Why Is IT We Only Reward Management and Not Our Teams?

By Stephanie Diana Eubank

For anyone who has gotten the tap on the shoulder for a promotion knows that promotions are generally in management roles. Most companies have few promotions and pay raises for those who are just happy doing their job and do not want to or don’t have comfort within leadership roles.  This has the unintended consequence of those who want the promotion and added pay that often follow but are not skilled leaders taking roles they shouldn’t be in and creating a hostile work environment.  As I have pointed out, many toxic leaders don’t know that they are toxic either because they never wanted a leadership role or were never trained to lead.

There is also the unintended after-effect that when there is no room for those who are happy with what they are doing to gain promotion or added pay, this raises turnover.  It raises turnover because it becomes more financially advantageous for employees to strategically job-hop instead of developing company loyalty.

We must ask why companies are doing this.  Many companies make a budget to address turnover by constantly hiring.  And pre-COVID, that was semi-reasonable.  However, leaders are screaming, “talent shortage,” “No one wants to work anymore”, and my personal favorite, “workforce shortage.”  However, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics shows this isn’t true.

Now, some industries are seeing a talent need shift towards those who are skilled in engineering and automation.  The job reports show that a growing number of people are over-employed.  Business is seeing an organizational trend among the labor force of no longer willing to put up with uncomfortable work environments with toxic leaders and leaving jobs the minute anyone starts demanding in-person or hybrid over remote work.  The workforce prioritizes lowering stress and no longer making their life all about their job.

At first glance, one would want to argue that these workforce shifts are not good things.  However, a lower-stress workforce is more productive.  Remote workers are also statistically shown to have more productive hours in an 8-hour workday than an in-person worker on average as well.

Studies also find that remote work also tends to displace middle managers by enhancing shared leadership.  And as remote work becomes more popular as a work modality, we need to start thinking about our teams and what they need, which includes higher pay.  Recognition of their work through non-management promotions and regular pay raises for those who just like their job and do not seek to lead will help enhance your workforce and lower costs associated with turnover.

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