Ways to Increase Employee Morale and Motivation

Over the past two years, we have interviewed hundreds of people from around the world in a range of fields from parking lot attendants to CEOs of major companies. What motivates them? Recognition! People want to know that what they do every day matters and makes a difference. The key element in enhancing employee morale and

motivation is to recognize your employees.

There is a huge power in acknowledgment, recognition, and praise but it often makes us uncomfortable so we avoid it. Every time we avoid it, we rob ourselves and our organizations of the benefit it brings. On this worksheet you will find several tips and tools to help you start to increase the level of recognition in your organization.

Additional Activities

Acknowledgement list

Make a list of all your employees. At the end of each day or week, take note of one way in which each of them made your job easier. Be specific. At some point during the week take time to compliment them on the thing you noticed.

Weakly check-in

Go up to fellow employees at the end of each day or once a week and ask them what they would like to be recognized for. Recognize them for that. Note that you are trying something new. Be persistent. It will take several attempts before they will get used to it.

Acknowledgement wall

Take a pack of Post-It Notes out at a meeting and designate a wall where people can post anonymous compliments to fellow workers. Have them write the person’s name on the top of the note and the compliment on the inside. Compliments

can remain anonymous if the author wants.

Recognition line

Set-up of this exercise will depend on the size of the group. Line up two rows of chairs facing one another. Put one extra chair on one of the lines. Have people sit in the chairs facing one another. Instruct each person to spend 45 uninterrupted seconds complimenting the person sitting across from him. When the time is up the person listening then takes 15 seconds to summarize the compliments that were given. People rotate through the line until they have complimented and received compliments from everyone in the group.

10-A-Day

Personally take on complimenting 10 people a day. Note the impact this activity has on your general mood.

Your impact on others

Interview all of the people your employee works with. Collect quotes, comments and pictures from the individuals reflecting how that person positively impacts each person’s day. Write up the notes and present them to your employee showing him the impact of his actions on the people he works with.

Compliment List

Have everyone in your group write their name on a sheet of paper. Then taking one minute each, have each person write a compliment to each person on their sheet of paper. The take away is a list of compliments from every person in your group.

The 5 Minute Note

Take five minutes and write a handwritten note (no email) to let a team member, supervisor, or subordinate know the impact their efforts are having on your day-to-day experience.

What I am proud of

Have each employee write a list of ten things they are proud of at work. Have each person share their top five.