Employee engagment and employee motivation are areas where HR can have real impact on the bottom line of a business. However the traditional peformance motivators of money (the carrot) or termination (the stick) may not be effective at driving the behaviors that employers need from employees to thrive in the new economy according to the best selling author Dan Pink.
Instead Dan believes that “the secret to high performance and satisfaction—at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world…the three elements of true motivation are—autonomy, mastery, and purpose“. Dan offers a compelling case for a new way to motive in his book Drive: The Surprising Science of What Motivates Us. Dan provides 50 years of behavioral science to overturn the conventional wisdom about human motivation and offer a more effective path to high performance. Even if you don’t have time to read the book take 20 minutes to see Dan present an overview of the new science of motivation at the TED:Ideas Worth Spreading website. 
Join the conversation: What is the best approach to motivation?
Tags: behavioral science, employee morale, employee motivation, engagment, HR best practice, ways to motivate employees