Thanks to Esther Derby’s amplification on Lining Up Priorities, I came across Tony Tjan’s blog posting, Four Simple Ways to Make Your Employees Happier.  Tony says,

There is a very simple secret to long-term employee loyalty and retention and it is not money, perks, or stock options. It’s giving them meaningful roles.

This is not an idealistic motherhood-and-apple pie dream, but rather a basic condition of human behavior and psychology that many businesses and leaders often forget: people are driven as much or more by intrinsic meaning as they are by extrinsic rewards.

This is, I think, a little-discussed benefit of the self-management that’s found on successful Agile teams–the employees are motivated by creating value rather than just by pay and perks.  People want to do well for you.  Give them an opportunity and an environment where they can do so.