The 4 Levels of Employee Motivation

Paying people more money only goes so far.

What motivates the employees at your organization to do their best work?

Are they working just for a paycheck, or do they feel that they are making a positive impact in the organization and its customers?

Over the past several decades, the nuances of workplace motivation have been studied from every perspective imaginable: psychology, neuroscience, biology, organizational theory and more. Many of the findings have been counterintuitive, such as the fact that monetary compensation is one of the weakest motivators out there.

Fortunately, you don’t have to comb through dozens of research articles to develop a basic understanding of employee motivation. After decades of running companies and working with managers, I have come to think of employee motivation as having four basic levels.

Let’s take a look at each of them.

Level 1 Motivation: “Because You Told Me To”

Some employees do their work because the boss told them to. If they didn’t do the work, they would get in trouble and risk losing …