Most workers are starved for recognition. In fact, some of your employees may be experiencing a recognition deficit.
While most managers believe that pay is the most important factor in whether employees stay or go, employees consistently rank recognition for their good work as number one. The mother lode of employee motivation and job satisfaction lies in the cycle of challenge, achievement, and recognition- the CAR motivational cycle, as first presented by Frederick Herzberg, the father of modern motivation theory. His study showed that the factors that produce job satisfaction are, in order: achievement, recognition, the work, responsibility, advancement and growth. These factors are related to job content. Factors that may take away job satisfaction but not produce it demotivators are related to job culture: policy, administration, supervision, relationship with boss, word conditions, salary, relationship with peers, personal life, relationship with subordinates, status, and security in that order.
You may be measuring what counts, and what you are measuring may be getting done, but unless you recognize and reward what gets done, the productivity of your people will decline, along with your retention rates.
