Nonfinancial Compensation and Employee Motivation in a Food and Beverage Manufacturing Company

Abstract

A basic concern of human resource managers in work organisations is to acquire, maintain, and retain a motivated workforce. Nonfinancial compensation is among the variables that have the potential to achieve this goal. Despite its application in organisations, studies that indicate how nonfinancial compensation impacts on the motivation of employees of food and beverages manufacturing companies in Nigeria were scanty.
A sample size of 246 represented the number of obtained responses from a population of 460 employees of a food and beverage manufacturing company in Oyo State, Nigeria. Questionnaire, based on a four-point Likert scale, having values that ranged from strongly disagree, 1, to strongly agree, 4, was employed for data collection. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed for data analysis. Descriptive statistics produced results in means and standard deviations for statements that measured components of nonfinancial compensation as well as for statements that measured employee motivation. The hypotheses of the study were tested and the effects of nonfinancial compensation on employee motivation were determined based on the results of multiple regression analysis.
The findings indicate significant positive effect (β1 = .482, t = 4.565, p < .05) of recognition on employee motivation. Career development opportunities had insignificant positive effect (β2= .124, t = 1.192, p > .05) on motivation while promotion had significant positive effect (β3 = .374, t = 4.435, p < .05) on motivation.
The conclusion of the study was that nonfinancial compensation was a means of enhancing employee motivation in the studied company. The independent variables had positive effects on employee motivation. Although, recognition and promotion made appreciable contribution to employee motivation, there was need for the company to put in more effort on activities that would provide further boost on the effect of career development opportunities on motivation.