Key Staff Motivators Employers Should Factor In

Important key motivators that employers should seriously consider to ensure a positive workplace culture with satisfied staff. Highly motivated staff perform best.

As businesses concentrate on keeping up with today’s marketplace and other innovations, efforts tend to leave staff exhausted and de-motivated. Before long, some organizations find a negative culture, with unhappy employees proliferating across all business levels.

Understanding employee motivation is important from a management perspective. Motivating employees is a challenging task. Everyone is motivated in different ways for different reasons.

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – psychological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization – always surfaces when staff motivation is discussed. This article discusses some of the key staff motivators that employers should seriously factor in.

Intrinsic Motivator

Intrinsic motivation mainly deals with a feeling within, self-fulfillment when the employee has done a good job. It is more of a déjà vu or something like “I did it my way” feeling. They perform well because they enjoy what they do and find fulfillment. It is more of a self-challenge.

Extrinsic Motivator

The second type of motivation is extrinsic, which is rewarded by someone else. Traditionally, these are key motivators provided by the employer which they should take seriously to keep especially well-deserving staff. Some examples include pay raises, other fringe benefits, and special training or courses.

These types of motivators can be further broken down into sub-groups as follows:

Ego Boosters. In general ego, boosters include praise motivation and the recognition that goes with it. Sometimes it can be in the form of special gifts, for example, those who have been with the company for 5 or 10 years are awarded a special watch along with a plaque of appreciation from the company. Some Washington companies organize special teambuilding parties in rooftop bars in DС or restaurants, open space cafes, etc. This type of motivator is most effective when visible to the recipient’s team or department.

Financial Motivator. This includes cash, bonuses, and fringe benefits. In general, this is out of the direct control of the direct line manager. Big organizations are high in the use of performance management reports for this kind of motivation. Remuneration and pay increases are directly related to performance and discussed with the staff during the periodic review.

Employee Career Development. The staff career development is a yearly activity that is reviewed periodically between the current manager and the employee. It covers the staff’s career path, training, and all other personal development scheduled as necessary related to the role handled in the organization. At the same time, the employee is made aware of staff movement in the team and overall organization for possible internal opportunities.

A successful business has competent managers who have abilities to motivate their staff to perform their best. When employee morale is low, productivity drops, business is affected. Employees who are appreciated and highly motivated perform their best.