How to express gratitude and motivate your employees

Saying ‘thank you’ is essential for staff engagement, but here are specific ways for you to boost your colleagues’ self-esteem and inspire them to greater achievement. You’re welcome.

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Have you thanked your employees lately?

In her new book “The Gratitude Diaries, Janice Kaplan cites a London School of Economics paper analyzing more than 50 studies of what motivates people to work.

Researchers found that we give our best effort when:

Despite that, workplaces rank shockingly low among places where people are likely to express gratitude.

In a 2013 John Templeton survey of more than 2,000 full-time employees, 80 percent agreed that receiving gratitude for their work makes them work harder, but only 10 percent admitted to actually expressing gratitude to colleagues every day. More than 90 percent of employees felt that bosses who showed gratitude were more successful overall.

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