Wednesday 21 January 2015 saw the UK’s first ever Employee Motivation Day. It was all about boosting morale and motivating colleagues.
What does this mean to organisations and internal comms teams in particular? Well we know that happy employees lead to increased productivity and delighted customers. So it’s well worth a look.
The event was launched to help the nation’s organisations better understand the power of motivation by rewarding and incentivising those who matter – employees.
A recent survey by Argos for Business revealed that almost 60% of employees don’t feel motivated at work – that’s a shocking 17,753,800 British employees!
Employee Motivation Day encourages us to come up with something different in order to inspire and engage the people around us.
Argos for Business has partnered with the extraordinarily entertaining and inspiring Adrian Webster (@Polarbearpirate), leading motivational expert and speaker to help promote the cause. Adrian has been specialising for many years in motivating people at work in a humorous and completely unique, down to earth way. Motivating everyday people in the real world to step beyond the job spec and make the difference every single day.
Adrian talks about key ways to motivate, inspire and engage employees. In particular we loved his reminder of those little emotional engagers that make a very BIG difference…
The TNTs – Tiny Noticeable Things – that well established concept of miniature gestures that connect people together.
Importantly, to make it work you need to know your people.
The Timpson Test
Timpson, the key cutters/shoe repairers have used a rather unconventional and strategic approach to motivating their employees using The Timpson Test. Area managers are asked to take a test under exam conditions, answering questions about randomly selected employees – what are their hobbies? what do their partners do? what are the names of their children? where do they like to take their holidays? They must evidence that they’ve taken the time to get to know every team member. It’s a bold style that suited Timpson and their own challenges particularly well, achieving a fundamental aim – developing a happy, engaged workforce.
Powerful gestures
This is when the power of TNTs can really be unleashed. They’re tiny – but they’re highly explosive with the power to make instant impact. And the best thing about them, particularly for those who may be looking after teams on shoestring budgets is that they cost very little, often nothing at all.
There will be some that lend themselves particularly well to smaller teams, while others will be universally suitable. Consider little gestures like:
- Hand written thank you notes
- Sending birthday cards to employees’ children
- Allocating an hour of downtime when it’s needed most
- Having a colleague mentor another for an hour on a specific skill
- Handing out pay slips and thanking employees at the same time
- Congratulating an employee’s partner on a promotion
- Saying goodbye at the end of each day
- Ask your team what they really want – don’t assume – you may be surprised how easy it is to achieve the small but significant things
What are the TNTs you use to make a difference? How have they impacted your teams? Tweet us @Alivewithideas – We’d love to hear about them!
