This study aims to analyze the causal relationship between work motivation and job satisfaction on employee performance at PT XYZ, in response to the company’s recent decline in sales. This decline is believed to be due to low levels of employee job satisfaction and work motivation, which directly affect their performance. The research adopts a quantitative approach with a descriptive and causal design. The population consists of 516 employees of PT XYZ, with a sample size of 225 respondents calculated using the Slovin formula. Data analysis was conducted using Structural Equation Modeling—Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) with SmartPLS software. The results indicate that work motivation has a highly significant effect on job satisfaction (t-statistic = 14.525, p-value = 0.000), work motivation also significantly influences employee performance (t-statistic = 3.588, p-value = 0.000), and job satisfaction significantly affects employee performance (t-statistic = 14.107, p-value = 0.000). Furthermore, the study reveals that job satisfaction plays a significant mediating role between work motivation and employee performance (t-statistic = 9.011, p-value = 0.000). All hypotheses proposed in this study were accepted.