Workers prefer pat on back over pay

ABU DHABI // Public recognition and fair treatment by bosses bring more long-term motivation for workers than salaries, a new study shows.

“Initially people come here to work for financial reasons and to get more money,” said Hazem Abou Agwa, the study’s co-author and operations director at the American Centre for Psychiatry and Neurology.

But over time, employees gain more job satisfaction from the quality of the work environment and positive feedback from managers.

“We found that recognition by management is the main motivational factor in addition to fair treatment in the workplace,” said Mr Abou Agwa, who wrote the study in partnership with Ibrahim Salem.

Mr Abou Agwa interviewed 106 expatriates of differing nationalities who were working in a variety of industries.

“The main goal was to find what really makes the difference with expats who come to work in the UAE – what is the main motivating factor for them?” Mr Abou Agwa said.

The survey’s results were published in the International Proceedings of Management and Economy journal last month.

The study also found that more women respondents than men reported that they were not “receiving proper recognition for high-quality work”.

The percentage of women who said their jobs were not meeting their expectations was also higher.

“We found that the females felt a bit of discrimination in the workplace. That they were not getting as many chances as the males and that they were not being recognised as the males,” Mr Abou Agwa said.

He believed that if employers’ did not commend their employees’ good efforts it would cost them in the long run.

“It is a financial burden to invest more to keep people for one or two years and by the end of the road they know that those people will be leaving in a couple of years,” Mr Abou Agwa said.

“It’s more effective to invest in people’s motivation because this doesn’t cost money and you will make sure that at least for the period that people are staying here, you will get the maximum benefit out of them or the maximum performance.”

David Jones, managing director of the HR consultancy The Talent Enterprise, said research by his company had found that while salary was the key to attracting talent, it took more than money to retain workers.

“The ability to grow” in a job was important equally for expatriates and Emiratis, he said.

“The positive relationship with your line manager in particular, and with your co-workers more broadly, [and] the sense of recognition rather than reward, are all stronger incentives than salary alone in terms of retaining you in the organisation.”