I would agree with the stats since what matter for me the most when I work for a company is Exciting and Challenging Work
Career growth and development
Working with great people

I dont like repetitive work every day I am a person who looks for something ne something challenging everyday so Its one of the important things for me to have challenging work. Career growth is important especially when you are new in the industry. so in order to have a good career its important to have good exposure to industry. All this is only possible if you have good people to workwith who are interested in helping you learn and help develop skills.

I enjoyed reading all the comments in the post and was pleasantly surprised to see how similar the views of everyone here are to the consensus posted in the question. I too would personally agree with the overall results of the study. Money is one of the driving forces for us to work hard and be successful so that we can provide a comfortable, much better life for ourselves and our family. Along with that to be stuck in a deadbeat, monotonous schedule is not what an individual want to be stuck in specially if its a part of their daily routine, and so excitement and challenge from you work is very important factor too. What could come as a bonus would be working with people you like, equally hard working, who you can bounce of ideas with and will help you with a positive growth at work. Having a friend at work lines up as the perfect icing (provided it does reduce your productivity). If there is a likeliness that one of these factors don't line up it could lead to not enjoying work as much.

I agree in general with the results of the survey, it makes sense. I think the more interesting question to ask is why do people leave the job they are in? I am in a company right now where a lot of people are leaving. Why? One of the reasons is that as people leave they are not replacing them. This means more work gets put on the people who stay, causing them to leave. People also leave when they don't feel like there is opportunities to advance internally. A lot of time it is necessary to leave a job to get promoted and get a pay raise. We have also gone through a lot of change in our company as our division was recently sold. I think people get scared of big changes and try to find something new. I have seen people leave in the last couple years for all those reasons.

For me this results are impressive. According to me if I talk about myself personally i love to work and go to workplace because I love to gain new experiences and love getting new challenges that would help me build me up. And another reason is that I love to work with people having more knowledge than me so that I can learn from them. Ofcourse money is a driving force for everyone but loving your workplace only for money should never be your reason according to me.

The results here don't particularly surprise me! Everyone wants to have a purpose in life and a lot of times, we draw that from our work since we dedicate most of our time in a given day to doing that. We want to be the best that we can be and having exciting, challenging work gives us a reason to conquer it. Also, having opportunity to rise in ranks is something everyone looks forward to because no one plans to be in their given position for the rest of their life. Having a great work environment and great co-workers is even more reason for us to show up at work, ready to take on the day. Building strong relationships with co-workers makes work more worthwhile because you can have some fun in between all the serious, hard work.

Personally, I don't find this list of motivations to work particularly surprising. Most people enjoy challenging and exciting work to keep them engaged in their job. And generally this will go hand and hand with the career growth and development aspect. One thing I do find surprising is the only 32% who are motivated by fair pay. This isn't saying money rules all, but I do think more than 32% of people would be much less eager to dive into a job and engage themselves in their role if they are being crucially underpaid. People like money. Also, this may be biased because I am personally motivated to make a beneficial difference in the work through my career, but the only 17% that care about that also seems very low. Overall, and I think I speak for most, all of these reasons play a slight role together in the motivation to work.

For myself, the three results that are listed that motivate me to work the most are having great people to work with, challenging work, and supportive boss/manager. I have had experience on the positive and negative sides of each of these, which have shaped my opinion to this point: having great people to work with spurs you on to do quality work. When the people around you are high caliber, then you feel motivated to produce high caliber work to match that. This can result in an excellent team dynamic akin to a well oiled machine. Having challenging work is crucial, as I have found that when I am doing something that seems meaningless or is too easy, I can lose interest. It will be more of a chore to push through the work, versus when I have something that is more engaging that while more difficult is more challenging. When I am fully engaged, I feel more present and enjoy the work that I do more. Having a supportive boss/manager is also critical for myself. Often times, it is they who are helping to cultivate your career path to the next level. I have had the priviledge of having several managers who were very focused on developing myself and their other reports in career and job related skills. Having that kind of support has facilitated trust and made me more willing to put more into the work I was doing, knowing that I was backed by my manager/boss. I know that these results listed above will vary overall in degrees of importance for each person, however I believe the most important thing is to understand what (if it is listed even) motivates you to work and to pursue those things.

