20 Simple Ways to Increase Motivation in the Workplace

Let's face it: the world of work has changed. While we could argue that we never were motivated by anniversary plaques and gold watch retirement gifts, it's become vital that employers understand what their employees truly want—and need—from them in order to expect greatness.

So what does motivate employees? Let's think about it in terms of key relationships at work.

• Employees want to feel connected to the company they work for. They want to feel aligned with the company values and excited about the company mission. They also want their employer to recognize their hard work and key accomplishments.
• Employees want to feel connected to their coworkers. In the age of distributed and remote work, it's crucial that employees still have organic and meaningful ways to build camaraderie, connections, and relationships with their peers.
• Employees want to feel connected to their manager. A good manager can make or break a career. Workers value a relationship where their manager recognizes their strengths and helps them develop and grow.

It’s normal for employees to face dips in motivation, but it becomes a problem when your colleagues are consistently disengaged. In fact, Gallup recently reported that employees who are not engaged cost the world $7.8 trillion in lost productivity.

Employees who are not engaged or who are actively disengaged cost the world $7.8 trillion in lost productivity, according to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace Report. That's equal to 11% of global GDP.

If that's not enough, the most recent report from Gallup found that a majority of the world's workers are currently disengaged, and half are looking to leave.

That's why we gathered some helpful tips from experts on how to motivate your employees to help increase employee engagement and experience productivity and retention gains.

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--> The result of highly-motivated employees? Better performance. Learn more about the role motivation plays in effective performance management.

What is work motivation?

Before we dive in, let's head back to basics. Work motivation is the drive that compels employees to maximize their work efforts and overall performance. Learning how to motivate a worker requires an understanding of basic psychology (remember, employees are humans!). You’ll also need to familiarize yourself with the various types of motivational forces, including extrinsic and intrinsic motivators. 

And, it’s about more than just getting the job done and checking off things on the to-do list. Motivated individuals have a higher drive to showcase their expertise, grow into and beyond their role, and maximize performance and work output. 

Driven employees are fueled by a variety of internal and external factors, including social and culture-centric motivators. Learning what drives your workers can help you achieve higher output across your entire workforce while encouraging a culture and behaviors that support long-term business goals. 

The role of motivation in achieving goals

Motivation plays a key role in setting all sorts of different goals. Whether someone is passionate about learning and studying or wants to climb up the corporate ladder and a have a financially comfortable life, these desires are what guide their day-to-day efforts. 

The field of psychology has developed many different theories about the connection between someone’s behavior and what motivates them. A person’s level and type of motivation can help them achieve a wide range of positive outcomes, from learning a new skill to doing well at basic work tasks.

Every employer should study the theory of motivation, as it will help them mobilize their workforce and maximize productivity. Increasing the level of desire someone has to perform well will lead to tangible benefits for the individual, their co-workers, and the business itself.  

Types of work motivation 

As we said before, there are many psychological theories about motivation. However, most of them can be boiled down to intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. 

Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation 

An intrinsic motivator comes from within. It’s someone’s drive to engage in work because they find it inherently interesting or enjoyable. 

Think of a time when you read an entire novel in a weekend. You were intrinsically motivated to complete it because you enjoyed the story! Conversely, let’s say that you were assigned reading material as part of a college class, and you dragged your feet to complete the assignment. In this scenario, your intrinsic motivation was low because you weren’t interested in the book.

Fortunately, external motivators can help us be productive when the internal drive is low. An extrinsic motivator drives people to perform tasks to earn rewards or avoid negative consequences. These rewards can include money, promotions, or praise. In the reading example, your external motivator would be obtaining a good grade and getting one step closer to obtaining your degree. 

20 ways to increase work motivation

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to make your team more motivated. Instead, you’ll need to combine several techniques that align with your team's interests, needs, and preferences. Here are several great ways to get your team excited about doing their best.

These tips aren't specific to any industry, and most of them are either low or no cost. They can be applied in small establishments, franchises, startups, and Fortune 500 companies.

Let's get started with one that has the potential to change everything: recognition.

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1. Recognize great work

One of the most important factors that contribute to employee motivation is how often their hard work gets recognized. 70% of employees say that motivation and morale would improve massively with increased recognition from managers. After all, if an employee produces exceptional results but their hard work isn't recognized, why would they continue to be a high-performing employee?

Bonus points: there are other critical benefits of employee recognition including improved working relationships, employee engagement, retention, and even empathy. 💚

It's not just important to recognize great work. How you recognize your team's contributions has a significant impact. Employee recognition shouldn’t just be an annual bonus at the end of the year—it should be meaningfully and frequently given.

