Monday 2 May 2016

Don't give your employees a BIG HIKE, give them value for their time




Reading this article qualifies you to get $1440 every day! I mean it - everyday, the rest of your life. Just hold for a bit before you dismiss that. You actually get it, I am serious, but if only you agree to the following three conditions:

Condition 1: This money can’t be donated or given to someone else, you will have to spend it by yourself.

Condition 2: This money cannot be invested or saved, and be used in the future. It has to be used now.

Condition 3: If you do not use this money, it will be taken away from you. No left overs!

Do you agree to the conditions? I am sure you do with a resounding yes! Well then, you have it. By the way, this offer is called “THE MOST POPULAR OFFER” because it’s offered to everyone irrespective of who. (Also because most of us have heard this, or been part of this conversation)

All of us are given 1440 minutes a day with the conditions mentioned above. It’s just that $ symbol is replaced with the word ‘minutes’. We have 1440 minutes a day that cannot be donated, that cannot be saved to be used later, and when they are not used on that day, they disappear. But you have a fresh deposit of 1440 minutes on your account the next day. That’s amazing.

If only you and I could value our time with a simple equation 1$=1minute. Time is the most significant resource and raw material all of us are generously (and fairly) provided with. It gets used to produce three products in our lives - memories of the past, experience of the present, and dreams of the future. They are priceless. When those products are good and enjoyable, it enables us to celebrate and be engaged with life.

That gives us a clue as to why many fragmented and often manipulative (carrot –stick) stances including salary hikes in an organization fail to engage and retain talent and resourcefulness of employees. Because sooner or later the intrinsic value of money comes down. And in some cases, where they realize that the biggest hike they got in their career is a little lesser than their colleague, the depreciation is almost immediate! (“Do not share your salary details with others” does not seem to work)

How well is your organization enabling your work-force to convert the time they spend with you, into lovable and valuable outcomes for themselves in the form of memories, experiences and dreams? I completely resonate with an article published by Stanford University titled “If money does not make you happy, consider time” (link to the article given at the end). I agree that it’s their responsibility to make their time count. But we as organizational leaders have a role to play too.

My take on employee engagement is this – enable employees to convert their time into valuable and lovable outcomes for themselves, they will be engaged with the organization to create valuable and lovable products and services for our customers. We understand there is complexity, ambiguity, frustration, letting go of the immediate benefits, and a lot hard work involved in striking that equation, but it’s worth the effort.

$1440 per employee per day. That’s a lot considering the size of our organizations. Let’s be wise in spending that resource.

Thanks for investing a few dollars in reading this. Hope it is contributing a little bit in creating a lovable outcome for yourself.

Stanford University Article: - https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/if-money-doesnt-make-you-happy-consider-time

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