Have you noticed the growing absenteeism across your talent pool? Things have changed since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and The Great Resignation. Employees are quitting at unprecedented rates, causing your clients to become collectively anxious about keeping their positions filled.
The staffing industry created jobs for 13.6 million employees per year during the pandemic, which was a loss of 2.4 million positions before COVID-19. This loss has been felt across many industries – so what can staffing agencies do to keep your client’s employees retained and productive?
Despite the mounting financial stressors caused by the pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and inflation, money has significant limitations in motivating employees. While money is necessary and somewhat tied to happiness, a slight raise in wages is not enough to keep your client’s workforce from greener pastures.
In short, bonuses or pay raises will have fleeting effects on your talent’s retention and productivity. To adapt to a candidate-driven environment, staffing agencies need to take a look at the psychology behind professional perks and benefits and put those theories to practice.
Psychology of motivation and productivity in the workplace
American psychologist Frederick Herzberg had a theory about job satisfaction that is more relevant today than ever before. Essentially, worker satisfaction is dependent on two distinct types of factors: those that directly determine satisfaction or dissatisfaction and those that have the ability to enhance satisfaction.
Having a clean, organized workspace is an example of a hygiene factor that directly determines satisfaction or dissatisfaction. In the absence of a hygiene factor, many employees would become dissatisfied with their jobs and may be able to easily articulate a reasoning so that management can address the issue, solving the problem.
By contrast, factors that have the ability to enhance satisfaction don’t necessarily lead to dissatisfaction when they’re not present. One example of a motivation factor is an employee perk, or incentive.
Offering employee perks, like flexible schedules, extended lunch breaks, or financial stipends tied to carpooling programs or sustainability efforts can increase worker satisfaction. Herzberg theorized that there are four different possible outcomes of his theory in the workplace.
Two Factors Motivation Theory:
- High Hygiene + High Motivation = Engaged, Happy, Productive Workforce
- High Hygiene + Low Motivation = Content Workforce with Low Production
- Low Hygiene + High Motivation = Dissatisfied but Productive Workforce
- Low Hygiene + Low Motivation = Dissatisfied and Unproductive Workforce
The Impact of Talent Motivators Like Perks and Benefits
Now that we have an understanding of how employee motivation works, let’s take a look at how perks and benefits can impact your client’s worker motivation.
Stave Off Burnout by Upskilling Frontline Staff
Employees may show signs of burnout that can be observed in stages before deciding to resign. If a job is no longer challenging or if your employees have reached all of the potential growth that a position has to offer, they may be looking to move on.
An effective way to combat burnout is to offer your employees a way to sharpen and increase their skill-sets. This can be done at all levels within a company and in all sorts of industries, from those who typically employ low wage workers to those with lots of office workers.
To create an effective pathway for upskilling, engage a clearly achievable system, define new skill set expectations, and encourage self-growth. This can include:
- Offer continued training and development
- Incorporate different methods of teaching
- Incentivize completing training with rewards
- Promote from within
The Takeaway: Employees with a clear path for continued development – even temporary or part-time ones – are less likely to look outside the company when they experience burnout in their current positions.
Reduced Absenteeism
Employees may miss work or call out when they aren’t feeling well, and that’s expected. When your client’s employees feel stressed, burdened, or experiencing symptoms of burnout, the absentee rate increases.
Employers experience the effects of absenteeism in the form of capital loss, reduced productivity, and low morale. It’s estimated that productivity losses linked to absenteeism cost your clients over $225 billion annually.
When it comes to creating, implementing, and enforcing attendance policies in the workforce, don’t forget the rewards process for employees. Incentivizing your talent with a more modern and streamlined digital pay platform rewarding employees who regularly show up helps retain great workers and makes them feel valued. Valued employees are:
- More likely to feel satisfied in the workplace
- Motivated to perform well
- Less likely to leave their positions
- Less likely to take time off
Simply implementing benefits for employees will help your clients retain workers. Employee incentives don’t have to be a big financial investment for employers. Verbal praise, certificates of recognition, or instant wage access are all effective rewards.
The Takeaway: Incentives are directly linked to engagement-driving morale. Offering a few perks can be an effective way to keep employees happy.
Using Motivation as a Building Block for Better Productivity
The promise of employment is simply no longer enough to retain talent – motivation must be present.
Motivation is a driving force retaining talent. Motivated employees are task-oriented, goal achieving, innovation experts, while unmotivated employees are dissatisfied and looking for work elsewhere.
Fostering a motivational work environment typically cultivates value. Remember the effects of feeling value on an employee. Engage your workforce by making your mission statement clear and how their role contributes to success.
The biggest mistake that your staffing agency is making is assuming that job seekers ONLY want a job. Once you figure out what else they need, you can start providing it.
Other methods for increasing motivation include ensuring your clients are well-equipped for benefits. 76% percent of millennial workers voiced that they would leave a job if it wasn’t a caring environment.
The Takeaway: Perks don’t have to break the bank to be effective. Choose from a variety of free or low-cost ideas to drive your client’s employee motivation.
Better Chance of Retaining Top Talent
When employees leave, the burden of loss hits hard for your clients. That’s one of the reasons why retention and productivity is a top priority for your clients amid The Great Resignation.
38% of employees who quit sighted a lack of benefits as the reason. Benefits, including perks, have become a powerful tool for staffing agencies to boost their talent pool’s retention. Perks come in many forms and can include anything from flexibility in schedules, reimbursements, or early wage access through paycards.
Are your client’s employees feeling appreciated and motivated by their workplace culture? If your agency is experiencing high turnover, look at the type of benefits you offer and adapt to what your talent needs.
The Takeaway: More than one-third of employees leave over a lack of benefits. The right perks can be a good way to retain your talent.
Employee Perks Are Vital for Staffing Agencies in 2022 and Beyond
Retaining your talent has never been a more significant priority than it is in 2022. Employees have realized that there is more to life than working to make ends meet. As a result, agencies need to recognize and adapt to meet the needs of their employees.
They can do that by implementing and offering a robust package of employee perks to help employees feel valued, increasing their motivation. Motivated employees increase productivity, which improves employee retention.
Need help getting there? Juice Financial can help your agency meet the needs of your talent with our Fin-Tech platform. It’s easy to use and doesn’t break the bank.
Get in touch to learn more about our solutions today – including our Pay Today same-day pay option.
