The present article deals with issues related to staff motivation. We start from the idea that a motivated staff, devoted to professional activity and directed towards accomplishing the institution mission, is one of the success factors in ensuring optimal individual and organizational performance. Salary is what motivates and supports the work of an employee in the most powerful and practical way. However, a salary increase is not always enough to make the employees to work harder or be happier at work. On the other hand, the salary can not be increased forever. Starting from this, we showed the importance of non-financial factors (those forms of reward or incentive which do not involve direct grant of money) in motivating staff and getting higher performances. As research object was the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova, an institution directed towards respecting the ethical principles and values, promoting a customer-oriented attitude. We found that the institution ensures an organizational climate based on democratic principles, which fosters that employee personality manifestation, with positive effects on themselves and the institution as a whole. Employees are informed of the rules and regulations of the organization.