Why is it important to pay your staff well?

What would you identify as your company’s most valued asset? Some would answer that question and say the product; we wonder how many would say they consider their staff to be the most valuable pieces?

You are in business to make a profit and need to invest in your company so it survives for the long haul. In a perfect world, generous wages for every member of your team would be great but here in the real world, sometimes you need to pay an employee less than you would like to improve your bottom line.

That is the standard thinking? But what if that were wrong? What if paying your employees more actually resulted in such a rise in productivity that the decision to be generous not only paid for itself but improved profitability?

We are accustomed to that way of thinking when it comes to highly skilled workers, but according to recent surveys the same can actually hold true in lower-skilled sectors where sadly, employees have sometimes been thought of as largely interchangeable.

At the end of the day companies wants to attract, retain and keep motivating good staff so they stay – it is difficult to overstate the value a great employee can add to one’s business.

Great employees are worth such a lot to your customer base and can dramatically increase your bottom line, so when you are considering pay scales weigh in the invaluable impact this person will bring to the table and your company.

Links between salary and motivation are often debated. Most experts agree that a reasonable salary for a given job is needed to attract and retain the right employees, but debate centres on whether salary serves only as a retention tool or if it is useful in motivating top performance. Some companies use pay plays like salary plus commission, or straight commission as motivational tools in lieu of a traditional straight salary formats.

It has been said that you can never overpay a good employee – you can only overpay a bad one!

If and when you end up at the negotiation table you and your employee can sometimes both end up losing? Why? Because some employees resent justifying a certain pay level; as in their view their employer should already know there value and what they bring to the company.

When you do find a great member of staff always make your best offer and at least then you know that if they do leave for a higher salary then nothing could have been done to retain them salary wise.

Most employees do understand current market conditions, financial constraints and revenue shortfalls. They understand when you cannot pay top of the market salaries. What they do not understand is when they no longer feel fairly compensated compared to other employees in similar roles, both inside and outside of your company.

Once a salary is reasonable and fair, other things become important; recognition, respect, challenging work and opportunities for development – the feeling that their job is more than just a job. In light of today’s economic landscape, it is more important than ever for companies to have happy, settled and productive employees. When employees are loyal and engaged in the company then profits are higher.

Conversely, when people feel unmotivated or undervalued then the company suffers. Studies show that engaged employees miss less work and perform better and are much more supportive of changes within the work place.

An individual who feels appreciated will always do more than is expected of them.

When you have a happy and productive work force that is eager to contribute, your company can weather most storms.