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- Setting objectives for a motivation strategy will help to check that it provides a return on investment.
- Employee surveys and forums enable staff to provide direct feedback on strategies and benefits.
- Business data, such as staff turnover and absence levels, can provide information on motivation and return on investment.
Setting objectives
For a motivation strategy to achieve its goals, organisation must set out what objectives it wants to achieve.
Mark Pemberthy, director at JLT Group, says the objectives could be financial, such as keeping within a certain budget or motivating staff to achieve key targets. Alternatively, the focus could be on staff participation, with employers looking at what proportion of the workforce is taking up, or engaging with, specific benefits.
Taking measurements
There are a number of ways for an employer to measure whether its motivation strategy is a success, but these tend to fall into two categories: employee feedback and analysis of business data.
Employee surveys usually cover wider engagement issues and are typically carried out on annually. Asking certain questions in the survey can provide specific information about the motivation and engagement of staff.
Matt Duffy, head of online benefits at Lorica, says: “It is important for organisations to ask whether employees feel they are fairly rewarded for the work carried out and high scores would indicate that the benefits being offered are good.
“Another good indicator is the question ‘would you recommend a friend to work at the organisation?’. That is normally a really good indicator of how engaged and motivated employees are.”
Organisations are also using more regular employee forums and focus groups to gather more detailed information from staff.
Alastair Denton, managing director at Edenred, says such forums enable organisations to address immediately any issues that employees may have. Employers are also increasingly using social media to allow employees to give feedback.
Helen Ives, vice-president for people at Peer1 Hosting, says the organisation uses exit interviews and an annual benefits survey to talk directly with employees about the benefits offered.
Motivation and engagement
Employee motivation and engagement are a key focus for Peer1 Hosting, says Ives. “We don’t measure return on investment in the same way other [organisations] do. We look at how much it boosts our employees’ motivation, whether it makes them feel financially secure and achieve a work-life balance. We want to give our staff the freedom to come into work and do their best, focusing on growing the business rather than worrying about money problems or healthcare.”
Business data is also an important means for measuring the success of a motivation strategy. One factor to consider is how much has been saved in recruitment and training costs by retaining staff who are engaged with the organisation.
Other data to analyse could include productivity levels, staff retention rates and turnover rates, as well as absence figures.
Ives says Peer1 Hosting also looks at the percentage of staff who take up benefits and, because of the focus on using benefits to achieve a work-life balance, it examines how staff are using benefits. For example, if there is an increase in use of medical benefits, it will reassess whether employees are having problems at work because of stress.
But whatever employers’ objectives and means of motivating staff, assessing the effectiveness of their approach is key to ensure they obtain the maximum return for their benefits spend.