Employee Appreciation is Key for Morale

Dear S.L.,

Huge kudos to you for caring about this and wanting to take steps to encourage your team! It is unfortunate, but not uncommon, that large companies (and even some small ones) can neglect to recognize all of the people who work together to bring about an outcome. People do need recognition and confirmation they are doing a good job, and many managers undervalue the importance of this.

There are a couple of different strategies you could employ to give your team the boost they might need:

1. Make sure you are clear on your desired outcomes/success definition across the team. The more you can align what people are doing, and the progress they are making with the firm’s (and division) goals, the more people become engaged and feel that they are a part of something. If these are in place, do updates on a regular basis. If they aren’t, consider working with the team to set objectives everyone can agree upon.
2. Celebrate the “wins.” The wins don’t always have to be the big things, like bringing a large, new client on board. They could be as small as someone learning something new, trying something they were afraid of, or locating a resource within the firm. It could be just finding ways to have a good day or work together more effectively. Talking about wins is important, because it reminds people there are steps along the journey and that they don’t have to focus solely on the end destination. That’s a good life reminder, too!
3. Do fun things together. Have a contest about something — maybe a scavenger hunt, or a Jeopardy-type game or Bingo once a month. Make sure the contest is not so hard that some people can’t participate. Rather than make it a physical game, make it something easy that everyone can become engaged with. However, always make it a choice. Never force people to participate in something that is meant to be “fun.”
4. If you have the budget, buy pizza or bring donuts and coffee once a month. There is research that shows people often find free food to be a strong motivator. If you can structure it so everyone gets a break together and can enjoy the food while catching up and socializing, even better.
5. Pick a cause the group could get behind. Talk with your leadership about the possibility of giving everyone a day off to go clean up a park, or volunteer to read at a school, or serve meals at a soup kitchen. If you can’t get the day off for “free” ask the team if they’d be willing to take a PTO day in which everyone spends it together doing something enjoyable. Of course, this fully depends on your culture and if people would find it agreeable to use “personal time” to be together. You would never want to put your team in a difficult position where they feel they have to use their own time or they will get in trouble. The key thing is that you find a way to get out of the office and be together.
6. Consider having Secret Admirers. This is not a romantic concept. Rather, this would be an inbox or physical box where people can write something about a colleague whom they observed making a unique contribution to the team or executing a task in a particularly successful manner. At the end of each month, open the “box” and read the observations. Consider giving some sort of award — a gift card to Starbucks, a fancy pen, or a new mug, perhaps. Make it something nice that still doesn’t cost much. Again, I don’t want to see you paying for everything, so talk with your management about options once you have an idea of what you want to do.

Hopefully, these are some things to consider to get your team engaged and show them you are thinking about them and care about them — despite what your senior management does! If you can get management to endorse or pay for anything you might try to do, that will send the team as a whole a positive message that they are valued by management.

Dear Bev,

This is going to sound like a complaint that is coming from someone who is entitled, but last year I received a very large bonus from the advisor I work directly for. This year, he has told me his “family needs more money,” essentially warning me there won’t be as much coming my way.

I know a bonus is a choice, and I am paid fairly well with my salary. I want to be able to say my personal performance and recognition of this shouldn’t depend on whether his family needs more money. His son has a failed business, and I know he has invested quite a bit to keep it afloat, while his daughter just decided to go to medical school. I get it. I have four kids and expenses, too. It feels really lousy to be working even harder this year and getting less for it.

Anonymous

Dear Advisor Partner,

I hear this type of thing a lot. Either someone asks for a raise because their family “needs” it, or there isn’t extra money in the pot because of lifestyle expenses. Unfortunately, you are in a tough spot, because legitimately he doesn’t have to do anything. As you say, unless the bonus is clearly tied to performance and a specific percentage/number is stated, it is at his discretion. In the advisory space, the bonus is essentially his money, too. He can share what he wants, when he wants.

That said, I’m a proponent of addressing the elephant-in-the-room, so I recommend you bring this up to him. Something along the lines of: “I respect it is your money and your discretion as to whether and what you want to share. Know that I believe I am compensated fairly and I enjoy working with you. I have worked very hard this year to support you, and it feels uncomfortable to me to be receiving a smaller bonus even though there was nothing I could have done differently. Again, I respect your right to make the decision, but know that I feel badly about it.” Only do this if you can deliver it without accusation, sarcasm or anger. You need to be open and humble when you say this. I recommend practicing it in front of the mirror to see if you can be comfortable with it.

Other than showing him how this impacts you, there really isn’t a lot you can do. If this impacts you so much you are finding it hard to trust your advisor, it might be time to consider whether this is the right place for you over the longer term.

Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry, in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. The firm has won the Wealthbriefing WealthTech award for Best Training Solution for 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Beverly is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. She is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).

She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.

A message from Advisor Perspectives and VettaFi: Discover something new! Click here to register for our upcoming webcasts.

Read more articles by Beverly Flaxington