds for long term happiness in a job. Even the best employers, companies that pay at 105% of the norm, have a turnover rate.

It’s my view that companies who pay a fair wage but who combine that with other, non-comp “satisfiers” are better off in the long run.

Managing Job Satisfaction
When was the last time you asked someone what they liked about their job and they replied, “Well, I’m well paid. I make a bundle of cash.” When I hear something like that, it’s usually from a top salesperson. Good salespeople use that as a measure of success and they aren’t afraid to talk about it. But scientists and engineers don’t strut their stuff in the same way.

There really isn’t all that much difference between professional compensation levels in Company A and Company B in the same market. After all, management now has access to enough information about industry “standards” that we see few dramatic differences between comp packages. How, then, might one company’s motivation of its technical staff differ from another’s? The secret sauce lies in the area of programs that reward the “right” behaviors, and in the way that companies define those behaviors.

Obviously, if you are a supervisor, you’re unable to make a significant impact on salaries as those are big decisions by senior leadership and boards of directors. You might have the ability to recommend a bonus or a special cash incentive for some program, but generally you’ll have far more success thinking about each person as an individual, and what they need to be happy. Given the right combination of rewards, a supervisor has some control over the performance of her team. It’s my guess that the challenge of the work itself as well as achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement, and personal growth are just as important than comp to your scientific and engineering talent.

The Criteria to Consider
It wouldn’t be a good incentive if it inspired one or two people but hurt the performance of the rest of the team. So, one of the first questions to ask yourself is to what extent is your reward available to everyone across the board? Although all programs need not apply to the entire team, the cutoff point must be clear. How will those below that cutoff point feel about your reward idea? How many awards of this sort you are considering will actually be available in the budget—enough to be really meaningful? Sizable cash bonuses, for example, would obviously be very limited.

The reason you’re even considering questions like this is because you want to ensure high performance of one kind or another. Have you considered how the idea is tied into the performance? The more performance-contingent your idea is, the harder employees will work toward meeting your goals. If bonuses are discretionary, make certain that the recipients understand the reasons completely. You magnify the result when you tie the reward as directly as possible to some desired behavior. But this means that everyone must have a common view of what “good performance” looks like.

Will the recipient recognize the tie-in to good performance, or will the behavior be separated from the reward by weeks or months? Rewards are much less effective if a team must wait until the company Christmas dinner to receive congratulations for performance that took place 10 months earlier, for example. Some companies will allow a manager to write out an instant reward check. There, a manager can actually write out a check on the spot to provide a timely and performance-contingent incentive. If you see the right actions taking place, you pull that person aside and provide an immediate incentive.

But as I said earlier, it doesn’t have to be cash. Perhaps it’s attending the big scientific meeting on the company tab. Or, being chosen to deliver the team’s presentation to the CEO.

Time and Durability
To what extent will your team’s reward act as a motivator over time? Many large pharmaceutical companies have bonus programs that probably started out years ago as incentives for better performance. The bonuses have survived the years; they have come through recessions and great variations in company profits. At this point, they no longer serve any motivational purpose at all. They have become entitlements, and are seen as compensation rather than as the incentive reward they probably started out to be.

When looking at the “durability” of a reward you are considering, remember that the best will induce behavior change. For example, a job title change—with the appropriate fanfare across the organization. The title itself will likely have more impact long-term than the salary increases or additional stock options. Those may induce only a short-term spurt in someone’s performance.

Reversibility – What Happens if it Goes Away?
Sometimes rewards have to be taken away to be appreciated. I was a supervisor in a small company that had a bonus policy for many years. Each year, my group took home a nice check at the holidays. One year, we were all asked to report to the loading dock, and—with great fanfare—a truck backed into place, and the rear door opened. There stood the company president, dressed in a Santa Claus suit, standing amongst a truck full of turkeys and honey baked hams. That was the year the company decided to replace our customary checks with an edible bonus. Taking something away is not easy, but it has to be done on occasion in order for those receiving it to appreciate and understand its tie-in to performance.

Another question for you to consider in motivating your professionals is whether it’s best presented one-on-one or in a group event. For example, for some people, a private meeting or luncheon with the company president works better than at the big company meeting. Visibility can be a sensitive issue. If on one hand, you want to encourage others on a team to emulate the behavior of one member, you might wish to make the reward as visible as possible. Visibility also adds a measure of prestige that is usually more important to a recipient than the actual reward. On the other hand, excessive visibility in some situations can act as a demotivator for others on the same team.

Motivation Should Reinforce Your Shared Values
When you’re thinking about rewarding someone, whether it’s via a compensation-based or satisfaction-based idea, ask yourself if the reward reinforces or contradicts the shared values you’ve established for your team? For example, perhaps you praise and reward a team of scientists for a risk-taking, creative act that results in progress. It is contradictory then, when you promote someone into a supervisory or management position, to always choose the opposite sort of individual. Such obvious contradictions as that one can let the air out of a reward program.

No matter what role you play in your organization—newly promoted supervisor, or director—you can influence your company’s reward systems. Use your power wisely. The rewards you choose may affect the company’s growth far more than you think!