Seven Elements of Employee Motivation (2024)

Employee motivation is not a “nice to do.”

It’s a vital skill for managers and supervisors.

So how do you motivate employees?

The truth is you don’t.

But you can create a motivating work environment by reshaping the overall work culture and focusing on individual employee motivation.

Creating a Motivating Work Culture

Research conducted by Krüger & Rootman involving over 400 small businesses focused on seven elements¹ that help you rock the work culture.

The Seven Elements of Employee Motivation

The seven elements are listed below in order from those with the greatest to the lowest level of influence on employee motivation:

1. Interesting and Meaningful Work² – Meaningful work is the most important workplace motivator for employees. Help employees see how the work they do is meaningful and makes a difference.
2. Recognition and Feedback ³ – Provide regular feedback to employees about their performance and leverage the power of employee recognition.
3. Empowerment⁴ – Empower employees. Give them the freedom and strength to look beyond the status quo and champion excellence.
4. Working Conditions⁵ – Intentionally create a workplace with great working conditions on the physical, social, and psychological levels. Working conditions include the atmosphere of the workplace, equipment, work hours, and other support factors. However, the most important source of support you can provide employees is a strong supervisor-employee relationship.
5. Strong Leadership⁶ – Strong leaders are the cornerstone of employee motivation, engagement, and performance. Focus your resources on developing strong leaders that engage employees and drive performance.
6. Workplace Justice and Fairness⁷ – Promote an environment of workplace justice and fairness in the way you distribute resources, make decisions, and interact with employees.
7. Rewards⁸ – Money doesn’t buy employee motivation. To create a truly motivating work environment, employ a more holistic approach in your rewards structure. Consider the “total rewards” approach.

While these seven elements will help you create a workplace atmosphere conducive to employee motivation, it’s also vital to focus on what motivates each person individually.

Individual Employee Motivation

Employee motivation is not a “onesize fits all” proposition.

Individualize Your Approach

Each employee is unique and requiresan individualized approach. This uniqueness underscoresthe need to establish strong supervisor-employee relationships and to get toknow each employee on a personal level while keeping it professional.

By getting to know their employees,managers and supervisors can develop a deeper understanding and appreciationfor their values, needs, concerns, priorities, desires, fears, and hopes, whichare all essential to motivation.

Talk Less and Listen More

Talking with employees and doing alot of listening is a great way to get to know them. It’s also a simple way to build relationships.You can find out a lot about what a person values just by having conversations.

Use the Motivators Assessment

Assessments are also excellent tools to find out what motivates individuals on a deeper level. For instance, the Motivators assessment measures seven universal dimensions of employee motivation –- theoretical, regulatory, individualistic, altruistic, political, economic, and aesthetic.

Employees Play a Role

Leaders don’t have complete controlover employee motivation. Employees themselves play an essential role intheir own motivation through how they chose to view and respond to the worldand the workplace. There are also other factors beyond the control ofmanagers and supervisors that influence motivation.

However, managers and supervisors have the opportunity and responsibility to impact that which is within their sphere of influence. Understanding the seven elements listed above and what motivates each person can help them pave the way.

SYLVIA MELENA is the Founder & CEO of Melena Consulting Group, a leadership and organizational development consulting firm. She is also the two-time international award-winning and best-selling leadership author of Supportive Accountability: How to Inspire People and Improve Performance and its Spanish translation, Responsabilidad solidaria: Cómo mejorar el rendimiento laboral por medio del apoyo.

Want to Create a Motivating and High-Performing Workplace?

Sylvia’s signature Supportive Accountability Leadership™ Program will equip your leaders to create a motivating work environment while promoting accountability and improving performance.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Krüger, J. & Rootman, C. (2010). How do small business managers influence employee satisfaction and commitment? Acta Commercii,10(1). pp. 59 - 72. Retrieved from http://www.actacommercii.co.za/index.php/acta/article/viewFile/114/114. Creative Commons License.