Meghan M. Biro shared excellent advice on effective recognition. Here's one of our favorite tips:

Money is appropriate much of the time, but it’s not the only—or even the most effective—motivator. Treat employees as valued team members, not as numbers.

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2. Build a sense of belonging

Building a sense of belonging at work significantly enhances employee motivation by fostering emotional connection, trust, and purpose. When employees feel valued and included, they develop intrinsic motivation, becoming more driven to perform because their work feels meaningful. This emotional bond makes routine tasks more enjoyable and aligns personal goals with the company’s mission, inspiring employees to engage more deeply.

Belonging also promotes psychological safety, encouraging employees to share ideas and take risks! It creates a collaborative atmosphere where  motivation and positive reinforcement drive engagement and discretionary effort. Employees are more likely to go the extra mile, knowing they are part of a supportive team.

Additionally, a strong sense of belonging minimizes burnout and builds resilience by providing social and emotional support during challenges. It makes feedback more constructive, helping employees maintain a growth-oriented mindset. Ultimately, belonging boosts motivation by creating an environment where employees feel trusted, appreciated, and connected to a greater purpose.

3. Celebrate results

Part of what makes setting small and measurable goals so important is that it provides plenty of opportunities to celebrate your team’s hard work.

This doesn't mean you need to give a standing ovation to every employee who made it to work on time—but it is crucial to let everyone know exactly how (and how much) each of their contributions moves the organization forward.

Be specific in your applause. Don't just tell Marie "good job." Don't even stop at "great job on the new email campaign!" Applaud her success and when you do, tie her to the greater picture. For example: "Great job on that new email campaign—it’s going to really grow our community and nurture our customer pipeline."

4. Encourage teamwork

Teamwork is one of the greatest motivators out there. Knowing that your colleagues have your back and are your cheerleaders is an amazing feeling. When your motivation dips, your teammates are right there with you, rooting for you as you complete your next project. 🎊

In fact, 54% of employees say a strong sense of community (think: awesome coworkers, celebrating milestones, working toward a common mission) was a big reason they have stayed at an organization. Plus, organizations that communicate effectively are 4.5x more likely to retain the best employees.

One of the best ways to encourage teamwork is to start at the foundation with a working agreement. Working agreements are guidelines created by a team to set group expectations, provide ways to collaborate, and establish a positive team atmosphere.

5. Strengthen connections

As we stated at the top of the article, employees crave all different types of connections and relationships at work.

Feeling connected to others at work boosts motivation by fostering strong interpersonal relationships and creating a sense of community. When employees feel emotionally connected to their colleagues, they experience greater trust and camaraderie, which makes collaboration more enjoyable and engaging. This social bond encourages teamwork and accountability, driving individuals to perform better not just for themselves but for the success of the group.

Connection at work also enhances psychological safety, giving employees the confidence to share ideas, take risks, and seek help when needed. This openness leads to stronger problem-solving and a willingness to go beyond basic responsibilities, as people feel supported by their team. Knowing they are part of a cohesive network motivates employees to take initiative and contribute actively.

Moreover, meaningful workplace connections reduce feelings of isolation and stress, fostering emotional well-being and resilience. When employees know they have others to rely on during challenges, their motivation to persevere increases. In short, feeling connected at work creates a positive feedback loop where mutual support, trust, and shared purpose drive higher engagement and performance.

6. Show what good looks like

Exemplifying what “good” and high-performance look like drives motivation by setting clear standards and expectations for success. When employees see tangible examples of excellence, they understand what behaviors, skills, and outcomes are valued within the organization. This clarity gives them a roadmap to follow, helping them align their efforts with the company’s goals and inspiring them to perform at their best.

Visible examples of high performance also create a sense of aspiration. Employees are more likely to push themselves when they have role models or benchmarks to emulate, fostering a healthy sense of competition and personal growth. Recognizing and celebrating these examples reinforces positive behaviors, encouraging others to adopt similar habits and mindsets.

Additionally, showcasing high-performance behaviors cultivates a culture of continuous improvement. Employees become motivated to develop new skills and seek feedback to refine their performance. Knowing what “good” looks like also fosters confidence, as employees feel more equipped to meet expectations and contribute meaningfully to the organization’s success.

