Emotional Salary: Fostering a Positive Workplace to Retain Key Talent

Seeking talent is an ongoing pursuit for every entrepreneur and organization piecing together their teams. While salary stands as a key factor for attracting talent and a means of differentiation for companies, today’s professionals explore a diverse range of requirements beyond compensation when deciding which organization to join to advance in their careers.

New generations have become much more demanding when searching for a job. Unlike a few years ago, professionals now take into account benefits such as work-life balance, flexible hours, or the work environment when choosing where to apply their talent.

Deloitte predicts that by 2025, Millennials will make up 75% of the global workforce. What stands out about this generation is their eagerness to keep growing and learning, always seeking improvements in their work conditions. They avoid staying in jobs that don’t sufficiently contribute to their personal lives. Hence, implementing talent retention strategies in a company becomes crucial.

Even if not tied to money, the desired requirements become a strong motivator. We’re talking about emotional rewards here. And no, it’s not about paying with hugs. Emotional rewards include all those non-monetary perks that inspire and improve the well-being of employees.

Examples of emotional salary

Flexible working hours

Having the flexibility to start and finish the workday at different times is something that many employees seek. This freedom is highly valued as it allows for easier personal time management — like fitting in exercise before the workday begins. There’s also the option of remote work, which provides the freedom to work from anywhere you want and tailor your schedule to fit your routine and individual needs.

Work-life balance initiatives

Besides remote work or flexible hours, many other options enable employees to balance their personal and professional lives. These are known as work-life balance initiatives. Some companies provide services like dining facilities, transportation, gym access, or childcare to simplify daily activities, reduce commuting, and save time.

Training and promotion plans

This form of emotional salary involves the opportunity to keep learning or enhancing your skills. In these training programs, employees also work on other aspects such as soft and hard skills, which refer to personal and technical abilities that contribute to company performance. This enhances their professional profile and allows them to pursue a future career plan.

Creating a positive work environment

Given that we spend most of our time at work, having a comfortable and pleasant environment there is essential. A positive corporate atmosphere greatly influences our emotional well-being. That’s why some companies make efforts to ensure this by fostering good corporate culture, engaging employees in decision-making, actively listening to their suggestions and concerns, and creating spaces and activities to strengthen relationships among coworkers.