For any business, motivating employees is important. Motivated employees are happier and more productive than unmotivated employees, and have a profound effect on your bottom line. According to a study by Dale Carnegie Training, unmotivated employees are 2 ½ times more likely to accept another job for any increase in their wages.

For years’ businesses have tried in vain to motivate their employees with raises and other monetary rewards. It has been proven time and time again that extrinsic factors such as raises and cash bonuses provide only short term motivation. Money can inspire some people to work harder for a short period of time but it takes more than a little cash to motivate your employees long term.

Motivated employees are happy employees and are driven by intrinsic factors such as interesting and rewarding work as well as a sense of ownership and accomplishment. Motivating employees is not a difficult endeavor. Most team members can be motivated by autonomy and mastery in their work.

Motivating Employees Without Money

When it comes to motivating employees, money is not the best way to go. Employees want to be good at their jobs and feel a sense of ownership in their jobs and their companies. When your team members feel like they are a part of the company they develop what is called “Psychological Ownership”.

According to Forbes Magazine, psychological ownership is defined as the extent to which an employee feels as though their organization or their job is “theirs” (i.e., “this is MY company!”) to the point that the company becomes an important part of an employee’s self-identity.

Autonomy

The best way to provide your employees with a sense of motivation is by making their jobs more interesting and rewarding. The best way to provide your team with a sense of ownership in their jobs is to give them autonomy. Giving your employees the ability to make certain decisions for themselves has been proven to give them more of a sense of pride and self-identification with their work.

Allowing your employees to make decisions about their work space and how they do their job is great way to motivate them. People are naturally inclined to be self-directing. Children do not have to be told how to play, they figure out for themselves what to play and how to do it.

It is the same way with adults. When you give them the ability to make these little decisions, it gives them a sense of self-direction. They feel like they have control of their destiny instead of being micro-managed and told what to do every second and how to do it.

Giving your employees the ability to make decisions about their work that are important to them but do not affect your bottom line is a win-win situation. You get more motivated employees and they get a feeling of satisfaction in themselves and their work environment.

Mastery

People want to be good at their jobs. When you are good at what you do it gives you a sense of confidence in yourself and your work. When employees don’t know how to do their jobs or have any doubt, they will be more reluctant to do it.

It is the same way with everything. When we are good at something, we generally enjoy doing it, and when we don’t know how to do something we either avoid doing it or do just enough to get it done; work is no different. When your employees know how to do their jobs, they will be happier at work and they will actually be excited to get up and come in every day.

The best way to ensure your employees know how to do their jobs is to provide them with the proper training. A good training program is comprehensive and on-going and can make all the difference. Training can not only help you to educate your employees, if you listen to their advice and recommendations, you may find that they are the best resource for your next training class.

Employees naturally want to be good at their jobs and to help their companies be successful. The proper training program and support can provide them with a sense of pride and ownership in their jobs and provide you with happy, motivated employees who are excited to come to work every day.

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