Do Rewards Work as a Retention Strategy?
Can you just throw more perks and rewards at people in an effort to retain them as employees?
I’m not sure it really works. Ultimately, people are motivated by bigger things than perks and rewards, including the quality of the work they’re being asked to do, the people they’re working with and money. And, as I’ve posted before, employee motivation really comes from within themselves.
But Chris Russell asks a very good question in a recent blog post, Why don’t companies give more vacation time?
I’ve always asked myself this question. The standard 2 weeks is pretty lame. And while I don’t think you can up the ante on rewards as the primary means of retention, offering a better vacation package to entice people into the company, and to create a great employer brand makes a lot of sense. And the truth is that offering 1 or even 2 more weeks isn’t going to negatively affect productivity. If anything, I think it will improve it, because you’ll get fresher, more energized employees. Your employees will see that you care about their well-being by trying to balance work and life just a little bit more, and they’ll be all the more effective and productive for it.
And the same logic holds true for startups.
There are lots of good tips on hiring for startups and you should also think about offering more vacation. While we all understand that startups are absolutely crazy work environments, and often require people to work much more than they would elsewhere (and the people in startups should thrive on that sort of challenge), being able to balance that with more time off makes complete sense.
I found out just how important vacation time was when moving from a company that I had been with a long time and had five weeks vacation to one where I only had three weeks vacation.
At the old company, I’d think nothing of taking a Friday off to work around the house, on the yard, or finish a group of errands. Or get rid of some building stress by taking a long weekend. And worked a ton of hours in between.
With three weeks…one for my hobby, one for when my stepson visits from out of state and one with my wife…there isn’t any time to do those “at home” things or long weekends to get away from the stress. Everything is done on the weekends meaning the weekends are a lot like work…but no recovery.
All this probably sounds like whining, but vacation and recovery is just as important to creativity, productivity, and work as the work itself.
I was surprised at what a difference the time off made.