I've been enjoying some very interesting forum-based conversations with business owners and employees from other countries and cultures. What's interesting to see is how age, culture, and national economies influence the rewards we give our employees for success on the job.
It's not about money. There are other rewards that are more popular, including recognition, additional time off, promotions and additional responsibility. This could be the result of a country with high taxation where employees are looking for a reward that isn't taxed, or in a country where long hours mean time away from family so employees want bonus time off to be with loved ones.
Even in the capital-driven US, money is disappearing from the top of the list. Money may have once been the preferred reward in corporate America when Baby Boomers ruled the world. But now Baby Busters (the generation that followed the Boomers) are influencing the business world and they care more about value, significance, and balance over financial success.
If your business model only rewards with bonus cash, consider looking at other options to help reward employees AND to keep them happy.
Chris writes, “Buzz, I'm in an equal business partnership with one other person. Things started well and our business has been successful. Unfortunately, we've been disagreeing more and more lately about the direction our business should take. What should we do?”
Buzz answers,
“Chris, disagreements are common in business partnerships. The ones that stick together and do well can work though them, but every partnership faces them at some point. Before doing anything drastic, ask yourself if your visions are really far apart. If they're not, see if there is a way that they can be combined, or perhaps you can each take half of the business and keep it as the same business and simply operate two slightly separate halves… even going so far as to brand them as ‘divisions'. If your visions are really far apart, you've got some harder decisions to make. Is your business worth the hassle of disagreement? It might be easier and less stressful to simply sell out and move along. Although no one really wants that to happen, a strained partnership is actually the worse option.”
I've also written an article about this issue on MoreBusiness.com and provided help for partnerships in the planning stages.