Do you understand what really motivates your staff?

When managers are asked to predict what factors employees consider most important in their jobs, 90% of them get it wrong. Would you do any better? Complete the following exercise to see if you know what truly motivates your staffers. Listed below are 13 factors compiled from surveys of hundreds of thousands of employees over the last 50 years. Take a few minutes to rank each factor in its order of importance to your employees, with “1” being most important, “2” being second most important and so on.

• Work with people who treat me with respect.

• Interesting work.

• Recognition for good work.

• Opportunities to develop skills.

• Working for people who listen if I have ideas.

• A chance to think for myself rather than just follow instructions.

• Seeing the end results of my work.

• Working for an efficient manager.

• A job that’s not too easy.

• Feeling well informed about what’s going on.

• Job security.

• High pay.

• Good benefits.

Did you get it right? Most managers will list job security, high pay and good benefits in the top five. However, in reality, the factors are in their correct order as listed.

What did you list? Do you know what motivates your employees? Right now, randomly pick three of your employees and ask yourself: What factors have the biggest impact on their morale and motivation? If you’re quick in coming up with answers, you’re in the minority.

This content was adapted from the brand-new training tool Retaining Great Employees. Click on the link to learn more.

Out of the list, what aspects does your organization struggle most with? Struggle least with? 

[Image Source: Alan Cleaver]