As HR and Reward professionals you're used to a challenge, and COVID-19 is certainly providing just that. While the familiar challenges of resource, time and budget remain, you likely have new, less familiar tests to contend with too, such as keeping remote employees safe, motivated and engaged.
The subject of this blog is probably less than familiar too. What is this snappily-named ‘instrumental satisfaction model’? How does it relate to share plans? And in the midst of these challenging times, what can we learn from it that might help drive better outcomes?
The link between employee engagement, retention and share plans
At Computershare, we've always believed that employee share plans are a great way to drive employee engagement. We have chaired and contributed to numerous webinars and panel discussions around this topic over the years. In our most recent look at this topic, we invited Professor James Hayton, Professor in Human Resources Management & Entrepreneurship at Warwick Business School in the UK, to share the current thinking on the link between employee engagement, retention and share plans.
What is a satisfaction model?
First, let us explain the concept of a ‘satisfaction model’. Don’t worry, we’ll be brief: whilst ‘satisfaction’ is itself an intangible concept (i.e. in itself it cannot be seen), researchers have developed theoretical models to help explain the underlying factors that impact an individual’s sense of satisfaction. It is these factors that drive behaviours that are tangible and therefore can be witnessed and measured in some way.
Share plans, and their impact on engagement and retention have traditionally been explained via two satisfaction models: