Five non-financial incentives to help retain staff

With the summer holidays around the corner many employees will be taking some time to evaluate their current job and decide if they’ll stay in their current role or whether its time to move on to something else. SEEK, the online employment marketplace, suggests the following five non-financial incentives to reward your workforce and help ensure staff retention.

1) Extra Annual Leave

Aside from salary, an offer of extra annual leave was among the top incentives most likely to keep Kiwi employees happy (34 percent). Those employees who descibed themselves as ‘monitoring’ the job market were more likely to find extra annual leave appealing (46 percent).

2) Flexible Hours 

Flexible hours appealed to 34 percent of New Zealand employees. For ‘settled’ employees, flexible working hours are a valued non-financial incentive, appealing to 47 percent of respondents. Conversely, fewer (21 percent) of those ‘seeking’ a new role expressed interest in flexible hours.

3) Paid Training / Professional Development

Paid training/professional development appealed to 21 percent of New Zealand employees. When considering career development overall, nearly two in three Kiwis (64 percent) expect this to mean paid training or professional development opportunities. This expectation is even more common (72 percent) among those ‘monitoring’ the job market.

4) Prizes for Good Work

Receiving prizes such as vouchers or gift cards as a reward appealed to 21 percent of New Zealand employees. However, a paid dinner with the CEO, senior manager or business owner was less appealing to Kiwis, with 38 percent ranking it as their least appealing non-financial incentive.

5) Birthday Leave

A day off to celebrate their birthday appealed to 19 percent of Kiwi employees. However, females (27 percent) were more likely to select a day off for their birthdays than males (13 percent).

Source: Independent research conducted by Perspicacous on behalf of SEEK. Interviewing 4,000 New Zealander’s annually.