激励因子和保健因子

经常看到报道说有人发多少多少钱去激励员工，甚至据说还有扛着钱到球场边督战的。不知道是不是真的重赏之下必有勇夫，但在企业经营中靠多发钱对员工其实是没有激励作用的。 “钱”其实是保健因子，多了没用，少了不行的东西。比如，如果员工已经很努力在工作了，多发钱并不会让他们更努力，但少发是会留不住人的。

Source: http://nteswjq.blog.163.com/blog/static/1269981201111825846703/

Motivators and hygiene factors

> By Duan Yongping · his NetEase blog (nteswjq.blog.163.com, now closed; read from web archives) · 2011-02-18 · [Original link](http://nteswjq.blog.163.com/blog/static/1269981201111825846703/) ([archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20110224182229/http://nteswjq.blog.163.com:80/blog/static/1269981201111825846703/))

I often see reports of someone handing out huge sums to motivate employees; some even supposedly carry cash to the edge of the field to spur the troops on.

I don't know whether it's really true that a big reward always brings out brave men, but in running a business, handing out more money actually doesn't motivate employees.

"Money" is in fact a hygiene factor: more of it is useless, but too little won't do.

For example, if employees are already working very hard, paying them more won't make them work harder, but paying them less will make you lose people.

So how much you pay really reflects fairness.

A company should pay employees the compensation they're owed, as promised; paying more or paying less both actually damage fairness.

Some talk of bosses handing employees "red envelopes" is also a bit off, because this "red envelope" is really just what the employees deserve.

I remember that early on at Subor, since the company was still small, I handed many colleagues their "year-end bonus" myself, one by one.

Sometimes someone would say "Thank you, boss," and I would say very seriously that it should be the company thanking everyone for a year of hard work. I really wasn't just being polite.