Wednesday 1 February 2017

Contract Employees - Here's Why You Should Look Beyond Hourly Rate?

Each one of us seeks work and there isn't much mystery why we need it. Obvious reasons being money, once we get into it, it is not the only reason to sustain and continue to get engaged specially if it hourly based employment. According to a research on organizational and management theories, there are many other factors that motivate an employee to keep working continuously.  


Here are few things that we have listed out that will keep hourly workers motivated and look beyond their wages. 

Job satisfaction:  

Job satisfaction is one of the important aspects in motivating employees and productivity. A survey by the Families and Work Institute depicts around 54 percent of U.S employees are not satisfied with their jobs and about 39 percent are not totally provided with work to keep them engaged. It is infernal that workers who are not totally engaged with work do not have enough job satisfaction and are not productive enough.  

Though you are not well paid in an hourly based employment, if a job offers a high level of satisfaction, it is more likely that the employee will stick to the company.  

The sense of ownership: 

Secondly, an employee should be allowed to feel and given opportunities so that he can have a sense of ownership in the success of the company. The hourly hired employee needs to know that he is part of the company and has a share in its success or failure. For this, the employee has to make valuable contributions which need to be recognized so that he will have that sense of ownership. 

A manager can instill this sense of ownership and recognition either publicly or privately and awarded with an announcement, which gives employee satisfaction. The management should ensure to improve a sense of trust, company pride and team spirit in the hourly based employee by rewarding them appropriately for reaching collective goals of the organization. 


Proving Their Capability:  

Most of the hourly based jobs are entry level. As it is the start of the career they strive to showcase their capability, talent to prove that they are different from the pack. Hence, recognizing the talent and giving them enough opportunities to get promoted should be a primary objective or motive for companies to keep hourly employees engaged.  

When they get promoted at each level of the ladder, their progress will give them enough impetus to work that much harder. Giving incentives when promoted gives them a sense of achievement that keeps them etched to the company. 

Work environment & Culture:  

Having a warm and inviting work environment produces a greater effect, influencing employees to stay loyal to the organizations. Having a neat, bright instead of a drab, uncomfortable environment can positively impact the moods of hourly employees and make them more engaged and feel of working with zeal.  

Strong, widely communicated and reinforced organization’s culture will enhance the employee retention and engagement. An employee working in a company with strong values will feel himself valued. Especially the hourly waged workers feel empowered to some extent rather than being powerless at all. Employees would always prefer joining and staying with a company culture that promotes supports flexibility and offers work-life equilibrium. 

Personal Development: 

Companies that force personal development on employees have more productive and committed workforce. When companies give emphasis to soft skills, like personality development, customer service, leadership skills, workshops on acquiring new skills, it would improve employee skill engagement and give them chance to work in a different field in the same company, when they are finished with their contract. 

When employees are given the challenge to mix up with daily routine activities and exposing to new responsibilities, they will be engaged all times and learn how to cope up with new challenges. 

Rewards & Benefits: 

Generally, the same insurance coverage and other benefits are not provided to hourly employees as it is for salaried staff. But, there are alternative ways by which the hourly staff can be engaged. For example, a company may offer plans negotiated to afford health or dental coverage for hourly wagers. They can be enrolled for inexpensive health coverage than going through a health exchange. 

However, regardless of their type, all employees should be rewarded, recognized and given proper incentives at work. There should be every effort made to praise and celebrate their positive behavior, accomplishments and timely service. It could be in the form of monetary rewards, perks, or a verbal praise, but needs to be consistent enough to recognize and improve the engagement. 

By making easy changes and finding new ways to recognize and appreciate their work, you can keep your part-time team happy, reduce attrition, and even increase productivity. 

Love For Work:

Other than all the above factor, final motivation aspect for all whatever kind of workers are is a genuine love for their work, which gives them ultimate job satisfaction. Some people just don't like to sit dead and idle, during their job hours. They think about constant ways of improving their skills and adding value to the performance of their job.  
This would help them get recognized, step up the ladder, earn them more money and contribute to the success of the company. This makes the ideal job and the ideal employee, ideal ways to make staff engaged and productive.