If you look after your staff, they’ll look after your customers

Motivation is a theoretical construct that is used to explain how individuals’ actions, desires and needs influence the way they behave. Among the many models proposed to understand motivation, Herzberg’s two-factor theory is widely recognised as being one of the most credible. In essence Herzberg’s theory states that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are the products of two separate factors: motivating factors (satisfiers) and hygiene factors (dissatisfiers). Motivators (e.g. challenging work, recognition, responsibility, achievement and growth) give positive satisfaction, and hygiene factors (e.g. status, job security, salary/benefits, company policy and working conditions) do not motivate if present, but, if absent, result in demotivation. This is much like the role of hygiene in health – the presence of hygiene will not improve health, but the absence can cause health deterioration. The aim should therefore be to focus on enhancing the motivating factors, and not worry quite so much about the hygiene factors, as long as they are generally satisfactory ...