'Rewards gap' leads to lack of employee motivation, says study

Date: 25/11/2010

Rewards and recognition are crucial to achieving employee motivation, according to a new study.

A survey by Mercer has shown that staff engagement figures are worse than they were before the recession due to a perceived 'rewards gap'.

The research suggests that many staff feel their reward levels are lower than the market average.

In contrast, employers believe that they offer very competitive rewards, according to the study.

Chris Johnson, UK head of Mercer's human capital business, pointed out that there was a direct relationship between employee motivation and company productivity.

"Employers tend to overrate the importance of culture, career development, and training and development. Crucially, they underrate the importance of job security and pay to employees," Employee Benefits reports him as saying.

"Engagement is going to suffer if employees feel their needs are not being met. Companies may be concentrating their resources in the wrong area so are finding attraction, retention or motivation problematic."

In addition to feeling their rewards are worse than other workers, a recent study by HR consultancy Reabur revealed that 93 per cent of staff believe they are underpaid.

But the survey also showed that 61 per cent of workers over-estimated how much they were worth.

Posted by Michael Ewing 

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