Some Thoughts on Motivating Employees

Motivating employees can be very difficult work. People come to work to fulfill certain needs. The most basic of which, according to Maslow, would be physiological needs. A job provides money for shelter and food. Following the theory, people will work their way up from there to fulfilling self-esteem needs. Unfortunately the real world is not that simple. Every starving artist, writer, and Mother Teresa like figure pokes a rather large hole in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory.  Rather, I think, motivation at work is swirling mix of achievement, affiliation and power needs (from McCelland) on the higher aspirations side, and a mix of Maslow and Expectancy theory on the basic needs sides. (Note: this is my theory, as all three theories above are used to explain the entire spectrum of motivation).

The last time I was a manager, I supervised a diverse group of employees, several Baby Boomers and some Gen Y (I was the only Gen X), tenured and new, men and women, with fair amount of surface and deeper diversity. Finding the valence, or what was valuable for each employee, was very difficult. Furthermore, as I worked for a large company with a rigid performance and reward system, establishing instrumentality between the effort that an employee made and the reward was difficult. Monetary rewards could be given only yearly and only after a complex process.  This often resulted in a strong immediacy bias in rewards, and sometimes ‘sand-bagging’ of achievements so they will fall closer to the review processes. Non-monetary rewards were very limited and often taxed as cash! Although I hate to stereotype, for that particular circumstance, the difference between generations and employee tenure (which were often related) made the biggest difference in discovering how to motivate my employees.

Generation Y were a very young group at that time (still are), and several in this group were worried about basic financial issues like college loans and the cost of living. Although public recognition in team and department meetings seem to motivate most, it was particularly important to Gen Y employees. Their preference for this social/self-esteem goal contradicts Maslow’s theory. Also, time off seemed very important. Baby Boomers were more difficult to motivate. Most had been with the organization for some time. Many were near the top of their salary ranges, making the instrumentality between extra work and monetary rewards almost non-existent. Public recognition sometimes fell flat, as I managed in a finance department, which contained a lot of introverted personalities. Also, fault lines would quickly form between the older employees (mostly white, introverted, and promoted from support jobs) and the newer employees (more diverse, slightly more extroverted, and hired directly into higher level roles). Despite the fault, older employees were often able to quickly jade the younger employees and themselves on non-monetary incentives. However, active, direct and honest communication about department/company direction and goals did motivate the Baby Boom generation. Being long term employees and very committed to their jobs, feeling that they were included in decision making and understanding why decision were made was very important to this group.

Christian Hunt