What Motivates Employees?

We’ve all had those moments when we really don’t want to do something, but do we ever stop to think about why we don’t want to do it? Sometimes the task at hand might seem overwhelming, boring, or just plain annoying, but more often than not our lack of motivation stems from our environment. In a company setting, managers have an incredible opportunity to cultivate an environment that motivates their employees. This brings us to the age-old question, what motivates an employee?

The first things that come to mind are salaries and bonuses, vacation time, and health insurance options. These are your external motivators, which are unrelated to the tasks the employee is performing. These external factors — usually financial — are often more beneficial for retaining employees rather than motivating them towards creativity and productivity.

External factors are often more beneficial for retaining employees rather than motivating them towards creativity and productivity.

Ok, so what does motivate employees? We’ve found the answer to be intrinsic motivation, that is, the internal enjoyment and satisfaction you gain from performing a challenging task. But before we discuss intrinsic motivation, let’s look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Maslow states that an individual has five basic needs:

• Physiological
• Safety
• Love/Belonging (Social)
• Esteem
• Self-actualization

We think that this can be applied to the workplace. Your paycheck and health insurance help you achieve the first two of the five basic needs. Vacation time and other benefits help you realize the third basic need by cultivating a healthy work-life balance. And an encouraging and supportive work culture and community can help you climb to the fourth basic need. After those basic needs are met, self-actualization fosters creativity, productivity and the intrinsic motivation you need to keep performing at the highest level.

Imagine you worked at a company where every employee’s idea is heard and valued; your talents were recognized and properly used; and you had the resources needed to effectively complete your work. This may seem like a basic foundation for any company, but how often are employees underutilized, overworked, or simply misused? In our upcoming blog posts in this series we will look at how companies can create an intrinsically motivating environment that improves morale, increases job satisfaction and yields higher productivity.

Originally published at metricloop.com on March 18, 2016.