What motivates people when it comes to choosing a job, staying engaged at work or deciding to look for new career opportunity? And how could understanding what motivates people help employers better attract, engage and recruit talent right now, especially in this extremely competitive labor market?
These are the insights you’ll learn at our RallyFwd Virtual Conference on December 8 from our keynote speaker, Todd Henry, author of The Motivation Code. As an international speaker, consultant, advisor and author of 5 books, Todd will be discussing the groundbreaking research behind his latest book, The Motivation Code, on what drives engagement, satisfaction and productivity among people, and how recruiters and organizations can use this research to recruit today’s candidates.
Held twice a year in May and December, RallyFwd is the largest and highest-rated free virtual conference and community gathering of thousands of professionals across Recruitment Marketing, employer branding, candidate experience, employee experience, talent acquisition and human resources. Don’t miss RallyFwd on December 8 — Register to save your spot today!
To learn more about the valuable new research in The Motivation Code and how we can incorporate this into recruiting strategy, we had a virtual Q&A with Todd. Keep reading below for a sneak peek of what you’ll learn from Todd at RallyFwd!
Q&A with Todd Henry, author of The Motivation Code
Todd Henry – Keynote Speaker & Author of The Motivation Code
Rally: People are motivated by many things, and your book finds that there are 27 “motivational themes”, each with its own unique DNA. How did you uncover this, and what are some of the top motivational themes that stand out to you?
Todd: We leveraged research into over 1 million achievement stories to determine how people describe moments of peak performance and accomplishment and why they were so meaningful and memorable.
It turns out that there are 27 unique ways in which people describe these moments. For example, some people are driven to achieve potential, which means they see untapped potential and are compelled to realize it. Others are driven to collaborate, which means they find the most satisfaction when functioning within a team. Others are driven to gain ownership, which means they want to collect more responsibility, more authority, more “stuff” or more territory. These are just a few of the 27, each of which has its own characteristics.
Rally: How do these apply to job seekers?
Todd: Many people believe that engagement is about aligning skills and tasks, but the base layer for engagement is motivation. Once you understand what truly drives you, it’s possible to discuss a potential job in a much more nuanced way. For example, if you’re driven by one of our “visionary” family of themes, you likely won’t find much satisfaction in doing process-oriented work, whereas if you’re driven by an “optimizer” family theme you might feel right at home squeezing efficiencies out of processes.
Rally: How have you found people’s motivations in their work to have changed throughout the pandemic?
Todd: The motivations haven’t changed, but how they seek to satisfy them has. Because many people have been working remotely or in a hybrid model, they haven’t been surrounded by the same level of stimulus and activity as when they’re in an office, so people have been deprived of those natural motivational boosters. It’s more important than ever to understand how you are driven and to find ways of activating those motivations in the context of the “new normal.”
Rally: In your years of research for your book on what drives people to do their best work, was anything especially surprising to you?
Todd: Perhaps the most surprising thing that the research showed is that the core motivations someone exhibits largely remain the same over long periods of life. They don’t change much, even when circumstances change.
Rally: How can recruiters and organizations use this information to connect with candidates?
Todd: Once you understand what motivates an individual, you can have a much more meaningful conversation about how their motivational drivers will be activated by a potential job. It’s a much more nuanced conversation than simply looking at skill fit because it’s a much better predictor of both engagement and retention for a potential hire.
Rally: What’s one thing you hope practitioners can take back to their organizations after your session at RallyFwd on December 8?
Todd: It’s critical to understand that every behavior is motivated behavior. Everything we do as humans is getting us something that we desire, even unproductive behaviors like procrastination and cynicism. Each person has a unique motivational mix, and we must treat each person uniquely according to how they are wired to respond. Once we do, we unlock tremendous potential for them and our organizations.
Let’s RallyFwd together!
With a taste of what’s to come, we hope you’ll join us on December 8, 2021, to hear from Todd and our other expert speakers about the latest and greatest in Recruitment Marketing, employer branding and candidate experience.
Sign up for free here, and we’ll see you there!
