Common Learning Portal

Overview

The Workplace Satisfaction Project started as a 2020 GOAL Academy project to identify tools that employees at any level can use to improve their workplace satisfaction and morale.

This page is intended to act as a repository of links to a menu of resources available to every National Park Service employee to help you build the workplace environment you want. If there are resources you’d like to see added to this page, leave a comment in the review section at the bottom of the page.

To continue this conversation outside of this page, please join our Commons Group “Workplace Satisfaction Project” below.

CLEAR Framework

In 2012, seven independent groups analyzed the Employee Viewpoint Survey looking for trends to increased employee satisfaction.  All seven reports identified the same 5 critical practices that, when used consistently, increased workplace morale.

Those 5 practices are:

1. Communications
2. Leadership Orientation
3. Empowerment
4. Accountability
5. Recognition

For more information about the original study, see this article.

Morale Building Toolkits

The 2020 Workplace Satisfaction Project surveyed 131 people and asked for specific tools people had seen used to positively affect workplace morale. The tools discovered by the survey lined up almost perfectly within the CLEAR Framework. Thus, the toolkits below have been organized within the individual CLEAR characteristics.

Communications

• Communication – Learn best practices for clearly defining communication streams and means for the workplace, in order to improve consistency and efficiency.
• Expectation Management – Gain a better understanding of the fundamentals of managing workplace expectations.
• Conflict Management – Find conflict management best practices.
• Action – Test out these tips to make your team more “action-oriented,” or willing to recognize and discuss your team’s challenges, and then do something to positively mitigate them.

Leadership Orientation

• Emotional Intelligence – Gain a better understanding of how emotional awareness skills work to create strong, efficient work and interpersonal relationships.
• Trust Building – Learn best practices for developing trust on your team with these simple practices.
• Performance Management – Discover performance management best practices that promote sharing clear job expectations and providing constructive feedback in all work aspects.

Empowerment

• Training, Growth, Development – Learn best practices to ensure that not only is the work of today getting done, but that wise investments are being made for the future as well.
• Work-Life Balance – Find ideas to keep the workplace in positive health, both mentally and physically.
• Employee Engagement – Discover methods to keep employees committed and motivated.
• Stress Management – Test out these ideas to create a culture where everyone looks out for each other and promotes each other’s decreased stress levels and well-being.

Accountability

• Accountability – Find methods to hold yourself and others responsible for meeting established standards.
• Efficiency – Learn best practices that encourage you to seek ways to develop smarter, sharper practices and processes for you and your team.

Recognition

• Appreciation – Peruse these ideas to increase appreciation in your workplace. Remember, it’s the little things that matter most.

Additional Workplace Satisfaction and Morale Resources

In addition to the toolkits above, here are some additional morale building resources:

• CLEAR and Inspiring Workplace Fulfillment – Find real life examples of actions that have proven successful at parks and offices across the service.

Communications

• Guide to Effective Communication – Gain tips and reminders to help you become a better communicator.

Leadership Orientation

• The Neuroscience of Trust – Learn the science behind trust and learn about the remarkable and numerous benefits of employees in high-trust organizations.

Empowerment

• My DOI Career – Every career journey is unique, though some will branch more naturally than you might expect. Follow DOI’s progress, as it continues to add occupation information and unveil the connections between careers at DOI.
• DOI Career Connection – Explore opportunities to develop your skills through short-term projects, details, lateral assignments, and other skill building opportunities listed on the DOI Career Connection site.

Accountability

• How to Improve Performance: A Flowchart for Development and Accountability – This flow chart helps managers make better performance improvement decisions for their staff that yield more consistent results.
• A Powerful Pledge that Spreads Accountability in the Workplace – Workplace accountability is possible. But how? In this Freedom at Work Talks video, Garry Ridge, CEO of the WD-40 company, shares his secret.

Recognition

• Boost Your Employee Recognition With These 15 Inspiring TED Talks – Access 15 TED Talks that highlight the importance of employee recognition and what managers can do to make their staff more productive.
• Employee Recognition: Who Cares? – Learn why employee recognition is an important engagement technique and how to recognize your employees and coworkers.