Debbie Lovewell: Motivating staff boosts business performance

Despite the UK officially exiting recession for a second time, the economic climate is still a key concern for business leaders.

Chief executives in all industry sectors are formulating strategies to steer their organisation onto a strong growth path.

The success of these business goals is intrinsically linked with the organisation’s reward strategy, particularly with its approach to employee engagement.

The most successful organisations will embrace, manage and obtain value from their workforce’s increasing diversity. At the heart of this is an employer’s ability to understand the needs of different segments of its workforce, particularly in terms of how they best work, learn and are best encouraged to engage with, and perform for, their employer, especially in relation to their total reward package.

Employers can use this understanding to tailor their employee value proposition. A key part of this is to ensure their compensation and benefits package is flexible enough to cater for a wide range of tastes. This can mean making provision for staff to work flexibly to balance work and personal lives, or offering a flex plan so workers can select perks most relevant to them. This is vital at a time when pay rises may be low or there may be fewer opportunities for career progression.

Investing the time to get this right can result in long-term business rewards. Motivated, engaged and loyal employees that are more likely to go the extra mile can make a significant difference tobusiness performance.

Follow Debbie Lovewell on Twitter: @DebbieLovewell