The study results did not surprise me much, to be honest. In my opinion, most of the people work for the money, to gain the lifestyle they desire. Everyone needs money in order to survive in this world. Whether it be paying for tuition, paying rent, food and etc. There are other people who work because they want to help people around them and some take the work as a challenge to improve their knowledge and experience in the field. In my opinion, some people work so they can bring change around them, to make a difference in other peoples lives while helping themselves learning through things.

For me the study did not surprise much except that making a difference should have had a higher percentage. According to me the work being exciting and challenging, career growth and development, working with great people and meaningful work/ making a difference would really motivate me to stay at the job. Liking what you do with the correct amount of challenge and difficulty is necessary to utilize your skills with a little amount of concentration. Having an ambition is a great motivator, which wants you to go ahead, develop, grow and acquire new skills. Having the opportunity to work with people you like is definitely a booster, this is because you spend a majority of your time with the people at work and if you do not like your co-workers then it could prove to be a de-motivator. Wanting to make a difference in a medical device industry is surely needed, because this will bring in the new devices to help the people and improve upon the ones that are already present.

My personal motivators for why I want to pursue my career is that I want challenging work that makes a difference. I also want stability, both financially and in my career. I believe that what motivates one to work is very personal to each person and can not be encompassed in a multiple choice question study. Which explains these results. I do not think the people answering the questions where 100% set on one or the other because these responses did not 100% encompass their true motivator.

For everyone in the survey, it can be a mix of different motivators that cause the employees to stay. I believe my main motivators will change overtime. For the timing being, I am focused on finding a job that will lead to potential career growth and development, which is also linked to challenging work that will keep me engaged. My end goal is to also be able to contribute to work that will leave a strong positive impact, while acquiring financial stability and remaining interested and engaged. I expect to reach this only after I have acquired enough work experience and skills from my first jobs.

I think the survey is a mix of people from different age groups, different level in the work pyramid and hence it is likely to be diverse and also everybody needs different things in their life but the result dint amaze me as everybody is different and that's why people leave certain jobs and another person replaces them.
I think as people, age money becomes a priority as that's the time they need to think about their family as well so the motivation for work changes a bit there.
What motivates me to work is the work that I am assigned, if the work assigned to me is good and the people around me support me and they respect me for the work I am doing then I am happy to work in the atmosphere.

This is a very interesting study and I wish i could find more about it. When was it taken, how many people, what age group, etc? All of these are factors on the percentages of each answer. I did expect these to be the generic answers about why most people work. The biggest change I expect would be by age group. Younger people will care more about young people issues: promotions, great bosses, etc. Older workers care more about respect, exciting work, etc. I disagree how money becomes an issue when you're older (unless you're being unfairly paid). I fully expect the percentage points to shift as one gets older. I believe everyone has a little bit of motivation in each category throughout their career. If they had to rank them, I definitely believe they would shift over time. It all depends on the mindset of who is answering. There are those who work to work and there are those who work to make a difference.

As many of you said, I too have a mix of motivations. The main reason why I would be demotivated is a bad work environment with unfair pay. A safe healthy work environment is key to keeping happy workers. Projects fail, and every product/job makes a difference. No matter how high or low the position, or how complex or simple the product.

I am a little surprised that percentage for benefits, meaningful work, and being recognized are the lowest. One of the most famous saying is "do a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life". Which I would imagine would coincide with meaningful work, but I suppose that being challenged or excited by your work is more of the same towards loving your job. The reason I am surprised by benefits is that I feel most people will work a job solely for the benefits. Medical coverage is not something that is cheap, and I know people who have taken job just so that they will have expenses as such covered. However, most of the stats are more than likely relative to the person you are asking. Personally, I am motivated by having a good boss, pay, and a fulfilling job.

That was an interesting study! However, I was not very surprised with the results. Although most people think that the "Fair Pay" is the main reason that would an employee to keep working, I think it is not easy to do that without being surrounded with great people in a peaceful and creative environment. For me, I would say money is not everything and is not the ultimate goal that pushes me to work. Although there is no doubt that salary is an important point to look at, other points such as respectful project manager, knowledgable and motivated group members, etc. which in the end integrate to create the aimed "job satisfaction".
I found this interesting article on the Harvard Business Review website:
https://hbr.org/1973/07/why-employees-stay