The SITUATION:
A client reached out to me one day with a dilemma.
“I’m heading into a performance review later this week with a great employee who was given a significant pay raise last year. If she expects the same raise this year, it will put her above the pay grade for her position. I don’t see her as being a good manager of others and don’t really have anywhere else to move her.
I don’t want to lose her talent and relationships with the customer, but I cannot afford to pay her a significant amount more than she is making now. What do I do?”
The SOLUTION:
The DISC Wizard suggested having the employee complete a TriMetrix Assessment that would measure her passion, values, motivation and interests, in addition to her DISC behavioral style.
The report confirmed for us why the employee was great at the customer service aspects of her job and why she wouldn’t likely be interested in managing others.
Yet there was one aspect of this employee that jumped off the page and that was her High Aesthetic motivator. (To learn more about one of your employee’s motivators, see the offer at the end of this email.)
This is what we told the client:
As you can see, hers is one of the highest Aesthetic scores we’ve ever seen.
High Aesthetics like:
- Creative expression (arts)
- Self expression
- Self actualization and discovery]
- Experiencing their surroundings
- Beauty and harmony
Given that a production facility like yours is a very low Aesthetic place…she likely has some hobbies or passions that she pursues to fulfill this value.
We would approach it like this: Be transparent. Tell her how much you value her, how well she is doing, but that you’d like to know what she likes, what she wants more of in her job. Get her talking!
If she pushes the money issue, you are going to have to tell her she is at the top of the pay grade for the job she is in and then ask her what else she is interested in.
Are there other perks she might be interested in? Perhaps paid time off to attend a workshop of some kind would be very interesting to her.
Balance in their life or freedom can be just as rewarding as money to employees with High Aesthetic.
Do your best to keep the lines of communication open as she may need some time to think about your conversation and come back to you. Perhaps make the offer to revisit in a week or so.
The RESULT:
The client held the review and came back with this feedback.
“Oh my…it went Terrific!
She says she loves her job, loves her life, and feels really good about everything.
We discussed her taking on specific projects to help me, i.e. seeing through our transition to handheld devices for the route drivers, implementing new software we’re writing right now, etc.
She would love to do more of that in the upcoming year but actually feels great about where she is.
No joke – she also said she wanted more vacation time instead of a raise. So I gave her a reasonable raise plus another week.
Couldn’t have done this without your guidance! Thank you!!!”
~The DISC Wizard
P.S. If there is an employee you’d like to better understand why they do what they do or what they are motivated by, email us at info[at]discwizardonline[dot]com and we will give you access to one complimentary DISC Behavioral & Motivators Assessment. Engagement doesn’t have to be a guessing game!
This offer expires: 8/31/18
