ALT-3 Motivating Employees is Money or Recognition more Appreciated – Money
Are you working for a non-profit organization? Or, are you working for a big business that pays you like a non-profit, and treats kudos as payment.
I've been on both sides of the game. I used to think, "appreciate me, or if not, show me the money." I have a different perspective now. When working for non-profits as an employee, I felt a part of a greater good, giving back to the community through involvement in arts and the educational sector. Now I've also been a volunteer for non-profits, and where there is no money involved, you bet recognition is important. If you push too hard on volunteers without the kudos, they go away.
In examining the importance of each in big business, I looked back at my own tenure at my last job. I collected a fine array of awards and prizes, littering my office with plaques and trophies. Shiny reminders that I was a top performer. My performance reviews were exemplary. With my boss making comments that were absolutely quotable on a resume. Now don't get me wrong, those awards were hard won, and I worked fifty hours a week minimum. Usually closer to sixty.
On an executive resume, awards, achievements and bottom line number accomplishments are important. If you don't know the exact numbers of your contributions, then quoting from a performance review is acceptable also. So those kudos can help in a job search. What blew me away, was when my boss walked into my office one day and made the following statement, "I'm curious as to why you allowed yourself to be so dramatically underpaid all these years?"
Now he was new to our region, and thus my new boss. His question triggered a feeling akin to a roller coaster drop in my stomach. Was I that underpaid? I hurriedly logged on to salary.com and compared my title, education, experience level and salary to those of the median of my peers for my city. I was far down in the lowest quartile. Now that was not (thankfully!) my entire income. My income was made up of bonuses for performance and sales also, that were driven by how much I brought into the company and contributed to the bottom line. That amount was well above my salary. together they put me in the middle of the mid quartile per salary.com.
That really gave me second thoughts.
That day I learned I was a Mercedes performer being treated via my paycheck like a Chevy. Wherein was the problem? I blame myself for being too passive. I figured, with all these awards, which were for company contribution, they are bound to pay me more, right? Wrong! I needed to get in there and SHOW them my contributions, ask for more and tell them why I deserved a higher salary by showing the numbers, and letting them know I had done some homework on my value.
While the best of both worlds is receiving both recognition and money, one's salary (plus benefits including company options, and deferred compensation, both of which I did not receive) is how the company values you as an employee. I could walk into my trophy laden office every day and chase invisible dangling carrots, but pats on the back don't put food on the table. And that, after all, is why we work. For the money.
