Does Pay Make an Employee Happy?

"Companies with less than 10% employee turnover also had 10% higher customer retention rates than those with employee turnover rates around 15%." Source: Towers-Perrin

It is important to keep employees happy. When employees don't care or aren't happy, customers notice. Mike Hartman admitted this is his blog last week, "Happy Employees."

But what makes an employee happy? Is it their paycheck? Chicago's City Council is voting today on a minimum wage for 'big-box' retail employees in the city. The proposal would require major retailers to pay at least $10 an hour in wages plus another $3 in fringe benefits by July 2010. Will this make an employee happy? What about friendly?

As I said before, customers notice when an employee doesn't like their job, and it's a turnoff. What can companies do (besides pay more) to make employees enjoy their job?

Comments

[panasianbiz.com]

I think adequate compensation does help to convey to an employee that that worker is appreciated. I also think that simply having their efforts noticed and appreciated can make a worker much happier.