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National Employee Motivation Day and Explosive TNTs

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National Employee Motivation Day and Explosive TNTs

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!

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Emily Stoten — Head of Marketing, Selecta

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Sarah Crowdy — Campaign and Media Officer Communications, South East Water

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Sobha Varghese — Tata Consultancy Services

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DR ELENI ATHANASAKOS, Lead Paediatric Clinical Scientist — NHS Barts Health

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Kath Evans — Director of Children’s Nursing at Barts Health

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Louise Burnard, Head of Marketing and Communications UK — Be | Shaping the Future

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Dr Anna Batho — Clinical Psychologist – Critical Care, UCLH

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Georgia Beech — Internal Communications Specialist, Ocado Group

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Alana Khaytin, Communications Specialist — Braskem America

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Sara Langston, Patient Engagement & Marketing Manager — italk

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Steph Tranter, Hybrid Exec Coach & Psychologist — StephTranter.com

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Alexander Mills, Communications Manager — South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

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Jack Grasby — South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

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Emma Wright — South Yorkshire & Rescue

“We worked with the team at Alive to create our staff recognition video.
At a time like this, its never been more important to share the amazing work that our staff have done and continue to do on a daily basis under very difficult circumstances. We wanted to shout about this and recognise that when the time came, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue stepped up to the plate. We didn’t want an ordinary thank you post on social media or a basic email sent out internally, we wanted something special. Enter Alive. ”

Emma Wright — South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

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Jack Ford, Head of Marketing — streamGO

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Keren McCarron, Head of Corporate Affairs & Communications — KP Snacks

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Thank you so much. Incredible work done at incredible speed by incredible people.
Outstanding work as ever and what a turnaround. As for the concepts – wow. These are that good it would be an insult to describe them as just good. It’s a joke, quite frankly. This is exactly the Alive effect I was after. Right now I feel like I am living in an Alive With Ideas wonderland. Thank you!”

Jack Grasby, Campaigns Manager — SYFR

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Amy Lilja, IC Manager — Hennepin Healthcare

“Alive were there to help when we were working every hour to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. They gave us the creativity, ideas and support we needed to deliver campaigns which empowered our residents in the most difficult time most of us have ever seen, personally and professionally. The team understood what we needed, worked closely with us and delivered fast without any compromise on quality. Working with Alive has been a joy in the darkest of times and I have no doubt will have helped to save lives. Thanks team x”

Julie Odams, Assistant Director of Communications & Customers — Derbyshire County Council

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Gavin Buckle — B&Q
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