What drives an employees motivation to stay with a company?

Last Updated: December 16, 2021


A motivated workforce will make a crucial difference when it comes to meeting any business objective. Every company needs to find ways to ensure that their employees stay motivated and put in their best efforts. Anaya Shastri talks about five ideas that can help achieve that.

One of the valuable skills that you can hone as a business manager is the ability to challenge and engage the people you employ. If you are able to hire the right team and thereafter, manage it well, you will have a workforce that is characterized by excellent performance and growth.  However, if you fail to motivate your employees, you might have an unwelcome turnover. Moreover, your business will be in a constant state of chaos.

If you have to keep everyone motivated, you need to encourage the employees to participate. When the employees are respected for their skills and talents, it has a motivating effect on them. Here are some ways to keep your employees motivated.

Provide Supportive Leadership

Leadership is one of the main factors in employee motivation. Supportive leaders tend to work closely with the employees. If you trust the employees and have a sympathetic ear, it will keep them focused. Moreover, it will also drive them to develop new talent. Good leaders serve as good role models. Leaders should hold themselves to a superior standard of accountability which sets an example for all. Supportive leadership implies that the leader’s expectation will influence how the employees will see themselves. The people whom you consider unlikely to succeed might fail. You could increase productivity with the assumption that your employees are dedicated and skilled.

Empower the Individual

Every employee should feel that they are valued as an individual. No one likes being a faceless pawn in a big game. Thus, you need to make sure that your entire workforce is given the opportunity to express themselves. You need to encourage your employees to showcase aspirational personal goals. When employees anticipate a future reward, it makes the work routine easier for them.

Develop a Positive Environment

A majority of the working professionals spend most of their waking hours at the office. Hence, the working environment should be a place that puts the employees at ease while augmenting their productivity. In order to create a productive and happy environment, you need to encourage your employees to share their knowledge and information. This means more listening than talking for the supportive leader. People need to be encouraged to accept their mistakes without the fear of humiliation. You can give the employees new and challenging assignments that will bring them out of their comfort zone.

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Encourage Teamwork

There is nothing better than keeping an employee-focused and responsive than simply belonging to a team. It is through teamwork that the employees learn to trust each other. Also, it makes them look beyond themselves. Therefore, healthy competition in the team setting, in office, as well as after hours, will help in keeping the employees motivated.

Recognize and Reward       

Motivated employees are most likely to get the best out of your workforce. You could start by developing a rewards program for your employees when they exceed expectations. This is a huge motivator. Make sure that you announce the reward publicly. Rewards and recognition on a regular basis will remind the employees that they are appreciated. Corporate gifting on festive occasions or holidays is also a great move to ensure that your employees remain motivated. Gifts serve as a small reminder that the company values them.  These gifts for employees should be chosen carefully to be appreciated by all.

Keep in mind that communication is an integral part of a relationship. Thus, communicate clearly with the employees what you expect from them. Also, you should communicate with them on a regular

What drives an employees motivation to stay with a company?

Anaya Shastri is a full-time blogger. She writes about marketing, HR, corporate gifting, travel, festivals and more. When not writing she is usually traveling or trekking in the mountains.   

Having motivators for employees is important for any sort of business at many different angles. Not only does it brand you, as an employer, as the best company to work for, but it also makes your staff motivated, passionate and loyal to your business.

From our experience of speaking to thousands of professionals and hiring managers over the years, regardless of which industry they work in and how senior they are, there are 5 consistencies when it comes to workplace motivators. Here they are...

1. Provide Meaningful and Challenging Work

Managers must strive to provide employees with information regarding the task at hand, which gives them additional context that will allow them to complete the task to a better standard.

Challenging and new tasks are also important to keep employee engagement, productivity and motivation high. A new task can reduce the boredom and repetitiveness of the job, while a challenging task can give the employee a sense of importance that will make them feel valued within the company.

Could you encourage duties to be spread across teams? Or is there a tricky issue that could be shared with certain employees who have proved to be capable problem solvers in the past?

Our research shows that ‘not utilising skillsthey have trained for’ is one of the top reasons talent decide to leave organisations.


