The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want

Chapter 4. Compensation

Although job security is a critical concern of workers, it is also true that compensation is extraordinarily important for worker morale and performance. Don't believe anyone who tells you that money is “way down on the list” of worker goals—that what they really want is “appreciation” (or whatever) and they clamor for money only when those other things are lacking. That's psychobabble. As we said, they want a lot of things and money is way up there.

Money as Seen by Workers

Workers see money as:

• Providing for their basic material needs and, ideally, to live in a manner that satisfies them.

• Providing a sense of equity (that is, receiving a fair return for their labors).

• Providing a measure—one of the major measures—of their ...