7. Turn good managers into great coaches

A manager who acts as a great coach positively impacts employee motivation by fostering growth, building trust, and offering effective support. Coaching-oriented managers focus on developing their team members' strengths and helping them overcome challenges, which boosts employees’ confidence and competence. When employees feel that their manager is invested in their success, they are more motivated to engage fully and perform at their best.

Great coaches provide constructive feedback that is framed as an opportunity for improvement, not criticism. This helps employees adopt a growth mindset, motivating them to continuously learn and take on new challenges. Additionally, coaching managers set clear, achievable goals, guiding employees through their progress while celebrating milestones along the way.

By empowering employees rather than micromanaging, coaching managers foster autonomy and accountability, which further drives motivation. Employees feel trusted and supported, knowing they have a safe space to seek guidance and take risks. Ultimately, a great coach helps employees unlock their potential, creating an environment where they are motivated to learn, grow, and contribute meaningfully.

8. Stay healthy

This brings us to our next topic: staying healthy. As we learned in our interview with Button's Stephen Milbank, sharing is caring, but not if what you’re sharing is germs.

When you’re ill, take a sick day! It's unlikely that you'll be getting any of your best work done when you can hardly hold your head up, and not taking the time to rest will only prolong your sickness and prevent your body from recovering.

Make sure the policies you're instituting aren't keeping people from taking the time they need to stay healthy. Think about the way you approach time off, medical benefits, and employee wellness. The stress and frustration from worrying about taking sick time can lead to disengagement and cost companies across the world billions of dollars each year.

A generous time-off policy or options for more flexible schedules or remote work might seem expensive at face value, but it can actually save your company quite a lot of money in lost productivity, poor attendance, and suboptimal engagement.

9. See and share the big picture

A large part of understanding the purpose behind your work is seeing how it fits into the larger picture. You can help boost motivation in the workplace by ensuring your team understands how each of their efforts impacts the organization, customers, and the community.

Completing a task usually provides a small sense of accomplishment, but knowing how that work helped others is the real antidote to disengagement.

Need more proof? Check out Zach Mercurio's talk on meaningful work:

10. Be transparent

Every relationship, including work relationships, is built on trust. Defaulting to transparency is one of the best ways to encourage an atmosphere of trust between you and your team and a team that trusts you will be more motivated and engaged with their work.

Transparency also helps ensure that everyone is working with the same information. That in itself can benefit the team.

11. Provide clarity

In order to be motivated about your work, it’s crucial that you actually understand what your goals and objectives are. For many employees, that understanding starts with transparency in the workplace and ends with clarity. Without clarity, transparency begins to lose its effectiveness and motivational power.

Make sure you're giving everyone a clear and concise mission they can get motivated about in the first place because it's nearly impossible to invest genuine motivation into something you're unaware of, or confused about.

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--> The result of highly-motivated employees? Better performance. Learn more about the role motivation plays in effective performance management.

12. Envision and share positive outcomes

It's easier to achieve success when you can envision it. Professionals of all types, from athletes to musicians and CEOs, all practice this technique to improve their motivation. Luckily, if you're providing a clear objective, you're already more than halfway there.

Help the team understand what it would mean to achieve that objective. When someone makes real progress toward that objective or outcome, share that progress as a source of motivation for everyone.

13. Find purpose

Although it's commonly stated that millennial employees are motivated by purposeful work, that's really true of most employees. Purpose is a vital factor in employee motivation and it starts with finding meaning in the work they do every day.

Erica Dhawan explains in an article about motivation she wrote for The Muse. She describes why it's so important to take time to explain the purpose behind the work you do:

Another key to staying motivated is knowing that the work you’re doing makes a difference in some way—recognizing the impact you’re making on your clients, company, or the world.

Looking to build stronger, more engaged, and motivated teams this year and beyond?
->  Download the Free Guide: 3 Steps to Building Engaged, Resilient Teams

14. Loosen the reins

Autonomy and flexible work schedules are incredibly effective motivators. Giving employees more agency around when and how they get their work done can actually improve their efficiency, and help keep them motivated.

In her article for Monster.com, Roberta Matuson provides a great framework for getting started on the path of employee autonomy:

Tell your employees what needs to be done by what deadline; allow them to decide when they will do the actual work. For some, that may mean coming in early; for others that might involve working on the weekend.

The key here is that you're giving employees the freedom to work on their projects when their motivation is strongest, not just when they're in the workplace.

Giving employees more control over their work also helps eliminate one of the worst enemies of motivation in the workplace: micromanagement. It can also help employees build resilience.

15. Provide a sense of security

We're not talking about hiring a bouncer for your office (although you should make sure your employees feel safe at your workplace!). We’re talking about employees feeling secure enough to show their full selves at work.

