When you have a great employee, it’s natural to want to reward them and in our experience, one of the biggest mistakes businesses make is assuming the only way to recognise high performance is to promote that person into a supervisory or management role.

Being brilliant at your job doesn’t automatically mean you’ll be brilliant at managing people. Not everyone is built for it and not everyone wants it.

Some employees thrive because they are highly skilled, technically knowledgeable, creative, organised or excellent with customers. Taking them away from what they do best and putting them into a management position can actually reduce their job satisfaction and potentially lose a great employee altogether.

HOW ELSE CAN YOU REWARD GREAT STAFF?

OFFER FLEXIBILITY
Offering flexibility is increasingly seen as more beneficial than a small salary increase. Maybe it’s important for your employee to leave early one day a week so they can coach their kids sporting team or get them to swimming? Letting them knock off at 3:30pm to be able to do this is your way of saying – “hey I really value you”. It’s not always about extra money.

FINANCIALLY
It’s an obvious one and if you can afford it, no-one is going to pass that up. Salary increases, bonuses or performance incentives recognise contribution without changing someone’s role. Factoring in other things like health insurance, gym memberships, fuel cards – these things help relieve the cost of living pressures and can be the deciding factor when your employee might be starting to look around.

What’s that old saying – an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

INVEST IN DEVELOPMENT
Training, courses, mentoring or opportunities to learn new skills can show employees that you value their future. If you are promoting to management, what support are you giving them to ensure they success? Leadership courses can be really valuable.

GIVE THEM GREATER RESPONSIBILITY
Allowing someone to lead a project, manage a client relationship or take ownership of an important area can provide career growth without requiring them to manage a team. Before you promote, ask one important question – Do they actually want to manage people? Have you had that conversation with them?

Management isn’t simply the next step on the career ladder. It requires different skills, including communication, delegation, conflict resolution, coaching and accountability. Instead of automatically promoting your best performer, have a conversation about what they want their career to look like because sometimes the best way to keep your star employee is to let them remain a star rather than turning them into a supervisor they never wanted to be.

At iPlace Recruitment, we know that great people don’t always follow the same career path. Reward talent, develop potential and, most importantly understand what motivates your people.

Cher & Kylie