How to motivate employees

Employee motivation is such a wonderful phrase. Every manager dreams that one day employees would gladly do a boring and dull job smiling and asking for more. Sounds great, but it has nothing to do with real life. People are not robots with on/off functions. Only the person who is willing to do the job but for some reason cannot do it (properly) can be motivated. In that case, some decisions and actions of the management could be of some help and assistance.

There are five main motives that are predominant at work:

1. Striving for acknowledgement. The main motive for the employees is either social acknowledgement or money.

People with the motives want to always be the first, the best and to play the leading role in the group. They try to be the center of attention and follow the latest fashion trends to draw attention. It is easy to motivate the employee. He desires anything that brings social acknowledgement. You probably know people like this. 

2. Striving for safety. You can meet this type of employees almost in every team. They are a complete opposite of the above-mentioned group of people. The workers tend to repeat “it was better back then” time and again. They are afraid of changes and take all new ideas very negatively. All they want is safety and simplicity and nothing more.

3. Striving for trust and affection. These are the best co-workers you could ever find. People belonging to the third group accept many things. Trustful relationships are their highest priority. The employees will do things for the sake of others.

4. Striving for self-respect. The employees with the forth main motive vigorously follow all rules and instructions. They are never late; they are very scrupulous and tend to devotedly maintain order. The people have disposition to perfectionism. Norms and rules easily become their self purpose. As a matter of fact, the fanatical devotion to discipline and obligation leads to pessimist and cynicism. There are a lot of people with neurotic diseases. Being their partner or colleague means carefully following the planned agenda as this is the only way to work together.

5. Striving for independence. The main motive here is the striving to independence and personal responsibly. Thus, they see a way to achieve their goals and make their dreams come true. The employees are believed to be the best managers. They are ready to take positive responsibility for others. That differ them from the first group of employees who care only for their own recognition and acknowledgement of their individual performance.

The enlisted motives don’t come one at a time. There is a mixture of the five motives in every person but all of them have a different intensity. The main motives can change as well.

According to the American psychologist F.Herzberg, motivation can be both intrinsic and extrinsic.

Extrinsic motivators include status, job security, salary, and fringe benefits. Managers must realize that not providing the appropriate and expected extrinsic motivators will sow dissatisfaction and unmotivated behavior among employees.¹

The intrinsic motivation is what people do because they want to do it regardless of whether they get a reward or not. Intrinsic motives include challenging work, recognition, relationships, and growth potential. Managers must recognize that while these needs may be outside the more traditional scope of what the workplace should provide, they are absolutely critical in empowering strong individual and team performance.¹

The American-Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has researched the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for over 30 years. The outcomes of his work were obvious: talented people that are fond of their job have an excellent performance and don’t take it as a job.

Sometimes intrinsic motivation turns into the extrinsic one. For example, a hobby becomes the main source of income.

If you want to get to know motives of employees, you just need to ask them. You will see how various are the reasons why people do their job.

What does the research say to us? You, as an employee or as a manager, should pay attention to what you or a person you are in charge of likes doing, what makes him happy and involved in the process.  

In summary, there have to be present both internal and external motivational factors. It is great when employees love their job purely, unconditionally and expect nothing in return. Even if the working with passion exists, it will not last long. Let’s be more realistic and think of employees as of everyday stragglers who need to pay for their life, literally. After all, humans are the only beings that have to pay to stay alive, e.g. for food, dwelling, clothing, medication, leisure, etc. Money is the main motivation. A job can get boring, money will never.

1. “Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory.” Boundless Management. Boundless, 21 Jul. 2015.