3 steps to boost employee motivation in 2026

It's easy to see the drivers behind employee motivation as mysterious or difficult to grasp, but the truth is that decades of research proves that employers can create the environment for appreciation and motivation through three key factors: purpose, recognition and belonging.

As the Director of Insights at Reward Gateway | Edenred, I translate hard data into actionable insights for organisations of all sizes and across all industries to motivate and engage their employees.

We’ve been talking a great deal about appreciating employees – how you need to see and support their whole person. In our Appreciation Index report, we learned that the top impact of appreciation is a motivation to work harder. What are some specific ways you can drive this motivation?

3 steps to boost employee motivation

Research has shown that there are three areas of focus that employers can use to create the environment for true employee motivation. Here’s a quick snapshot:

1. Purpose:

"I understand how I make a difference on the team, for the customer, or for the company as a whole."

2. Recognition:

"I am recognised and appreciated as a person and for the work I do."

3. Belonging:

"I can build connections with the people I work with, especially my immediate boss or manager."

Employee motivation is critical to employee engagement, which leads to better business results and a more consistent customer experience. It’s something all leaders want for their organisations — so why aren’t more companies leading the way in motivating their people?

3 examples of how to boost employee motivation

Let’s take a look at three stories that help illustrate this further:

Connecting high-turnover teams to individual and company purpose

Higher than average turnover not only indicates there is a problem, but it can spiral quickly as remaining employees start questioning whether they’d be better off somewhere else, as well. This can quickly become a motivational sink hole — in which the culture starts to shift to employees clocking in and doing the bare minimum... but not much more than that.

First, it's important that managers get clear about the purpose or value of this team. How do they benefit the business? How do they help customers? Let’s use the example of a call centre: When the call centre team handles calls with respect and efficiency, they build customer loyalty, make the company look good and save supervisors time and stress generated from escalated calls.

Communicate and educate

In this case, the team’s manager should start with referencing the purpose of the team during onboarding, team meetings, in company-wide communications and in key recognition moments. Even better if senior leadership can visit (in-person or virtually) to reinforce this message.

Share moments in the spotlight

Once that message is out there, that’s just one step. Follow up communications by asking team members to share stories of when they or others acted in ways that supported that purpose – who delighted a customer? Who was able to de-escalate a challenging conversation?

Managers can ask for a story from the team each morning at shift huddle or at the end of a busy day before close. Patience is important here. If associates aren’t used to noticing great work, it may take time to build up this habit.

Managers should be prepared to share something they noticed (checking with the team first that it’s OK to share!) With enough of a spotlight, call centre teams will see how others across all shifts are making an effort to put best practice in action and deliver a consistently great experience.

Managers can take it a step further and consider nominating some of these team members for a special Employee of the Month award, connected to that particular value. Employees are happy, customers are happy, and the business benefits. What could be better?

Changing a demoralised, underperforming team using recognition

Picture this: You have a hard-working IT team that has tirelessly been working behind the scenes to update technology to meet new security requirements. They’re working with tons of stakeholders in the business to update processes, and they’ve been met with terse responses, or worse, been blown off completely.

Because of the lack of urgency on the company’s part, the team are at risk of failing the next security audit. The team’s manager notices this and decides to use recognition to share stories of how hard his team is working, and to highlight the long-term impacts to the business of this work (and maybe some potential impacts if the work doesn’t happen!).

Sharing these recognition moments in leadership meetings, all-staff meetings and online motivates not only the team, but also gains external support to help the company meet its deadline.

The bottom line: Sharing recognitions across departments can build understanding and collaboration and remove the “us vs. them” mentality that can destroy employee motivation and morale. Look for opportunities to recognise not just visible great work, but great work behind the scenes too.

Ask yourself, who do you know who does great work for the company but may be overlooked for recognition? What stories should the rest of the company know to improve results within and across teams?

As those stories are shared, employees have more reason to model those behaviours and go above and beyond.

We know from our Appreciation Index report that the top driver of employees feeling appreciated is being recognised by a manager. Your recognition program can’t succeed without manager and leadership buy-in. The more others see their supervisors or leadership team commenting or engaging with moments of recognition, the better. A comment added to a recognition post by a manager can sometimes be even more powerful than the original recognition.

