The following is my response to an item on Retail Wire concerning the fact that The GAP has announced they are going to raise the starting wage of employees to $9.00 an hour this year and $10 next year.
This is a great move for the Gap for all kinds of reasons. Will it motivate employees? NO. Money has been proven to not be a key motivator over the long run at the front-line level. (Lack of money, however, has proven to be a demotivator.)
- Will it help attract more and possibly better candidates to apply? Yes.
- Will management be able to determine who the better candidates are? Maybe.
- Will paying people more get them to work harder over the long run? NO!
- Will it get people to stay longer? The more you pay, the more frustration and inept management employees will put up with.
Here’s the winning combination:
- Pay more and hire better people.
- Give those people a reason to work hard and feel good about the job they do.
- Make sure you have great managers that great people want to work for.
- Pay what the job is worth (rather than the lowest rate you can get somebody to do the job for).
This was originally published on Mel Kleiman’s Humetrics blog.