Understanding What Motivates Your Team

Recruiting and retaining good employees is always a challenge for any business. In today’s competitive labor market, it’s more important than ever to be able to keep talented staff and bring new members on board in a timely fashion.

One of the most important keys to reducing employee turnover is maintaining morale and keeping your team motivated. Multiple factors influence staff retention. Understanding what drives people to make the choices they do is critical to success. That enables you to consider the best ways to recognize achievements and validate employee feelings.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

One of the best explanations of what motivates people in all kinds of decisions is what’s known as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. First proposed by psychologist Abraham Maslow in the 1940s, it explains the roots of most human behavior in the form of a five-step pyramid.

The pyramid sets out the five basic levels of people’s needs or goals. The first level starts with the most basic needs, with each succeeding level building upon the previous one. The levels can be grouped as basic, psychological or self-fulfillment needs. Let’s take a look at each one.

Basic Needs

The lowest level begins with Physical needs. These include food, water, warmth, (shelter) and rest. Everything else builds upon this base. Any workplace should be able to meet simple physical requirements.

Next up are Safety needs such as security and protection. Your staff needs a secure work environment, with features such as security measures, properly maintained equipment, and appropriate training. But that’s not all. Safety needs also encompass economic needs such as job security, sufficient pay, insurance, and protection from unfair practices.

Psychological Needs

Our Psychological needs introduce the social concepts of belonging and accomplishments. These areas are where products such as custom challenge coins play a significant role.

Love and Belonging needs include our needs for friendship, family, intimacy and a sense of community with others. Everyone wants to feel aa sense of belongingness and acceptance in social groups. It doesn’t matter if the group is large or small. It can be family, coworkers, sports teams or friends. It’s important to be a part of the group.

In the workplace, a sense of teamwork is important to achieve maximum performance and morale. Coworkers who feel they are working together tend to be more productive and better satisfied with their jobs than lone individuals.

One way to encourage camaraderie is by recognizing achievements. You can present challenge coins for completed projects, successful product introductions, company anniversaries and special events and individual or group accomplishments. It’s a powerful way to show your staff you recognize and honor their hard work and loyalty.

The next level is Esteem needs, such as prestige and a feeling of accomplishment. Once again, this is an area where recognition can go a long way. Presenting a custom coin honoring achievements, especially when presented at a group-, department- or company-wide meeting, can go a long way toward promoting a feeling of well-being.

Self-Actualization

This is the highest level of the hierarchy. Self-actualization means realizing your full potential. It’s about pursuing goals and using and developing one’s purpose, talents and abilities to their highest level possible.

Helping your employees reach this level means giving them the tools, training and opportunities to use them to the fullest. Recognition should be commensurate with their accomplishments. That might include a promotion, a new title, a raise or all three. And once again, honoring them with public recognition is a great way to show that you value their achievements.

Challenge coins can give your staff who reach this level of accomplishment a meaningful keepsake that they can display on a desk or carry with them to remind them that you appreciate their dedication, commitment and outstanding performance in their role.

Ups and Downs

It’s important to keep in mind that individual levels on the hierarchy are not fixed. Changes in circumstances can result in the need to revisit lower levels at times. For example, events such as losing a job, starting a new career, getting a promotion, illness or changes in marital status can cause an individual to temporarily revert to a lower level before eventually returning to the previous higher level.

In The Workplace

Any workplace will always have people at different levels of need fulfillment. As an employer, addressing the basic needs first is a must. Once people’s physical and safety needs are taken care of, it’s time to address the higher levels.

An open, welcoming environment helps create a social scene that focuses on teamwork  and bonding among coworkers. Custom challenge coins can become part of your arsenal of motivational tools that help create a sense of teamwork and camaraderie.

Well-timed and presented rewards such as challenge coins, recognition meetings and other positive reinforcements also help boost individuals esteem. That can prompt them to perform at higher levels, and eventually to reach full self-actualization – to become the best they can be in their role. That benefits the individual, the team, and the entire organization.

Count On Us

If you’re looking for a way to motivate your staff, improve office morale and reduce turnover, custom challenge coins are one of the best ways to do so. When you’re ready to order, you can depend on Challenge Coins 4 Less for the highest quality coins, the best prices and the finest customer service in the industry.

Experience and Expertise 

We’ve been producing custom coins for 20 years. We have the experience and the expertise to help you create designs that speak to your team’s social, esteem and self-actualization needs at every level.

Want to find out more? Call us toll free at (855) 272-8451, or email us. We’ll be glad to answer any questions you might have. If you already have a design in mind, fill out our no-obligation free quote form. We’ll respond promptly with a free digital proof of your design.

If you’re not quite certain what you want your design to look like, don’t worry. We don’t’ charge for revisions, so you can experiment with your design until it looks exactly the way you want.

Challenge coins might seem like a small item, but you’ll be surprised what a big difference they can make for your office atmosphere. What are you waiting for? Call or email us today, and we’ll be happy to show you how much they can do for your organization.