The article discusses the issues of motivation, its varieties and the impact on labor productivity. Numerous theories of motivation began to appear even in the works of ancient philosophers. Currently, there are more than a dozen such theories. To understand them, it is important to know the background and the history of their occurrence. The origins of modern theories of motivation should be sought where psychological knowledge itself first arose. Nowadays, motivation as a key strategy in human resource management, has helped practitioners to raise the issue of motivation to a large extent for discussion. Steers, Mowday and Shapiro argued that employee motivation plays a vital role in management, both theoretically and practically. The goal of performance management is to improve the quality of work, productivity, and other business processes, but traditional approaches are constantly failing. In today's economy, many companies can no longer afford the luxury of using money as a motivational tool. The results of the study will help expand the view on the whole block of human resources management – activating employees, which includes the development and motivation of employees. Global changes in the labor market affect the needs of employees and form new tasks to solve.