Compensating the workforce of 2021

Compensation. A term that many people claim to be their primary motivation to do a job. This blog is a deep dive into why compensation is such a massive motivation driver, what forms of compensation can a company provide and how they can use this as productively as possible.

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Compensating the workforce of 2021

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As the internet makes the world your neighbourhood, we see a rise in exchange of ideas, people immigrating for better work opportunities and newer ways to innovate. At the centre of it all lies technology. 

With a boom in cloud computing as well as artificial intelligence, there has been a shift in how human resources is using software and platforms to perform tasks. One of the prime examples is integrating banking and software that makes giving out wages or salaries completely automated. 

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So here are 7 ways you can improve your compensation strategy in 2021:

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1. Lifestyle analysis:

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Knowing your employees is step one for any change you want to create in a company. If you don’t know the needs of a person, how do you go about fulfilling it? One way you can do that is by having a lifestyle analysis of the people in your firm. This might seem like a big task but a survey deployed throughout can help give you the maximum information.

Collecting the needs of employees and understanding the ‘pain-points’ of the employees is very necessary. 

After the survey, you can check what is working and what isn’t. For example, if your employees spend a considerable portion of their earning on travelling to and from the office, a good incentive to retain employees is having a reimbursement plan in place. 

This will make the employees feel welcome to the firm and can quickly become a major reason they would want to continue working for the firm.

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2. Investing in a dynamic workplace:

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Monetary value does not need to be necessarily handed over to the employee. The compensation could look like an investment in employee engagement. For example, a dynamic office, where there are no cubicles, freedom to work from anywhere in the office, have bean bags for seats or get standing desks for encouraging health at the workplace. 

These kinds of offices are a rising trend across the world, breaking all the norms that traditional workplaces are built on. Google is a prime example of how dynamic workplaces can create happy employees even under a lot of stress.

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3. Funding Social Groups

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Many offices often have a social group or groups that partake in activities outside of work. For example, there is a fun club here at peopleHum that is dedicated to making office fun. These groups have a lot of ideas and methods of implementing these ideas but they are not followed through because of lack of funding. 

If firms start to fund social groups, that would boost activity at the office and improve the working culture, indirectly motivation people to stay at a firm.

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4. Offer academic training

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Learning is an important element for everyone. Especially people who are looking to grow in the field that they work in. Because of technology, the availability of online courses on websites like Coursera and Udemy is accessible. A lot of these platforms also offer business plans. This would mean that your employees could take any course on such a platform and the business would pay a set amount for them.

This is a big investment in the employees but as we can all agree on, education can help bring in new ideas that could benefit the company greatly! The power of learning is not something we can underestimate in this era.

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5. Helping employees with finance management

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Almost all firms have an accounts department that handles the company’s finances but what if they were also a resource available for personal use. This would encourage people to develop financially and these services would also set you apart from other firms. 

Financial management help can be a very big plus for many people. Especially those who have no idea how to best use their money.

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6. Travelling Packages

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A lot of people around the world say that they want to travel after they retire. Why wait till retirement? Some firms offer a fully paid vacation to employees on completion of milestones like completing 3 years at the firm. This is not only a very good method to retain employees but it also promotes hard work and aspirations in employees. On top of that when people do go on such vacations, they come back revitalized, ready for the next 3 years. 

This kind of incentive sets it up for a checkpoint sort of a method.

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7. Stock Options as Merit Pay

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Stock options are often given out to senior members of a firm but what if that was not the case? What if stock options were given as rewards for exceptional work done by an employee regardless of age, This would motivate everyone to contribute and innovate in the firm and the respect is then focused on the quality of work instead of mindless age-based respect.

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Conclusion

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There is room for innovation and ideas. As technology progresses, these ideas and innovation are going to change the way they manifest in the corporate world at a very rapid pace. This could impact employees positively and negatively. 

To retain your performers and form teams that really want to contribute to the firm, incentives will have to become creative and targeted towards the people that deserve it the most.