For centuries, understanding what motivates human behavior has remained a murky mystery. But with the advent of new neuroscience research, deciphering how to improve employee motivation in the workplace has never been easier. Rather than speculate on how to best motivate employees to increase profits (often through monetary incentives), neuroscience, anchored in rich research, provides HR and talent management professionals with a peek under the hood, so to speak – an understanding of how the fundamental patterns of human behavior can be used to improve employee motivation.According to research compiled by MBA@UNC, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School’s online MBA program, people are driven by four basic emotional needs. They are the drives to acquire (acquisition of status ); bond (form connections with individuals and groups); learn (satisfy curiosity and make sense of the world around us); and defend (protect against external threats). When HR and talent managers understand what drives a person’s behavior, they can design systems, policies, procedures, and practices that will appeal to their needs in order to achieve improved organizational performance. Here are four examples of how to use each of the drivers to improve employee motivation.
Drive to Acquire
Fulfill this drive by launching a company reward system. Assess how well your company differentiates between good and average performance and how well they identify and reward high performers versus average and low performers. There should be a clear connection between rewards and employee performance.

Drive to Defend
To meet the needs of this drive, identify the cause of the threat rather than focus on the reaction to the threat and develop performance management and resource allocation processes. There should be transparency in these processes to build trust and equitable treatment of employees. To reduce the drive to defend, launch programs that will improve employees’ quality of life, like training.

Drive to Bond
Fulfilling the drive to bond can really impact employee commitment. Effective feedback is vital to fostering the drive to bond and should include leadership support, coaching and frequent encouragement.

Drive to Learn
Job design is a critical factor when looking to appeal to the drive to learn. Jobs should be created and defined in such a way that they are meaningful to employees and foster a sense of contribution to the organization.