One of the biggest risks to your project is that one or more team members leave at a time that has a big impact on your staff liquidity… on your ability to deliver your current and future BVIs.
The best way to manage this risk is to make sure your team do not want to leave.
It is important to understand that the factors that cause people to leave are not the same as those that motivate them. All project managers should make sure they have read the classic Harvard Business Review article by Herzberg “How do you motivate Employees?“. They should also understand Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Without an understanding of both, you may be attempting to retain or motivate your staff in a way that suits yourself but does not suit them.
Of course, the most effective way to find out how your team feel is to talk to them and genuinely listen to their grievances or concerns.
The IT Risk Manager 
June 23rd, 2011 at 12:47 pm
Two links that I found helpful regarding the topic of motivation:
An enlightening article by Bob Sutton, why it’s even more important to remove negative aspects in the work environment than to create good experiences:
http://blogs.hbr.org/sutton/2010/09/bad_is_stronger_than_good_evid.html
And here’s a simple way to get to know everyone’s happiness:
http://scrum.jeffsutherland.com/2010/11/happiness-metric-wave-of-future.html
Jeff Sutherland claims that the happiness metric is a great predictor of future success.