What is emotional salary and why is it so important?

Nowadays, people work more hours every day and even more days each month. Additionally, the work responsibilities are getting increasingly bigger and those are the cause for mental and emotional distress in employees everywhere. That makes many people to reconsider their work and if their salary is really worth all that distress. 

That’s why today many workers prioritize many other aspects other than the economic one. That phenomenon has not gone unnoticed by the Human Resources organizations. Is in this context that the concept of emotional salary appears. That’s why in this article we will show you what is emotional salary and why is it so important. 

What is emotional salary? 

This is a relatively new concept that encourages a new form of compensation for work. Emotional salary does not focus on the economic gains, but it tries to increase the levels of comfort, satisfaction and wellbeing of employees at work. It’s important to notice that emotional salary doesn’t substitute traditional salary, but rather complements it. 

We need to keep in mind that there are many different dimensions in people’s lives and the economic aspect is just one of them. So, when an organization offers economic salary along with actions that take into account the emotional salary, we get a higher satisfaction level, as well as an increase in employee motivation. 

It’s important to consider that emotional salary is not the same for everyone. This is because each organization has a different internal functioning. Consequently, the needs of each employee will be different. Therefore, the types of emotional salary can change according to the organization. 

To work correctly in the emotional salary strategy of a business, first you need to know the level of satisfaction and comfort employees have in the company currently since those aspects will improve with the emotional salary. It is impossible to create a proper emotional salary strategy without the input of the workers. 

In order to obtain that information, you can create internal surveys for employees at all levels of the organization. You can use some other means to obtain feedback such as interviews. These must identify all the aspects employees feel must be improved, as well as those that are working good regarding the satisfaction and comfort levels in the organization. 

With all the data gathered, you are in the position to create strategies and define which actions can fully meet the needs of the employees. Additionally, it is necessary to monitor the results of the strategy and look for possible changes to adjust the strategy.  

Benefits of emotional salary 

Since it focuses on increasing the level of satisfaction and comfort, emotional salary has many positive effects on employees. First, if employees feel comfortable, they are less likely to leave the organization, so it helps to increase the talent retention rate. 

Also, emotional salary focuses on meeting all the needs workers might face at work. That is important to make employees feel valued by the organization. As a result, their motivation levels increase and along with it rises the productivity at work. Another positive side effect is that the absenteeism rate falls considerably. 

You might like: 4 Actions that Can Help You Optimize your Employee Retention Strategies 

Examples of emotional salary 

As we previously said, there isn’t one single form of emotional salary. You can find many actions that can possibly increase the satisfaction levels of your employees at work. These are some types of emotional salary. 

1. Home office 

The pandemic changed forever the way of working for businesses. Now the comfort of working from home is one of the best actions you can take as an organization. Thanks to the great amount of time and money in commuting it saves, you can be sure it increases satisfaction among employees, so you should consider making it a permanent feature of your business.  

2. Flexible hours 

This new way of working set by the pandemic is perfect for organizations to start offering flexible hours. The distribution of the 8 hours of work can me much looser and divide depending on employees. After all, the highest productivity hours are not the same for everybody. 

3. Professional development 

We have to consider also that professional development is very important for employees today. It is very difficult to feel comfortable or satisfied in a job where you know you are not making any progress for your career. That’s why it’s so important for companies to offer development opportunities such as career paths, continuous training or further education opportunities in external entities. 

4. Leisure spaces 

When you are at the office, sitting in a desk all day can be stressing and mentally exhausting. For that reason, organizations should offer also spaces that allow release all the stress from work.  You can be sure that spending 5 minutes outside of the work environment can be very helpful for your employees. 

Now you know that is emotional salary and its benefits. This is a very relevant concept today and you definitely should implement it in your organization. The results might be better than you expect. 

At Talent2Win, we strive to align your company’s business objectives with the best Talent Acquisition strategies available. If you want to learn more about the services we offer, do not hesitate to contact us.