Encouragement for Employees

Get motivated every day — Literally. 365 Ways to Motivate and Reward Your Employees Every Day: With Little or No Money, published by Atlantic Publishing, includes advice from real-life companies about how to retain your best workers and keep morale and productivity high even when raises, bonuses and other monetary incentives are limited or totally off the table.

Quint Studer’s Results That Last: Hardwiring Behaviors That Will Take Your Company to the Top (Wiley, $24.95) teaches employers how to create and use a Standards of Behavior contract to boost morale, customer satisfaction, and profitability. He recommends that organizations: seek input from all employees in creating the document, align desired behaviors with desired outcomes so success is measureable, be very specific in wording, hold a ceremonial Standards of Behavior "roll out" where everyone, from CEO to receptionist, signs it, then hold people accountable when they violate a standard. Once the standards are in place, Studer recommends creating a designated "Standard of the Month to keep them top-of-mind, update the Standards of Behavior to adapt to changing circumstances, and have new applicants sign it right up front, even before they’re interviewed.

"Don’t assume people will feel that you’re infringing on their rights when you create a set of behavioral rules," says Studer. "Most of them are as irritated by the offenders as you and your customers are. Besides, most people appreciate having ‘official guidelines’ — it eliminates their own confusion as well as that of their coworkers. If you don’t spell out which behaviors are acceptable and which are not, you can’t hold people accountable for them."