Motivate Your Employees

Why do you go to work in the morning?

“For the money.”

Really? If that were the case we’d all be accountants. And Richard Branson and Warren Buffet would have retired decades ago. There must be something else…

The five motivating factors of employment.

According to research, there are five main motivators for employees:

1. Good Wages

Money lifts an employee’s self-esteem as it is a measure of their worth to the company, especially in performance related pay schemes.

2. Full appreciation of work done.

Recognition for a job well done is a basic need at a psychological level. As well as making employees happy, it also reinforces and encourages similar behaviour, i.e. employees are more likely to work hard next time.

3. Job security.

Motivation (along with morale) often goes through the floor when a company is downsizing. Or when rumours of poor performance and lost orders are doing the rounds.

4. Promotion and growth in the organisation.

Most of us need a goal to work towards. A clear career path or chance of promotion gives an employee that goal. And the promotion itself (as well as an increase in salary) is recognition of work done.

5. Interesting work.

What makes for interesting work will vary with individual preferences. But it is true that within their work, people are motivated by challenging tasks with measurable objectives and new, exciting projects.

The order of importance of these factors depends on the individual and the economic climate. For example, in a recession when jobs are scarce, job security and good wages top the list, but in boom times, employees cite interesting work as the most important motivator.

How does this help managers?

We’ve covered the importance of providing interesting work and the opportunity to grow before. But, in a nutshell – rather than recruit someone to do menial tasks, spread those tasks around and recruit to share the workload for your core business.

Reward and recognition, or appreciation of work done, is probably one of the easiest ways to motivate employees. Although a pat on the head won’t do. When giving positive feedback, you need to fulfil three basic requirements: be specific about what behaviour or performance you’re pleased about, explain why this was helpful, and actually say thank you.

It’s also worth remembering that motivation affects behaviour, not performance. It’s possible to motivate employees to work harder, but if there is no clear link between their efforts and their performance, then your hard work won’t have made any difference to your business.