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Everyone has a "hot" button that represents the area of life that tends to bring out the most emotions. Certainly for many of us some hot buttons may bring out hatred and anger, but other hot buttons can bring out great enthusiasm and passion. We will focus on positive hot buttons in this article.

Developed many years ago, Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs continues to be used as a model to what motivates people. Maslow determined that most people worked to satisfy needs and that these needs fell in a particular order, ranging from "basic" needs at the first level to "aspirations" at the sixth. Because basic needs must be met before all others, we'll explore that.

Wages competitive with the local market is the first "basic needs" hot button. This is a fine line for most business owners because we want to keep overhead low to increase profit margins. But pay wages that are too low and you risk high employee turnover, attracting more unskilled people, and driving morale lower.

If you don't know the range of wages you should be paying, consider calling a local employment agency or chamber of commerce to find out.

Assuming your wages are (or will be) at least competitive, another "basic needs" hot button might be assisting employees in minor ways: free gasoline or oil for their own vehicles, allow personal use of some company equipment or tools, pay for uniforms, or buy lunch once a week.