Psychological theory suggests that there is a hierarchy of basic needs that people require before they can be motivated to reach their full potential. Security falls right beneath physiological needs like food and water.

Once employees feel secure, they're more likely to be motivated to reach and further stretch their potential.

16. Power pose

Your posture not only says a lot about your motivation levels—it can actually impact them. Amy Cuddy gave an outstanding TED presentation about what your own body language can tell you, and how it affects your mood, your work, and your interactions with others.

Take a moment to think about your own posture, and the postures you're seeing around the workplace. What are they saying? If what they're saying isn't positive, try experimenting with different postures, and see how they impact your overall motivation.

17. Offer small, consistent rewards

Rewarding employees for their hard work is a motivational rule that nearly goes without saying. However, there are several ways to go about doing that, and some are more effective than others.

Annual bonuses are a common way many employers reward employees for their hard work. Unfortunately, they don't often provide the motivation they're designed to. An annual bonus perceived as routine, disappointing, or unfair can even damage motivation in the workplace.

Providing smaller, more consistent rewards is a great way to boost motivation consistently over time.

18. Change the scenery

Sometimes a small shift in scenery can provide a big shift in motivation. If it's possible, think about how the environment your team works in impacts motivation. If there aren't many sources of natural light coming in, it might be valuable to step outside together from time to time.

Spending even a few moments in different surroundings can provide a new perspective, and often a noticeable boost in motivation. Consider taking your team on an offsite or retreat for some team bonding, and notice how their spirits could lighten after a day working outside of the office. ☀️

19. Practice and promote mindfulness

Taking time out of your day to slow down and practice mindfulness might sound like it would negatively impact productivity, but in many cases, the opposite is true.

Many of us work in jobs where stress is a matter of course, but as the Harvard Business Review staff explains in their article Mindfulness in the Age of Complexity, "Stress is not a function of events; it’s a function of the view you take of events."

Embracing mindfulness at work can improve productivity and motivation by providing the perspective we need to see that.

20. Have fun!

Not every task at work is going to feel like a day at Six Flags. That's okay. What's not okay is having a team that feels like every day is a slog. You don't need a ping pong table or a kegerator in your office to make work fun. Find little bits of fun in everyday activities (give a weekly ice breaker a shot!) and focus on what it is that makes working in your organization great.

You and your team will be amazed at how motivating a little bit of fun can be.

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--> The result of highly-motivated employees? Better performance. Learn more about the role motivation plays in effective performance management.

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How do you measure motivation?

Okay! Now that you have ideas for how to increase motivation, how do you know your strategies are working? Measuring motivation at the individual level can indeed be tricky. You’ll need a strong understanding of psychology and performance theories.

One approach is to ask individuals to rate their own level of motivation. However, the results of these surveys can be unreliable, as a person’s response could be impacted by company culture, social factors, life events, and their mood that day. 

Another method involves observing behavior. Study the expertise and actions of your team over time. Are they performing better than they did last month? If so, their motivation may be higher. However, ensuring the accuracy of this method takes time. You’ll need to focus on learning what’s a baseline for your team members and keep an eye out for any deviations.

If a top performer suddenly starts missing deadlines, figure out why. Quickly resolving motivation issues can help prevent attrition and get your best employees back to their normal, productive selves. 

Myths about work motivation

While you should strive to maximize employees’ drive to perform at their best, you must be wary of some common motivation myths. One of the biggest involves throwing money at people in hopes of motivating them. Financial incentives are important, but they aren’t the only factor at play.

Another myth is that motivation is constant. In reality, a person’s drive can fluctuate based on factors such as workload, culture, and personal events. It’s also a myth that only high-stakes projects are motivation. Smaller tasks that seem meaningful can also drive workers to put forth their best effort. 

Sustaining workplace motivation

Getting people excited about what they are working on is only part of the equation. You need to keep their drive high day in and day out. Use the strategies we outlined above to show your team that what they are doing is valuable and purposeful. 

Maintain a healthy work-life balance and continue to be open and transparent with your team. If something seems awry with one of your top performers, figure out why and demonstrate that you care about their well-being. Taking some time to address your team’s concerns can go a long way in keeping motivation high.

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Bravo, you made it through the list! 👏

It seems like you’re really motivated to improve motivation at your workplace. Your team is lucky to have someone who cares about them and wants to help them be more meaningfully engaged with their work.

Read more about how Bonusly motivates employees, and sign up for your free trial.

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