Increasing belonging among larger teams

Let's next consider how you might manage the acquisition of a new team. They were brought onboard because they have something important to contribute, but the lack of certainty and unfamiliarity of this change can cause everyone to stop producing results.

In this case, it's always good to start with purpose, ensure everyone is aligned on the value the group brings. Next, don’t forget about recognition. As real stories of this team’s impact get shared, their pride will be reinforced. You could even create a specific eCard focused on inter-group communication and support.

Next, consider the people within the team, not just the roles they play. How can you involve the whole person in causes that are important to them? Perhaps a volunteering day during which groups work together to support a cause bigger than themselves.

Or getting some team members involved in your employee resource groups; a women’s network or multicultural network so they can find meaning in their work until the dust settles on the changes happening in their day-to-day.

Finally, our clients have found contests or challenges can provide a reason to chat outside of daily tasks and help people get to know each other. Step challenges are popular, but you can make them about mindful minutes to reinforce mental health strategies or drinking eight cups of water a day. The challenge is a means to let the group know the company cares about them as people, and a way for employees to build bridges.

How to boost motivation with strategic recognition 

Showing appreciation is the strongest currency in your corporate culture, and creating that environment (through recognition) is the most effective route to take for remarkable improvements.

Recognition is an essential part of creating a work environment where employees are able to feel motivated and committed — and yes, more engaged.

Unfortunately, our 2025 research showed that only 23% of Australian employees feel appreciated (down from 38% in 2024) with women (19%) and frontline workers (16%) feeling least appreciated. This is a critical challenge when you consider that this same research found that recognition and rewards is the number one driver of productivity with 43% of Australian employees saying that they feel more productive after receiving recognition. 

So, how can you make the most of your employee recognition efforts? Here's three easy steps to ensure your recognition is impactful and strategic: 

AVI Recognition

• Tell the action
• Connect to a focus area or value
• Share the impact

Recognising employees is one thing — and something can be better than nothing (in most cases), but if you follow these three steps, you make it more likely the recognition will be meaningful and motivating.

Here’s a look at how that works with Reward Gateway | Edenred:

Step 1: State the action in an eCard or a blog post

Detail the exact outcome or achievement that you want to spotlight. Remember, this could just be about celebrating progress, don't wait until the end of a project to recognise hard work and dedication. 

Step 2: Connect to a value by using tailored, branded eCards

Values should reflect what’s important to your business, and should be defined for your workforce so they know what good, great, and exceptional look like when it comes to their job.

If you don’t have defined values, consider recognising behaviour with eCards that celebrate what the person did. Cards such as “Congratulations!”, “Well Done”, or “Way to Go!” with a little extra detail can provide a boost of motivation. Check out the examples above from our client Knight Frank, which has seen a 95% participation rate across its business. Impressively, one employee is known for sending recognition every single day, which has had a measurable impact on his team’s engagement scores.

Step 3: Share the impact

Explain how this action (and the way it connects to your organisation's values) has helped the business move forward, whether it's a significant sale, a well-executed campaign, or an in-office celebration that brought people together. 

Want to design a recognition and reward program for your business? Our handy workbook takes you through a range of thought exercises to set you up for success: Your Essential Guide to Designing a Recognition and Rewards Program.

Final thoughts on employee motivation

I hope by now you understand the impact that creating the right kind of environment to drive motivation can have on your people and your business.

By equipping your managers and your workforce with the tools to motivate, engage, and appreciate one another, you’ll be well on your way to the business results we all want; lower turnover, increased productivity, and a better customer experience.

But it starts with the three pillars of motivation: purpose, recognition and belonging. The Reward Gateway | Edenred team are here to help you understand how to make these tactics actionable at your company to improve motivation at work. We offer the only employee engagement platform that puts communications at the core to amplify the impact of your initiatives — whether that’s to shine a spotlight on a team that needs it, drive better behaviours among the entire business or increase collaboration across employees.

Want to boost employee motivation and productivity in 2026? Our team of consultants can discuss your employee engagement challenges and discuss the solutions that can have a real impact on your people this year.