Most employees tend to be more motivated towards the initial phase of their association with their employers. As the time passes, the excitement tends to phase out and frustration begins to creeps in. This may be due to the decline in the urge to prove oneself, disagreement with the supervisors/management and or work culture, disillusionment with the job profile, comparison with previous employers, work pressure, displeasure with the appraisals so on and so forth.

It is not in the interest of any employer to have such a morale of their employees. It may not be feasible for all employers to provide an environment to satisfy everyone. There are however small measures that can be done without compromising on the basic work ethics and delivery quality. Some of the basic initiatives that would not cost much but could provide a motivational kick to your employees:

• Power Breaks: The power breaks can be given to your employees wherein they can do some recreational activities. If you have game rooms, the employees can play a bit, if not, you may allow them to spend some time on social networking site. If there is a concern with your IT policy you may consider putting a common machine in place for surfing. Employees these days have internet on their phones so all that is required is to allow for small power breaks.
• You may organize small events or gathering which would allow employees to have a chance to connect outside of the work environment
• Reshuffle the team for a short duration
• Allow employees to bring kids to work once a quarter or so
• Organize indoor games/championships

The list is endless and can vary based on the education, experience and cultural background of your employees. The intention is to have a healthy and balanced work life. You may have good managers who can discipline their team but what is more important is to have team members who are excited to report to work.

In order to make the Benchmarking effective it is crucial that the industry review is done through a reliable and accurate source. As the decision making is based on the output of the various surveys the authenticity and capability of the partner conducting the survey is very crucial. Various factors that must be considered while conducting surveys for the compensation Benchmarking:

• Look for Similar/Competing Organization of similar size
• Make sure that the Location of the target companies is same
• Hire an experienced consulting organization who knows how to formalize the survey results

Once you have the desired output you can use the internal salary data to perform the comparison. The comparison would then help you understand where you stand in the industry.

If you are paying less than the competition you are at the risk of losing your manpower to competition. You may either restructure the compensation as per the market standards or find ways to prevent losing your manpower to competition.

If you are paying more than the competition then you may be safe from the competition pressure but your CFO and CEO should be concerned about the potential margin loss. You can plan your annual appraisals to normalize the salaries and include more non-monetary benefits for your employees.

If you are paying as per the competition you may to consider creating some level of cushion by creating a slight edge over your competition. Skill development is one of such measures that can help you increase the retention of your employees and stay ahead of the competition.