Quirky Ways to Engage Your Employees

When it comes to motivating and engaging with your employees, sometimes it takes more than asking them about their weekend. Many managers and company directors dodge the unconventional ways of motivating employees as it seems a little silly and can appear counter-productive. However, little do they know that these cheap, unorthodox and strange activities can have lasting benefits to the employees, the company, and the bottom-line!

1. Hold fun monthly contests between departments. 

This can range from the most creatively decorated area, an ultimate cook-off, through to who can stack the highest tower of Oreos. Don’t forget to reward the winning team!

2. Keep a running game! 

Place a game of Chess, Checkers or a quiz in the tea room, and keep everybody interacting instead of sitting in silence during their breaks.

3. Celebrate birthdays, holidays, and occasions.

Personally create little company gifts, or better yet, match departments to get them to organise a collective surprise for another team. Set some grounds rules, as well as a nominal budget per department, and let them be as creative as they want!

4. Get suggestions. 

Instead of trying to guess what your team wants, place little check-box slips with events and ideas and get all individuals to number what they want most.

5. Celebrate success!

Make a habit of celebrating the smallest of achievements. Secured a big client or important contract? Get a cake! Increased the base of email subscribers by 5%? Have some chocolate!

6. Survival simulation games.

If you are on a boat that breaks down and only have limited resources, how will your team cope? Situational simulations are great ways to get all members interacting with each other and thinking like a team.

7. Daggy-dress day. 

Get all members to wear one completely outrageous and hideous accessory to the office. Capture it with a camera and stick it up on a cork board. This is a sure way to get people to lighten up and crack a smile.

8. Fact of the day. 

Assign each member a day; ask them to find a fact and to write it up on the white-board in the morning.

9. Start the weekend sooner.

According to a survey conducted by British Airways, productivity levels rapidly decline at 2:39pm on a Friday. Make it clear to your employees that you don’t expect them to be as productive on a Friday afternoon, and they are free to leave if they wish (provided of course that they’ve completed the required tasks for the week!). This may lead to employees working harder and faster throughout the week in order to leave early on Friday afternoons.

10. Be weird and crazy. 

Blast ‘Eye of the Tiger’ from your office when you’re feeling unmotivated or ‘I Will Survive’ when teams are feeling tense. Foster a supportive work environment, and show that you trust that everyone can ‘bounce back’ from a rough day.

11. Scheduled breaks. 

These may seem counter-productive, but being tired causes people to be less productive and creative. Giving employees a break for a quick power-nap or to meditate allows people to rejuvenate, regain their energy, and be able to think more creatively.

There’s a whole list of things that haven’t been mentioned – but these are sure to get you started! Little fun changes in the workplace can help lift unwanted pressure off your workers, and create a more fun, productive, stress-free and creative environment. It builds the team up, allows them to be more supportive, to feel supported, and to stay motivated and committed to the company. If you can get your employees truly committed to the company, you can be sure to trust that they’ll do the best by you. 



Alignment between a company's culture and its employees is also essential to ensure that your staff are operating in an environment they feel comfortable in and can engage with. To work out whether the employees you hire have the potential to fit your company's culture, use a Psychometric Assessment! To find out more about how Psychometric tests can help your organisation see how Psychometric Assessments can help your hiring decisions. If you are interested in learning more about Psychometric Assessments, please speak with Dr. Gavin Didsbury or a consultant from our assessment partner PsychPress who provide a variety of psychometric assessment solutions. Please call on (03) 9670 0590 or email info@psychpress.com.au.

3 steps to prevent work procrastination

Procrastination is the bane of human existence. Everyone has done it before and no doubt we have all done it at work, but why do we do it? Procrastination is characterised by high impulsivity and low conscientiousness and ultimately induces stress. Often people confuse procrastination with prioritisation by convincing themselves that the current work they’re doing isn’t their top priority. However, this is a common pitfall and we must learn to recognise whether or not we are actually prioritising or procrastinating.

Here are some handy tips to help prevent you from procrastinating at work: 

• Recognise the signs

One of the first signs that you’re about to let yourself procrastinate is what we like to call “Priority Conditions”.

One of the big red flags of procrastination is the use of this sentence “If I do [e.g. drink a cup of coffee] first, then I can start my work”. However, we all know that several cups of coffee later we still won’t have started. This line of thinking can create a vicious cycle of non-working as we created our own mental hurdle that we constantly make more difficult to justify not working. Does this relieve our anxiety about doing our work? Certainly not.

Suggested Solution: Once you recognise these 'Priority Conditions', you can then try to reverse the conditional order to ensure the right tasks are being prioritised first. Rather than “If I do [e.g. drink a cup of coffee] first, then I can start my work”, instead try “If I do my work for an hour, then I can reward myself with a cup of coffee”. This way we allow ourselves to create obtainable goals with a foreseeable break. This will reduce our stress levels and create a structure where we can start to get ourselves organised.

• Start small

We all know that taking on too much at once is a sure fire way to make it collapse, especially in a multitasking work environment. Set small goals and you’ll find yourself making slow and steady progress until, before you know it, you’re an efficient and effective worker again. Small scale goals, such as “in one hour I will do what I can and then take a break”, will reduce your work stress and increase your work satisfaction. Once this becomes easy, begin increasing the time so that you maximise the productivity of your work day. If it ever gets too much to handle, remember to pull it back one step until you are comfortable again.

• Repeat the changed behaviour as much as you can

The more that you work on doing something, the more likely it is to become wired in your brain. This is not something that will change overnight, however, with repetition and effort you can change your work behaviours over time and maximise your productivity.

So, if you feel yourself prioritising pointless tasks over the work needed to be done, take heed! Think of the stress you can prevent, not to mention the productivity you will gain, from simply recognising these signs and setting small goals for yourself.

As well as improving your productivity, there are also systems available to enhance your work environment and satisfaction. Psych Press has numerous assessments available that can pinpoint workplace issues and use organisational psychology to track down the best solutions for your human function. View Psych Press' Climate Survey or alternatively talk to one of their psychologists at 03 9670 0590