Sixty (plus) Ways to Motivate Event Staff

Asked about how many employees worked for him, an experienced facility manager replied, "About half of them."

No facility manager can develop a successful guest relations program without good event staff morale, anymore than he or she could build a brick wall without mortar. An unhappy, idle staff, will be recognized as such by all guests and will affect each guest’s entertainment experience.

If the process of motivating event staff is so basic to managing them, why is it such a mysterious topic?

The answer is that motivating event staff is a multi-faceted issue involving relationships of trust and loyalty that must develop over time. No single thing a manager can say or do will motivate employees, and no one awards program is a panacea that will magically create high morale.

When supervising an event staff comprised of low-wage employees or volunteers, money isn’t the main motivator. They can easily find another job with equivalent pay. People will stay with you because they feel respected, appreciated, and because their job is fun.

The key to having a high morale and highly motivated event staff lies in how they are supervised.

First, hire the right people. One key is to recruit in numbers adequate to allow selectivity. For example, to hire five people try interviewing 15 people before making your decision. You’ll have the luxury of determining which five are the best rather than interviewing only five and trying to decide whether you can live with them or not.

During the selection interview, show the candidate a job description. Explain the negatives, i.e., working the show vs. watching the show, and get their commitment that they want to work. They will never be more motivated to do as you say than they are at the moment of hire.

Second, provide new hires a complete orientation before their first event. Morale forms before their first event. Beyond having them know the essentials of policies and procedures, employee handbook, job description, organization chart, uniform, name badge, reporting procedures, etc., your orientation goal for new employees is for them to feel proud to be a member of your professional organization. They should believe in your policies and procedures and that they will be professionally coached and supervised by trained supervisors.

The third key is continuous effective training. Don’t confuse orientation with training. Training involves developing employees’ skills and having them make the transition from knowing what to do to being able to do it. They can develop skills by learning strategies, reviewing sample verbiage and role-playing guest greetings, role-playing responses to guests’ questions and complaints, role-playing interventions and so on. Frequently students or younger employees are reluctant to proactively address guest problems (smoking, changing seats, profanity), and they may lack tact when they do approach guests. By rehearsing their words for these situations during training role-plays, all employees will be much more confident on the job. Employee self-confidence makes their jobs easier, which contributes to improved morale.

Fourth, even well trained staff requires competent challenging supervision by trained supervisors. Frequently, part time event supervisors are former event staff who have been promoted by longevity or exemplary attendance. They may bring no prior supervisory experience from other jobs and will model their supervisor behaviors after their own parenting habits or the observed behaviors of other supervisors. Train them to do their jobs and to reinforce the good behaviors of event staff. Train them to evaluate performance and to give coaching feedback in a positive manner. Train them to conduct correctional conferences with under-achieving employees so as not to reduce employees’ self-esteem or morale. An additional benefit of having trained, competent supervisors is having an event staff that can give feedback to supervisors and ask questions and advice of supervisors without fear of retribution or ridicule.

Fifth, although award and reward programs provide fun and tangible recognition, the programs by themselves do not result in high staff morale. The bottom line is that developing a dedicated and motivated event staff is a result of how your people are supervised.

There is an important difference between awards and rewards:

Awards may be won through contests or voted upon by management or peers, i.e., upper level usher of the month. Winning an award is not entirely within the control of an employee, and only one employee or a very few will win.

Rewards are earned by individual employees’ actions, such as attendance or punctuality prizes. The employee controls the necessary behaviors to win, and everybody who meets the reward criteria will win the reward.

Most recognition programs include a blend of awards and rewards. If you recognize only top performers through awards such as employee or volunteer of the month, only your top performers will win. Employees who think that an award is unattainable will not be motivated to change their behaviors. The bulk of your employees, the solid employees who show up for every event and do their jobs, may never win an award. Therefore, your recognition program should also include rewards for performances achievable by everyone.

6. Learn names and call everyone by name
7. When someone does something well, tell them about it, congratulate them
8. Write personal congratulatory notes
9. Give recognition freely
10. Say "Thank you" for something they’ve done
11. Be sure staff understand your facility mission and goals so that they can appreciate the thank you's
12. Actively listen, make eye contact, reflect back what they say.
13. Recognize important events in people’s lives
14. Mention them and something they did well at pre-event meetings
15. Give constant praise
16. Train supervisors always to maintain positive upbeat attitude
17. Be available after pre-event meetings for personal questions
18. Arrange for your superior to acknowledge other’s work
19. Repeat compliments from others
20. Ask about other’s interests
21. Invite someone to join you on break
22. Share information
23. Give reasons for directions
24. Talk one-on-one when time permits
25. Ask for opinions on how to solve problems or improve practices
26. Create an employee quality council to meet monthly or quarterly to suggest improvements
27. Share experiences
28. Offer corrective suggestions in private
29. Emphasize that they are the special few qualified to do what they do, take pride in their work
30. Reinforce the importance of their job
31. Keep them informed of facility happenings and policies
32. Report findings of customer surveys to them
33. Write personal thank you notes
34. Lead by example
35. Assign enough staff to an event that staff doesn’t feel overworked or taken advantage of
36. Provide attractive uniforms
37. Arrange occasional photo with a star
38. Be visible
39. Have and show concern for them
40. Empower them to make decisions on the front line to take pride in "their" building
41. Have the facility director speak to staff occasionally to give a "state of the facility" address
42. Provide tickets to an event
43. Send a birthday card with your signature
44. Give of yourself; have coffee in the event staff break room and talk to people
45. Sit with new employees and those you don’t know by name
46. Have supervisors occasionally distribute free lunch coupons to hand out on the spot to employees doing a good job, or "Attaboy" and "Attagirl" redeemable certificates
47. Create "Certificates of Appreciation" with your word processor and special certificate paper
48. Make up awards for standard as well as special one-time occurrences: safety award, great idea award, tactfulness, training completion, maintaining your cool in the face of an irate guest, patron courtesy, assistance to co-workers, working through a break at a tough event, doing something "fan friendly"
49. Schedule family photo sessions by your facility photographer
50. Give facility or team logo items—T-shirts, gym bags, mugs, pens, remaining event giveaway items
51. Supply surprise free dessert or other food item in break room at an event
52. Walk around with an instant camera and take candid photos of employees working; post photos publicly, and let employees take them home at the end of the week
53. Divide employee of the month awards into various employee categories, and in large facilities, divide them again by seating levels or quadrants.
54. Provide recognition to employees of the month on the court or field, and provide four tickets for friends and family to be present
55. Affix permanent stars for their name badges symbolizing award winner
56. Provide memberships in a local health club to employees as a service award
57. Add employee news to your facility newsletter including births, marriages, illnesses, anniversaries, etc.
58. Acknowledge anniversaries at pre-event meetings
59. Award plaques for 1, 5, 10 years, etc., of service
60. Draw names of employees with perfect attendance for a month. Select ten people to receive a $10 bonus.
61. Provide in-house scrip, i.e., Mets Money, Braves Bucks, Cubs Cash, etc., as a cash substitute for an award
62. Treat staff like family; remember the Golden Rule
63. Hold annual staff and family picnic or holiday party, or skate on the ice, etc.
64. Plan a staff pizza party rewarding a long day, a tough event, or tough event week

Reprinted from Facility Manager, July-August 1999