Motivation Beyond Compensation

Compensation as always is a very touchy subject and people would prefer not to enter into a discussion on the same. Recent times of recession have brought out the worst fears among employees alive – packages dropping, being offered less on a hop, getting pink slipped. Though the last one is the extreme of the triggers that lead to depression, however money matters is something people are advised not to talk about, as one is said to be never satisfied.

Caught between the crossfire of a bad market, ever increasing costs and prices of everyday needs, the environment where to Company is located and the kind of culture that exists is a hapless employee who’s been serving for decades together putting in hard-work and sweat. At this time it would sound like a very unfair deal for the employee to be paid peanuts and he would always find lot many empathisers rooting for his cause. At manufacturing things get more vocal with a heavy presence of unions and local leaders.

But to understand from the organizations point of view the foundations that lay the structure of the compensation being offered is really important. Not all organizations can always tend towards operating to meet the demands of the market. Nor can they introduce a competitive compensation matrix that ends up becoming every one else’s envy. Climatic factors play a very important role in determining how many bands/levels can exist in the organization, can they go about partnering with consultancies to tap outside potential (resource), how best can they keep their employees happy yet never cross the line of being declared bankrupt, build the confidence among their employees despite a very poor pay.

And mind it building the confidence among employees is a really difficult task. Imagine extending your services for 3 decades at a stretch and today in the 21st century still drawing the same amount you did when you began. Back then the amount was a part of luxury, today it is pittance.

So then what is it that still keeps the employee motivated to be a part of the organization. Several factors can be seen to be held responsible for such behaviour – primarily being the tendency to stay close to family and home. Infact this is applicable not just to people who lead 3 decades of their lives associated with one company. Ask anybody and they would be trying to work out alternatives of getting the closest they can to home and taking care of aging parents/family. This may involve lots of tumultuous initial years of picking the right Organization, meanwhile justifying with qualifications, getting satisfied with salary benefits and also staying ahead or atleast in par with ever competing batchmates.

What I can comprehend as being another reason to such a behavioural aspect is – staying put at one place for ages may eventually kill the desire to learn new roles, experience new environment and yearning for more. So people, who have set into the system of monotonous defined task mode, continue going about it without further thought of improvement.

These employees now have a matured family, with kids grown up and most of them already begin to earn their own livelihood. This is the third factor I can see ingratiated in employees. Now that the nest (home) is more or less empty it hardly matters to them what is filling in their pockets.

Besides the inability of the Organization to better its pay structure over the years, despite highs and lows in their operations, workforce; makes employees believe that nothing better can happen in the times to come. So after coming to terms and accepting the organization as it is, there is still an interesting fact that works behind the scenes. Each individual knows the other all too well. Most of them live as neighbours in common societies and for any pain they have as a burden or for any joy to share there are 800 other individuals waiting to be a part of it. And in most cases after a certain stage of life, all that man wants from work, colleagues and employers is recognition, understanding and togetherness.

Stiffening the Loosened Handshake

Early morning when I cross you, I acknowledge your presence with a smile, and an extended hand indicating a ‘Good Morning’ handshake. Pleased you offer your hand, and we retract our hands at the end of the 3^rd shake. We move ahead to our respective ways, with a warm feeling conveying trust, balance and equality among us. Probably this being the most apt defined purpose of a handshake at the end of the day.

Handshakes are an important introductory ritual in all manner of social contacts, and the research shows that the quality of the handshake makes a real difference, as quoted in “Journal of Personality and Social Psychology” by William F. Chaplin et al., 2000. In fact the ‘Handshake Psychology’ has been an interesting phenomenon that has been several times under the scanner of research and easy ways of deciphering about people.

Our corporate houses are the places closest to observing the Handshake Psychology, as and when we come across several people/employees. And we cannot help but form an opinion about an individual and make judgments with the kind of grip, vigour, texture, strength and eye contact that follow.

Maybe one fine day we would find an altogether strong and enthusiastic handshake, and we would smile back at the new intern, or the employee who just received an incentive, or the employee who began his day wonderfully. Other days we came across a grip very much dead and wet conveying a nervous person, or an employee who just received some reprimand. All said and done, everyday we come across several hands that indicate the kind of mood and atmosphere the employee is going through.

Nevertheless a parallel interpretation exists as well, which talks about the spirit of togetherness – an enhanced version of equality, specially at places or offices whereby each morning the very first thing an employee entering his department does is, shake hands with all those already present in the department. More or less it becomes a ritual every morning, and more than a hand extended in pleasure, it becomes something out of mechanical habits. The employee entering the door, goes around each table/cubicle calling names of the concerned people, shaking hands; and before somebody decides to respond vocally the employee is already at the next cubicle. In the days that come, the employee merely goes and stands at the table/cubicle, pushing his hand across the others ' personal space; and quietly moving to the next. The routine gets so much in the system, that with a few more days that progress, the handshakes now resemble a three-finger grip, no eye contact, and worse a mere touch of the fingers. Plummeting goes their self-esteem and confidence, each passing day. Lack of trust heightens in the months and years that follow. Employees of the same department have very less to share and talk about, and they are busy suspecting the intentions of their colleagues. They despise each other and office politics is raking high in demand. But what doesn’t change is the mechanical handshake every morning, to mark the camaraderie and the culture that began with the vision of the top management. But what really makes the difference is now all the human touch is diminished, and the employees see each other as competition. Or maybe not, instead just robots working endlessly trying to achieve the set outputs and production levels. Missing the human feel and missing out calling on assistance to act on synergy at departmental and organizational levels.