100 GREAT BUSINESS IDEAS • 159Three-fac tor t heory is based on the premise that workers have
basic human needs that management can and should work to
address. Creating an environment in which these needs are met
results in enthusiastic employees.
The idea
During the last three decades of the twentieth century, American
fi rm Sirota Consulting surveyed 237 organizations worldwide across
a range of industries, providing more than 2 million responses,
about what employees wanted at work. This research suggests that
there are three primary sets of goals for people at work (this is known
as “three-factor theory”): equity, achievement, and camaraderie. For
most workers, no other goals are nearly as important. Also, these
goals have not changed in recent times, and cut across demographic
groups and cultures. Establishing policies and practices in tune with
these goals is, Sirota believes, the key to employee engagement.
In practice
Meeting the goals of equity, achievement, and camaraderie is the
key to high morale and engagement, and is a condition for long-
term success. The extent to which these three factors hold true for
everyone is less important than the fact that they matter a great deal
to many people.
Equity. This means being treated justly in relation to the basic
conditions of employment. These basic conditions are: