As the New Year approaches, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to keep the team motivated. We’ve come so far so quickly, there are bound to be some instances where things start to normalize and perhaps even get a bit stale.

So here are some things the management will be making a focus in 2015 to keep engagement high:

1. Say Thank You – A timely, specific and public thank you often generates a sense of engagement even greater then a small monetary reward. Simply put, we can strive to do a lot more thank yous in the coming year.

2. Looking Ahead – Ambition and career progression are two of the key staff motivators, no matter what level an employee is working at. In 2014, we promoted over dozen team members from entry level to leadership positions. We will constantly look to optimize skills and interest as we continue to grow.

3. Showing Up Matters – We have been talking about an attendance based incentive, perhaps something along the lines of offering employees who have 100 percent attendance with some kind of recognition gift? This is one I think can really let the team know it matters a lot to the business when they are present and on-time.

4. Follow The Leader – A sense of competition can be a great way to motivate and pitching teams against each other in terms of productivity or quality often has many positive side effects. We’ve had some success with this in 2014, but I think with some fine tuning and polish, we can make it a staple of 2015.

5. Share The Love – Sharing pictures of the team on social media is one way to show your team how much they truly are valued. It’s more then just work. It’s a family.

These ideas are just the tip of the ice berg. When we have the next leadership meeting in January, we will figure out how better to empower, engage and motivate the team for the coming year.