How Can I Get My Employees to Work Harder?
Motivation, Accountability, and the Right Incentives

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “How can I get my team to care as much as I do?”, you’re not alone.

Whether you run a growing home service company, manage a team of hourly workers, or oversee a sales crew, you’ve likely seen the gap between someone’s potential and their output.

But here’s the truth: you can’t force people to work harder-you have to make them want to.

Here’s how.

1. Start by Defining What “Harder” Means

“Work harder” can be vague. Are you looking for:

• More jobs completed per day?

• Higher quality work?

• Better customer experiences?

• More reviews, referrals, or upsells?

Define the result you want-then reverse-engineer the behaviors that get you there. Without clarity, your team is just guessing.

2. Make the Outcome Visible

People put in more effort when they know it matters.

Create systems that show:

• Who’s doing great work

• How they’re being recognized

• What impact they’re having on the business

This could be leaderboards, dashboards, or even a simple “shoutout” in morning meetings.

When wins are visible, effort increases.

3. Recognize Progress Publicly and Quickly

The longer it takes to recognize someone, the less it means.

Real-time recognition leads to:

• Increased motivation

• Stronger culture

• More consistent effort

Even small wins-like a kind customer comment or a tough job completed-can be powerful when acknowledged right away.

4. Tie Effort to Opportunity

Employees work harder when they know:

• There’s a reward for it

• It leads to more responsibility, pay, or autonomy

• Their good work is seen and trusted

Make performance transparent and actionable. Let great work lead to more opportunities.

5. Use Cheers to Turn Recognition Into a System

At Cheers, we help companies turn great work into measurable moments.

Here’s how:

• Employees wear NFC badges

• When they deliver a great experience, customers tap the badge to leave a review, refer a friend, or join a loyalty program

• That action is tied directly to the employee

• You instantly see who’s making an impact-and so do they

With Cheers, employees start working harder not because they’re told to-but because they’re seen, appreciated, and rewarded for it.