There is so much talk about the “Great Resignation” these days – and for good reason. There’s never been a time in the history of employment where people have been quitting jobs the way they are now.
Some organizations, sick of being “ghosted” by employees who commit to being hired but then never show up, are taking extraordinary measures to prevent this from happening. Have you heard about these tactics? There’s even a hashtag tied to this practice: #GoldenHello (as opposed to a #GoldenHandshake or #GoldenHandcuffs)
• Candidates are being offered money just to show up for an interview
• If they make it to second or third round of interviews, they receive even more cash
• Successful candidates are offered a reward after completing the first three months or first year
• Companies are offering to complete all the necessary visa paperwork to hire from overseas
• New Hires are allowed to work from anywhere, including a local office
• New Hires are offered to be flown into the Company Headquarters to meet people but are still allowed to return to a location of their choice
These all sound fantastic for candidates and new hires, but what about existing employees? Once loyal workers hear about all these new perks they will start to wonder, “Why wasn’t I offered any of these incentives?” or simply “What about me?”
Sometimes, in order to ward off these feelings for existing employees, companies start ramping up even more expensive perks for existing employees… and this may work – for a while.
The problem with all of these incentives is that they don’t really take individual preferences into account. Organizations can spend thousands – even hundreds of thousands of dollars on perks or incentives that may or may not work.
This all brings me to the topic of intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation. Almost all of these perks involve extrinsic factors, a.k.a. “bribery.” And by the way – there is NOTHING wrong with a little extrinsic motivation! But until organizations address the ghosting behavior of candidates and what’s top of mind for existing employees holistically, the connections between the new and the existing will be tenuous at best.