What is motivation?

Motivation is about the ways a business can encourage staff to give their best. Motivated staff care about the success of the business and work better. A motivated workforce results in:

A manager needs to be able to motivate their staff

• Increased output caused by extra effort from workers.
• Improved quality as staff take a greater pride in their work.
• A higher level of staff retention. Workers are keen to stay with the firm and also reluctant to take unnecessary days off work.

Managers can influence employee motivation in a variety of ways:

• Monetary factors: some staff work harder if offered higher pay.
• Non monetary factors: other staff respond to incentives that have nothing to do with pay, eg improved working conditions or the chance to win promotion.