I recently ran a management training course on Employee Engagement and during the course we discuss how motivating employees during difficult times was so hard.

With financial rewards and pay rises as rare as pixie dust and rocking horse...well you get the idea, the conversation moved on to the pyscological contract and how employees actually got a lot more than they used to.

A question was raised as to how do you stop employees thinking the grass is green elsewhere. Alot of the group agreed with the questioner and the problem facing them.

Whilst most had ensured their payroll was competative there were still employees they felt that weren't fully appreciative of the 'other' benefits they had.

We started to list all the 'additional benefits' their employees received. These ranged from pension contributions,  free lunches, parking, fruit, massages, holiday trading, free buscuits to training and development.

Whilst these were given by the employer they weren't detailed in terms of monetery value.

I recalled how many years ago whilst working for a large corporate we were handed a potfolio of Statements. This document, in addition to outlining the annual salary, pay increases and pension contributions, also detailed how many days of training and development we'd received and how that equated to company average and also actual monetary value.

I was surprised to learn that most of the group didn't demonstrate to their employees all of the additional benefits they received and what was invested in them.

You may not want to work out how many buscuits they've had or free cups of tea over the year...but perhaps in difficult times its worth reminding your employees of the benefits they receive and the amount of training and development you invest in them. 

A simple statement showing the benefits and monetary value invested in them may work!