Five Fundamentals That Will Motivate Employees in 2026 (and Beyond)

ARTICLE FROM HR DAILY

The best ways to motivate employees in 2026 are much the same as they were 50 years ago, but many employers continue to rely on tactics that have “zero” long-term impact, according to a performance specialist.

Effective motivation comes down to five “fundamentals”, Human Synergistics ANZ chair Shaun McCarthy tells HR Daily. He recalls studying organisational behaviour in the early 1970s, and
reading the principles espoused by Frederick Herzberg in One more time: How do you motivate employees, which have since been proven many times over.

What perplexes McCarthy is how few organisations put them into practice, and how many rely on perks, spurring motivation that doesn’t last – and that decrease
motivation when they’re taken away.

At a Human Synergistics conference in December, McCarthy shared a slide about ‘the five fundamentals of human motivation’ and was “intrigued” by the number of attendees who asked for a copy afterwards. “It seemed to strike a chord and pique peoples’ curiosity,” he says, even though none of the information it contained was remotely “new”.

So what are these fundamentals? Read full article here

With kind permission from HR Daily.

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