There are some signs that the salary competition for IT talent may be cooling, however we at NYU will not be competing on salary. So, how do we keep our people engaged when we may not be able to match the industry standard for salaries outside of higher education? Glad you asked.
When I think about motivation, three theories come to mind. Mazlow’s Hierarchy says that you have to take care of needs lower on the hierarchy before you can address higher levels. More recently, Daniel Pink gave us Drive. If you haven’t watched the video, you should!
But the theory that I’ve found the most practical is Herzog’s Two-Factor theory. The two-factor theory says that there are “hygiene factors” and “motivators.” Negative conditions that, when present in a work environment, tend to demotivate us are hygiene factors. We want to remove as many of these demotivators as possible from our environment. We can’t remove them all, but the fewer there are the better the work environment.
The second factor is motivators. These are things that make us feel good about ourselves and what we are doing. What I like about this approach is that we can make a difference in little ways. We can remove a hygiene factor or add a motivator or two and our people will feel the difference.
Hygiene factors include the work environment. Is it comfortable? Are people treated fairly? Is it safe? Are people being paid fairly? Working in an unsafe environment is a demotivator. Working in the safest place in Manhattan won’t motivate anyone beyond what a safe enough workplace would. It is the same with pay. When people feel they are not being paid fairly it is a demotivator, still raises have been shown to increase motivation only for about three weeks on average. So if money is a motivator at all, it is a weak one.
As the song goes, “the best things in life are free,” and fortunately so are most motivators. Autonomy, recognition, purpose, mastery, and job enrichment are examples. Not everyone finds the exact same things motivating. The better you know your team, the better you will be able to provide the motivators that go into building a high performance team!