Money makes the world go around – but it won’t motivate your students

“You’ve graduated from university and have climbed up the ranks to become the manager of a team. You’re in a situation where you need to motivate an employee to stay past their working hours to work on a project. How would you do this?”

“Alternatively, let’s say you’re that employee. What incentive would you be happy to receive to stay past 5pm to work on a task that your boss gives you?”

I ask these two questions of my Year 12 students. It’s past most application deadlines, and therefore time for transition workshops. The rationale behind this session is as follows: “You all have the potential to become leaders, and many of you likely will. How can you become effective and thoughtful leaders after graduating from university? How would you motivate your employees and treat them well?”

It’s easy to think that the main way to incentivise someone else – or oneself – is through money. In a society threaded by capitalism, it makes sense for our students to think that money is not only the means to an end, but also the main goal.

But as a future-pathways counsellor, I believe it’s important to allow students the space to think about not just the short-term goal of getting into university, but also long-term principles of how to live a good life.

Measuring job satisfaction 

Our role as career counsellor is often subsumed by college counselling. The space provided for post-application workshops after university applications are over is a great time to focus on helping students to envisage successful and satisfactory careers.

For this particular session, I draw upon Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Developed in the 1950s, it is now regarded as somewhat outdated by researchers in the field. But it can present an opportunity to think out of the box for adolescents and non-academics. It certainly has for me.

In essence, this theory allows us to look at job satisfaction with a closer, more critical eye. If you’re asked to conceptualise the idea of job satisfaction, how would you think about it? Naturally, we may visualise a single spectrum with job satisfaction on one end and job dissatisfaction on the other. You are simply satisfied with your job or dissatisfied with it. What Herzberg’s theory ingeniously does is that it cracks apart job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction into two disparate variables. When you envisage these two aspects existing separately from one another, interesting implications emerge, and we can reflect on how we feel about a job with a more nuanced perspective.

The best-case scenario is clearly having high job satisfaction and low dissatisfaction. You like your job and there is not much to complain about. You can also be both highly satisfied and highly dissatisfied with a job, resulting in a so-called love-hate relationship, where you are motivated to work but also have many complaints.

Needless to say, the worst-case scenario is harbouring low satisfaction and high dissatisfaction, where a job has no redeeming qualities and merely thinking about it brings you frustration. You may also feel lacklustre about a job that induces low job satisfaction, but also low job dissatisfaction – not much to look forward to, but not much to complain about either. This may be helpful to visualise in the matrix graphic in this article.

Not always about following the money

Where Herzberg’s theory can be useful to our students is helping them (and ourselves) to realise how a certain set of factors leads to satisfaction and others lead to dissatisfaction.

The size of one’s salary or a hefty bonus are interesting factors because we never question that they lead to satisfaction. But Herzberg points out that these two oft-sought factors only keep dissatisfaction at bay – to raise satisfaction, other factors need to be present.

So back to the original question: to make an employee stay after work, provided that they have a well-paid job that’s well regarded, it’s clear that throwing a bonus at them won’t necessarily make them happy to stay after 5pm. What, then, contributes to satisfaction? And what other factors keep dissatisfaction at bay?

Achievement, recognition, responsibility, the work itself, job advancement and growth opportunities increase satisfaction. These are termed as “motivating factors”, and would be the answer to the question “What would make an employee stay after working hours?”, according to Herzberg.

To elaborate, achievement includes whatever engenders the feeling of achievement – such as completing a difficult task on time, solving a job-related problem or seeing positive results from work. Recognition is receiving praise or rewards for reaching goals. Responsibility includes both responsibilities and the authority given to the employee. The work itself regards the content of job tasks. The possibility for growth is opportunities to experience personal growth and promotion, and advancement is the upward and positive status of someone in a workplace.

By contrast, “hygiene factors” decrease job dissatisfaction. Salary and supervision, as well as interpersonal relations, working conditions and company policies, help to prevent employees from being dissatisfied in the workplace.

To elaborate, supervision here pertains to the employee’s perception of the competence and fairness of the supervisor. Interpersonal relations involve the personal and working relationships surrounding the employee, working conditions pertain to any physical surroundings, and policies are about the clarity of management policies and guidelines.

Helping students to find their passion

It makes sense that having great structures in place would stop an employee from becoming jaded or frustrated, but these don’t necessarily increase satisfaction. Instead, what makes an employee highly satisfied is acknowledging their unique contribution to the work and having exciting opportunities ahead in which they can exercise their talents and hone their skills.

This is why helping students to identify their strengths and passions now – as well as careers where they might have opportunities to happily grow – is crucial. It is not just about the financial award that society tells us is key to happiness.

Herzberg is not the only scholar who may be relevant for your guidance classes. Take a look at the self-determination theory and the three factors that are essential to an environment that shifts motivation from extrinsic to intrinsic. Students are likely already familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but this may be a great topic to cover in a guidance-lesson post-application workshop, as students get ready to be independent. The ikigai lesson is great for any year group, including soon-to-be graduating seniors.

Career counselling is often subsumed under and feels secondary to college counselling. However, given the exciting juncture that students are at, and the potential in our role, we can plant the seeds now in our students on how to have a fulfilling and reflective work life, beyond their high-school and university years.