The emotional wage and its 5 fundamental pillars

What is emotional pay?

Emotional pay is all non-financial compensation for work, which satisfies the needs of the employee at different levels. This type of pay is often perceived as more valuable than monetary pay, and plays an important role in aspects such as employee motivation and productivity.

The concept of emotional pay is revolutionising the HR landscape. In an Infojobs report on motivations for changing jobs, the top motivation was salary (79%), followed closely by better hours (55%) or work-life balance (54%).

This data is particularly relevant for companies that want to reduce turnover and absenteeism, improve their employer branding, and even implement happiness in the company. Emotional pay plays an important role in these trends that drive job change, as it meets employee needs at a new level.

Examples of emotional pay

In order to understand the pillars of this type of salary and its advantages, it is first necessary to understand what exactly it consists of. Here are some examples of emotional pay:

• Flexible remote working: the possibility to work from home for a better work-life balance. To find out about your company's obligations in this respect, take a look at our blog on telework law.
• Social benefits: personalised benefits and/or flexible remuneration plan.
• Training and professional development: continuous learning thanks to a career plan, access to training and/or language courses.
• Flexible working hours and extra days off
  
• Access to resources: own space such as a gym or meditation room, or equipment at home needed for teleworking.

Advantages of emotional pay

Emotional pay can be key to employee performance and, ultimately, the company's production level as well as its branding. Some of these benefits are:

• Psychological well-being: thanks to the recognition and satisfaction of their needs, employees benefit from lower stress levels and increased commitment and motivation.
• Reduced turnover and absenteeism: employees feel more comfortable and content, so they want to stay with the company and do not need to miss work.
• Increased productivity and competitiveness: it is proven that a happy employee is more productive, and the company will be able to compete with larger companies in attracting talent with a more personalised and attractive compensation package.
• Improving compensation without increasing the budget: the company can improve its compensation package without having to invest more money.

The 5 fundamental pillars

Octavius Black, CEO of Mind Gym, already highlighted in 2010 5 fundamental pillars to be considered in emotional pay. Until then, non-financial aspects that had an impact on employee motivation were not usually considered when it came to setting the employee's salary.

The 5 pillars of the emotional wage are:

1. Recognition of the importance of the employee's work
2. Communicating expectations of them
3. Ensuring that they have the necessary resources to carry out their work
4. Fostering a good working environment and relations between managers and employees.
5. Establishment of transparent and fluid communication

At the end of the day, Black also emphasised a general and indispensable pillar: empathy and connection. As he rightly pointed out:

"We subconsciously identify and empathise more with other people when we can see something of ourselves in them."

- Octavius Black

Employee happiness

Undoubtedly, one of the greatest benefits of emotional pay is that it promotes happiness in the company, making the employee feel better both at work and personally. To promote employee happiness, it is important to provide time for HR managers to focus on activities such as achievement recognition or performance appraisal. One of the easiest ways to do this is by installing HR software.

Want to know more about how to facilitate the daily work of your employees?Request a free demo at niikiis!