By Grazyna Sotta

As economies and companies grow again after setbacks during the recession, talent retention, employee motivation and engagement are up on the agenda. The most basic approach calls for the carrot and stick: reward employees for desired behaviours and withdraw rewards when goals aren’t met. But is it really that simple or can we get higher engagement and motivation levels from employees by doing more?

According to an inspiring video by RSA Animate, the basic pat on the back or slap on the wrist technique works well with simple mechanical tasks. Research done by economists, sociologists or psychologists all come to the same conclusion: when rudimentary cognitive skills and conceptual creative thinking are involved, the monetary reward should be at a level that makes money a non-issue. In other words, employers should shift the employees focus from money to the tasks at hand. If money is used as a motivator for tasks that require high cognitive skills, the opposite result occurs whereby performance deteriorates.

What makes us tick beyond the recurrent pay check?
The answer is our desire to be self-directed, to improve professionally and make the world around us a better place – autonomy, mastery and purpose. Once the question of money is off the table, these three factors are what makes or breaks engagement and creativity.

An excellent example is Australian software company Atlassian that gives its developers a creative and fun day every quarter, allowing them to work with whoever, whatever and however they want. All this is done in a relaxed and amusing environment, as opposed to a sterile corporate world, and produces a positive result–solutions and new products far beyond what would normally be achieved or groundbreaking innovations. A saucy innovation bonus wouldn’t be able to entice them to these levels of creativity.

Linux, Apache and Wikipedia are excellent examples of how engagement is built on passion for something rather than monetary rewards, as mentioned in RSA’s animation. Google, a company that attracts students and professionals in Universum’s research, is known for its creative working environment and creative and dynamic spirit. The sense of purpose is also what drives so many talented people to the underpaid governmental sectors, explains the popularity of volunteer work and other oddities that the “big money equalling performance” can’t explain.

Well, great information, what do we do with this? How can WE make OUR employees want to jump out of bed to run to work? Following the advice from the video:
• Know your employees
• Give, or rather don’t restrict, autonomy
• Set realistic goals and a development plan that helps them grow and have a sense of achievement
• Engage them with a sense of purpose