Retaining employees is a concern for every company, regardless of prevailing market conditions.  If your retention program is lax in any area, it can provide an opening for your best employees to pursue other opportunities.

One important part of a company’s retention program is its compensation structure, and in today’s fast-paced world, employees’ needs are changing.

It all boils down to one thing: ensuring that you’re giving your most productive employees what they need when they need it, regardless of whether that involves their base package or an incentive package.

While it’s true that employees want to be compensated adequately in terms of salary and benefits, those aren’t the only things they want, by any stretch of the imagination.  Other motivating forms of compensation include the following:

  • A flexible work schedule—We live in an age of almost constant communication (laptops, smartphones, etc.).  Allowing some flexibility when employees need it not only counts as a form of compensation, but also builds loyalty.
  • Opportunity for more paid time off—Workers in America take less time off than workers in any other country in the world, but it’s not intentional.  Rewarding top producers with more paid time off is a relatively inexpensive (yet valuable) investment in those employees.
  • The chance to earn bonuses—Rather than giving across-the-board raises, more companies are opting for variable compensation structures that reward the best employees with bonuses.  These aren’t paid out at the end of the year, though.  They should be given when the employee reaches certain production goals.
  • Promotions—If an employee is excelling and could be given more responsibilities in a supervisory role, it makes perfect sense to promote them.  This is not in lieu of a raise or other earned compensation benefits, but in addition to them.

Look carefully at every aspect of your compensation structure, and ask, “Will this structure do its part to help retain our star employees?”  If not, decide what changes need to be made and then implement them.

Match your compensation to their motivation, and  retention levels and retaining employees are almost sure to increase.