Looking for new employees? Let us know who you need to hire.


What drives an employees motivation to stay with a company?


In terms of ‘meaningful work’, a large majority of employees nowadays want to work for socially and environmentally responsible organisations. They want their job to improve the world in some way and they’re often willing to take a salary reduction to get there.

2. Improve Employees' Lives

Improving employees’ lives may seem like a big task, but if we follow the theory of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the manager or business needs to be aware of a few simple things in their employees’ lives. These include:

  • Physiological needs - Food, water, warmth and rest
  • Safety needs - Security and safety
  • Belonging needs - Intimate relationships, family and friends
  • Self-esteem needs - Prestige and a feeling on accomplishment
  • Self-actualisation needs - Achieving full potential and extra-curricular activities

To achieve this, the manager must make time to recognise the employee as an individual for their input into the company, encourage them, and provide support. This will allow the employee to – in theory – be happy.

What drives an employees motivation to stay with a company?

3. Recognition

Similar to self-esteem needs, a company should promote or give recognition to employees based on their performance. This will give the employee a sense of job security and further encourage them to strive to be the best they can be for a chance of progression or promotion within the business.

Reward and recognition are deemed as highly relevant for talent considering joining an organisation.

4. Compensation & Benefits

Compensation is always a good way to motivate an employee. However, too much or too little pay could reduce productivity. So it’s important to strike the right balance.

According to the Yerkes – Dodson Law, too little pay will lead to unhappy employees, and too much will lead to the employees being too excited about pay to work. Key performance indicators that lead to bonuses and rewards are useful to maintain motivation and productivity.

It's best practice to be informed about industry salary benchmarks to ensure you are paying your employees correctly.

What drives an employees motivation to stay with a company?

5. Culture

Culture is the key to making employees feel like they are part of a family, creating a sense of belonging to the organisation they work for. The importance of your corporate culture should never be underestimated.

Even if all of the previous 4 motivators are achieved in your workplace, it is important to remember how detrimental discouragement within a working environment can be. A culture that promotes teamwork can limit unnecessary bureaucracy, over control by managers and withholding of information.

Teamwork can empower the employees to have confidence in speaking their mind and formulate fresh new ideas, as well as improve employee retention overall.

Bonus: How to Keep Remote Employees Motivated

With the drastic rise of flexible working patterns that allow employees to work remotely, there is an additional consideration for management: How to keep employees who are working away from the office motivated.

Well, there are 6 key considerations you may want to pay close attention to:

  • Increase levels of communication and use internal comms platforms
  • Set out clear expectations and give them goals
  • Encourage them to keep learning and upskilling
  • Recognise their efforts and regularly praise stand-out performers
  • Offer guidance on how best they can manage their time
  • Arrange for the more senior team members to act as mentors

 Related: How to Manage your Remote Teams

From the perspective of your employees, long periods of remote working can make them feel isolated. It’s important, as mentioned above, to try and maintain communication levels and encourage your teams to continue with team building activities, albeit virtually.

What drives employees to stay at a particular organization?

People who respect and appreciate their co workers tend to get along with them and the sense of team belonging is a big reason why people stay with companies. Feeling as though you can lean on your team and trust them to work with you is a crucial part of work place satisfaction.

What are the 4 drivers of employee motivation?

Research points to four drivers of motivation: the drive to acquire, bond, comprehend and defend.

What are the top 3 things that would make you stay in your company?

The infographic below describes the top reasons why talented employees stay longer in your company..
Inspired To Work Smarter..
Feeling Valued, Recognize, Respected..
Mentored..
Paid Well..
Good Benefits and Incentives..
Believe in The Company Mission and Vision..
Working Environment Satisfaction..
Exciting and Challenging Work..

How do you motivate employees to stay?

Here are some ways to make sure your best employees stay:.
Recognize their efforts. ... .
Keep challenging them. ... .
Keep lines of communication open. ... .
Empower them to make decisions. ... .
Foster and reward employee development. ... .
Offer small, personal perks. ... .
Offer schedule control and flexibility..