As its stock price falls and its user growth stagnates, Twitter has decided to give some employees cash bonuses ranging between $50,000 and $200,000, in an attempt to retain workers for the next six months to one year. The arrangement, which some claim is an incentive, others a bribe, indicates a sense of desperation among CEOs, not long after four senior executives left the company in the space of one month.
A Twitter spokeswoman commented: “Competitive compensation, strong leadership and a confidence in the direction of the company are all key elements to having top talent. We are investing in all three areas to ensure we maintain these employees.”
The Guardian noted that some Twitter employees had taken to Glassdoor – the website where workers can anonymously review their companies – and expressed their dissatisfaction with the firm. As recently as January 2016, one employee wrote: “moral [sic] is very low right now”, while others added: “Management changes are a constant distraction. Compensation and performance reviews are constantly changing”, and “Sadly, the management is the downfall of Twitter”.
Naturally, Twitter, like other companies should be concerned about losing talent. But offering bonuses may not provide a long-term solution to the company’s issue with employee engagement. In an article for HR Review, Ruth Thomas, founder of and senior consultant for Curo, a technical solutions company, argues that salary-related rewards do not drive, or improve employee engagement, and has a limited effect on improving job satisfaction. Competitive compensation is, however, still helpful in preventing active dissatisfaction. Thomas writes: “The theory indicates that money is not a motivational factor in job satisfaction but rather it’s a hygiene factor or deficiency need. When it’s not met then employees will leave and the company’s ability to attract and retain key talent is diminished.”
Twitter is not the only company to be experiencing problems with keeping employees happy. A recent survey for Gallup found that just 32% of employees surveyed felt engaged in the work that they do, with 17.2% admitting they felt ‘actively disengaged’.
“It is hard to create and maintain a culture that makes a difference for colleagues and customers yet businesses that succeed in doing so are often leaders in their business sector,” says Sue Hedaux, customer experience and retail productivity expert. “Brands like Pret, Timpson, Apple and British Airways show how building engagement creates good customer experiences and a healthy profit.”
So what types of strategies do some of these “leaders” have in place? Apple introduced ‘Blue Sky’ under CEO Tim Cook, which allows engineers to go away and work on their own personal engineering projects. Similarly, Google’s ‘20% time’ gives employees the freedom to spend up to one fifth of their time on projects of their own.
Saying this, Twitter does do well in some areas when it comes to encouraging engagement. It focuses on strategies that value feedback and encourage progression and mentorship. When Dick Costolo became CEO in 2010, he implemented his belief that great management is at the heart of great business by personally teaching ‘Management at Twitter’ sessions at least once every quarter. Rather than following the traditional use of slides for his presentations, he used anecdotes and role-play, and shared his own personal management strategies. Additionally, the company regularly measures employee satisfaction and engagement levels by giving workers a compulsory questionnaire of fifteen, targeted questions (included open-ended ones) in order to really understand employee concerns and ideas.
Twitter may not necessarily have employed the best strategy in this case, but providing a financial incentive at least illustrates their ongoing concern for and commitment to improving the experience of their employees. According to a report written by People Lab, many UK companies fail to recognise the importance of being committed to improving employee engagement, with just 53% even measuring its impact.
Managing director of People Lab, Emma Bridger, advises: “… if CEO’s and senior leaders are serious about increasing engagement, which we categorically know has a positive impact on the bottom line, they need to invest in making sure that their people have the skills, training and support that they need and deserve.”
