Salary alone is not a motivator: this is the second part of a three-part series.

• Author: Nelson, Bob
• Position: Rewarding Employees

People sometimes ask me, "If money isn't a top motivator, then why is it all I seem o hear about from my employees?" I've had a chance to examine this question firsthand in several companies and have found several explanations:

1. In some working environments, people are doing jobs they don't enjoy for managers who never show their appreciation. These employees conclude that if this is what it's like to work here, at least they ought to be paid well. Money thus becomes a psychological exchange for enduring a miserable job.

2. In other companies, I've found that managers only use money to thank people--for example, bonuses for completing projects, on-the-spot cash for desired behavior or an extra percentage in the employees' annual salary increase. Unintentionally, these managers implicitly send the message to employees that unless you get cash, your contribution to the company isn't important. Essentially, they train employees to expect cash as the only true form of thanks. It's true some people directly correlate the amount of money they earn with their perceived worth to the organization. You need to be careful, however, that you don't just respond to those individuals who constantly ask for more money, since you need to reinforce results, not requests. Also realize that you will never get the best effort from employees just by paying them more. For employees who just want more money, they'll never be satisfied with what they are paid. Their expectations always will rise with each salary increase.

3. Realizing that money is a basic need, managers might wonder if employees must be paid well before the nonmonetary factors become motivating. This question came up during a conference keynote I was giving, and I was delighted to have another member of the audience interject his experience. He found that by using positive reinforcement he was able to increase the level of performance of his employees, leading to increased sales revenue, which ultimately made it possible to pay people better. In other words, the use of nonmonetary incentives allowed the boat to rise financially for everyone.

Motivation is its own reword.

Another way to look at the relation between money and motivation is that while on any given day most of us can't significantly influence what we earn, a lot of things can have an effect on how excited and motivated we are...