Emotional salary? You have most likely heard about emotional salary in companies on numerous occasions. Let me tell you in advance (spoiler alert!) that this article won't be one in which you can read about the importance and benefits of an emotional salary, but even so, let's start at the beginning.
What in fact is the emotional salary? The term emotional salary refers to everything that concerns or motivates people, apart from financial reward. More specifically, emotional salary encompasses a whole set of initiatives and policies in talent management which aim to have happier employees as well as more motivated.
<< If you are interested in that content, don't miss
What does it mean to work at BETWEEN? >>
There are many initiatives ans offers which are implemented in companies in order to "package" what we understand as emotional salary. Some examples are reconciliation, flexible schedule, teleworking and flexible remuneration.
All of them are legitimate and meaningful as long as they respond to real needs of the employees. Do not forget about these initiatives, do not stop providing them, supporting them and improving them. An emotional salary is many things, but beyond the what, we sometimes wonder how we can improve it, implement it or provide it.
How can we provide a better emotional salary?
When talking about emotional salary, we must keep two things in mind: firstly, that for etymological reasons, we are talking about emotions, and secondly, that we need to thing of 21st century companies, their generations and talent management trends. For example, we no longer talk about talent retention, we talk about initiatives so that employees prefer us as company day after day, in the same way that we continue to prefer and choose our friends and the people we love, without anything or anybody holding us back.
We live in a rapidly changing society and we coexist in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment (VUCA environment), so we can no longer think exclusively of pleasing everyone in the same way. We must focus on creating unique and coherent experiences for employees, and that is where we find the key to the success of emotional salary.
ASK and LISTEN more
We may think that we are talking about something complicated, but sometimes, things which appear the most complicated emanate from the most basic and simple. In order to create unique and coherent experiences for the workers who choose us day after day, the key to success is asking and listening.
By asking and listening we discover their significant moments (better known as moments that matter) throughout the journey in the company. By identifying these moments that matter, we can provide them with satisfying experiences precisely at those significant moments.
Not only that, we will discover pain points so that we can remedy them as well as identify what is working, in order to enhance it. This will allow us to place the person at the centre: listening and then trying to create personalised experiences, beyond those which are offered to everyone.
BETWEEN is clear with that
At BETWEEN we know what the drivers which motivate people in the 21st century are and we focus on them in order to be able to offer a real and satisfactory experience in response to the 'emotional salary' binomial. We thus ask questions and listen to people, creating spaces where they can do so. Here are two examples which, using that approach, we have at BETWEEN:
- Performance Progress interviews: periodic meetings between manager and worker, which aim to showcase the progress and development of the person and to enhance their personal and professional growth at the hands of the organisation. We use a very simple methodology with questions about potential, self-appraisal and continuous learning, career development and support from the manager.
- Motivational follow-up through the team of Service Managers (SM): we have established an initiative whereby we identify employee motivations in order to be able to take action and give them an outlet.
People Department is constantly changing and adapting methodologies and procedures in talent management in order to offer the best for employees.
At BETWEEN, we want people choosing us because of accompanying them at all the significant moments they experience on their journey. That is the distinctive value of the emotional salary.
