Good wages, interesting work and job security are the three key things that motivate the modern workforce, a long running study has revealed.
The study, which has run for over 70 years, has tracked how motivations in the workplace have evolved with social and economic conditions and reveals fascinating insights into how work, and society, has changed.
In 1946, the first year of the study, the top three motivating factors were; full appreciation of work completed, feeling included and sympathetic help with personal problems. In the most recent study these had fallen to fifth, eight and tenth on the list.
The data was collected from a group of workers in 1946, 1980, 1992, 2007, 2010 and 2016 and looks at ten key factors, including promotion opportunities, loyalty to employees, good working conditions and tactful discipline.
The initial work, up to 1992, was carried out by Carolyn Wiley and then Professor Dave Spicer, expert in Organisational Behaviour and Dean of the Business School at the University of Salford continued the work for the past ten years. The most recent results, from last year, have just been made available.
Professor Spicer said: “There are some clear patterns which emerge from the numbers. In 1946 for example people were just coming out of the extremely traumatic war period and they needed a lot of emotional support, I think that explains why those factors were rated so highly at the time. Good wages and interesting work were less important than the fact you had a job and were part of a community. Many people had also lost friends and family members, so they appreciated emotional support from managers and colleagues.
“That changes as we get further away from the war period and good wages and interesting work become more important.
“You can also see the impact of the 2008 financial crash in the patterns which emerge. In 2007 job security was only at six on the list of motivating factors, as people felt they would easily be able to get a new job and were not concerned about unemployment, due to a long period of economic growth.
“Just three years later job security was the number two concern of workers as the damaged economy cause d by the sub-primes mortgage crisis and a long recession, led to much higher unemployment rates and fears about losing work and not being able to find a new job.
“The fact that job security is still so important in the most recent figures shows that many feel the economy has still not fully recovered and they are still concerned about their ability to find new work should they lose their job. In fact in the most recent results, wages, interesting work and job security are all at a very similar level and the clear main motivators for many workers.
“Promotion, appreciation of work completed and good working conditions are in another group and loyalty, feelings of inclusion, tactful discipline and sympathetic help with problems come bottom of the list.
“It is too early to see the impact of Brexit in these figures, but that might well have an impact in the future.”
