One of the mainstays of my traditional consulting work is negotiating individual work agreements; for managers, this usually focuses on executive employment agreements and for musicians, individual overscale agreements and one of the first aspects of that work is to identify non-monetary perks that have variable degrees of value for the client. More often than not, they tend to overlook a number of items simply because it never occurred to them that it was something you could ask for. In ideal situations, the perk is win-win in that it will cost the employer little to nothing yet will increase employee satisfaction and/or help them to be more efficient.
But no matter how insular some clients are on the potential scope of terms available, it doesn’t compare to the blinders worn by most middle managers and entry level employees. In most cases, these professionals limit the scope of advancement to financial improvements and some of the more obvious perks like flex time.
Fortunately, a little leg work to help uncover the win-win can go a long way so let’s have a little fun today and open up the discussion to share what sort of non-monetary perks you’ve been able to secure that made you a happier, healthier, more productive arts manager or musician. Keep it simple; meaning, something that’s easily introduced in a typical performance review or walk-in raise ask. After all, the more win-win options out there, the better.
Related Posts
-
As promised at the conclusion of yesterday's post examining workplace satisfaction among symphony orchestra institutions, today's installment will take a look at opera employers.…
-
That last time we examined the value of improving workplace satisfaction within the orchestra field via grassroots efforts, we saw some improvement. Six months…
-
There's an intriguing article making the rounds from the 4/9/2016 edition of The Guardian. As part of their "What I'm really thinking…" series, the…
Free use of space! Meaning – 100% discount on the rental fee. I didn’t have to employee any venue staff unless the public were coming onsite (i.e. for my own concert), but I could use it for workshops, rehearsals, practice, lessons, etc.
That’s a good one and certainly one of the more frequent items examined for my musician clients, especially percussion and timpani.
I know this is about non-monetary perks but at some point I’d like to hear a discussion about the “rightness” vs. “wrongness” of bonus/incentive pay to orchestra (and even nonprofit, in general) CEOs/EDs. As the chief fundraisers of their organizations, are these leaders aware that the AFP (Association of Fundraising Professionals) has a code of ethics that does not support this widely-used “perk” for the those at the very top? Well, perhaps those leaders know but could care less. What I’m getting at is when nonprofits–orchestras especially–are underwater with deficits posted annually, some CEOs/EDs still manage to have this extra pay included in their contracts and paid out to them. Personally, I believe that no bonus or incentive pay should be distributed unless and until the organization does NOT post a deficit. Again, to me, this is just ethically wrong. I’m not talking about nominal raises for all those on staff; I’m talking about bonuses that go into the tens of thousands….enough, in some cases, to add another orchestra position or admin staffer.