The Importance Of An Emotional Salary At Work
If you want an employee to perform well, it is important to give them a fair salary and bonuses or other financial incentives. However, money isn’t the only thing that keeps employees motivated and happy. The concept of an emotional salary is therefore becoming increasingly popular in all kinds of workplaces.
dr. Steven Poelmans, professor of neuroscience and strategic leadership at the Antwerp Management School in Belgium, says: “An emotional salary is the set of non-monetary benefits that a company offers its employees and that supplements the traditional salary with new creative formulas that adapt to modern needs.”
An emotional salary motivates employees and allows companies to retain talented employees. This second advantage is so important that we will discuss it in more detail later.
Emotional salary
There are different types of emotional salaries and they vary from company to company. Yet there are also a few ‘basic elements’ that can lead to happy employees:
- A good working environment. Having a good working environment makes employees feel good and work together effectively as a team. For example, hiring a business psychologist is one way to help resolve conflicts between colleagues.
- Personal and Professional Development. Providing ongoing training opportunities for employees is critical. Continuing education to refresh old skills and learn new ones is a very good way to keep employees motivated. Giving employees the opportunity to be promoted can also yield very positive results.
- Compatibility with personal life. Giving days off for medical appointments or managing personal affairs, having a flexible schedule, allowing employees to work from home at least one day a week, or giving vacation days to achieve certain goals are all great elements to be part of an attractive emotional salary.
- Have a voice within the company. It is very important that employees feel that their opinions are heard before certain decisions are made. The employees are an essential part of the company, and without them the entire company would not run. Giving employees a voice, listening to them and showing them that their opinions and feelings matter can have very positive consequences.
Why it’s important to retain talented employees
In a way, a good emotional salary is a way to keep talented employees in the company. On the other hand, it is also important to hire the right employees.
Every company has its own values, and if a potential employee isn’t comfortable with those values, it doesn’t matter how good the emotional salary you offer.
Every company should therefore have a clear idea of what an ‘ideal employee’ should look like. This will also help the company determine which elements should make up an emotional salary for that employee and which are less important.
Talented people are very valuable. They have a creative mind that moves the company forward and helps achieve goals that previously seemed unattainable. They fall into the ‘ideal candidate’ category and once they are part of the team it would be a mistake to let them go.
A good salary is not enough to keep talented people. Because if another company comes along and offers them flexible hours, on-site childcare, a cafeteria and a break room, they would probably be quick to quit their job to work there.
So…
All employees need an emotional salary to feel that their work is meaningful and that they have professional development opportunities.
When employees are motivated in this way, they are more likely to work hard to achieve their goals. A successful workplace is a workplace where not only the company but also the employees win.
