Are your employees happy as four dogs in a poolhall?
Your company's health is built on the happiness of its employees, and it pays to keep them happy. After all, if they're happy, they'll work harder, according to research.
THE IMPACT OF A POSITIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT
High staff morale contributes to increased productivity and efficiency in the workplace, as well as higher-quality work, according to research.
Employee morale may literally keep a company afloat: if your firm runs into trouble, you may need to rely on your employees to help you get through. If employee morale is low, it's unlikely that anyone will go above and beyond to keep the firm afloat; if employee morale is good, those same people will likely go above and beyond to assist the company survive (and may even have some company-saving suggestions).
A positive corporate culture will help you attract and retain top talent, lowering employee turnover. Employee morale is considerably greater in a strong and healthy work environment, which generates positive energy and converts your employees into your most valuable hiring asset: they should even be involved in the hiring process.
Having a positive employee morale might help you save money. Consider the following domino effect: excellent employee morale lowers workplace accidents, which leads to fewer absences and lowers workplace stress, which leads to less paid time off.
FACTORS THAT NEGATIVELY AFFECT MORALE
It's crucial to take action the moment you notice low morale among your staff, whether it's due to high turnover, a lack of collaboration, or a lack of conversation.
Before low morale sets in, the best thing you can do for your organization and your staff is to embrace changes that will benefit everyone. It's vital to understand why morale is suffering.
CHANGES IN LEADERSHIP
Change is difficult to deal with, but it is an unavoidable evil. Team morale can suffer when confidence is disrupted, whether due to a merger or a new recruitment at the top level, because if the corporate culture changes, so does worker morale.
LACK OF PROGRESS
It goes without saying that a lack of professional possibilities and personal improvement can lead to low employee morale. Employees can become bored and unmotivated if their firm isn't developing or if their employment doesn't provide them with fresh challenges.
Employees need progress to stay engaged and motivated, according to research, because without it, they will become disengaged and leave for a more demanding position. This is the polar opposite of employee morale.
LACK OF CLARITY AND COMMUNICATION
Employees won't be inspired to accomplish their best work if they don't understand what you want of them or aren't informed about what's going on in the firm. If you want to raise employee morale, this isn't the way to go!
LEADERSHIP ISSUES
Employee morale is frequently affected by inadequate leadership. Those in positions of leadership must be aware of how their actions affect the team. If they don't, morale will suffer significantly, and if nothing is done, work morale will plummet.
COMPANY CULTURE
Even before the interview process, your reputation precedes you and your company's brand. You need to make sure that your company's image attracts rather than repels potential employees.
With the information shown above, you can see how important staff morale is and what drives both high and low corporate morale. You must confront it head-on and incorporate its procedures into your company's culture.
WAYS TO RAISE MORALE NOW
SHOW SOME LOVE
Do you hear that? It’s the sound of your employees begging for sincere praise.
Employees who feel really valued have a higher sense of self-worth and are more productive.
Employees who receive regular, positive acknowledgment have higher productivity, better engagement, more loyalty to the organization, more morale, and better customer satisfaction, according to research employing double-blind tests and analyses.
Practicing employee recognition costs nothing, but has a huge impact. Allow employees to nominate their peers for awards, and even welcome new team members. For example, shine the spotlight by telling fun and engaging stories about employees and their successes, celebrate personal milestones together like meaningful anniversaries, newborns or adoption, or even birthday wishes, and allow employees to nominate their peers for awards.
LISTEN
Obtaining employee input is an excellent approach to enhance morale. Employees will feel heard and are significantly more likely to be motivated if you demonstrate that you are listening. But collecting feedback isn't enough; you also need to act on it. Even if you don't use every piece of input, thank your staff for putting in their ideas and comments.
To support the importance of employee feedback, studies show that: 87% of employees want job development, but only 1/3 receive the feedback they require; disengaged employees cost companies in the United States $450-550 billion in lost productivity each year; employees who don't receive feedback are 40% more likely to be disengaged; and 78% of employees said receiving recognition motivated them.
All of this shows that adopting and cultivating an employee feedback culture isn't just a "nice to have" or something that happens once a year during a performance review — it's an important part of year-round performance management and development.
SET GOALS
Give your employees a feeling of purpose so they have a goal to strive for and something to anticipate. It does not have to be a pay raise. Instead, you may send them to a professional development course or conference. To be fully motivated, employees need to feel like they're progressing.
DECOMPRESS
Maintain a calm, healthy, and organized workplace.
Pushing yourself and your team to their limits may seem like a good idea and be motivating, but it will not work in the long run. Reduce stress, maintain a healthy work-life balance, and manage a quiet, healthy, and structured organization should all be your goals.
Provide an employee assistance program to aid employees in dealing with challenges and stress, whether at work or at home. These types of programs are intended to assist your team in resolving difficulties that may be affecting their health and well-being, as well as their work performance.
HAVE FUN
What are the benefits of team-building games? For starters, it develops a collaborative and motivated work culture, assists team members in problem-solving, fosters meaningful and open communication among colleagues, encourages innovation and out-of-the-box thinking, increases productivity, boosts employee morale, and keeps creative juices flowing!
Making team building activities interesting and educational at the same time is a solid approach to temporarily boost staff morale. (This isn't a long-term solution, but it'll suffice for now.) To energize your employees, organize a scavenger hunt or a workplace trivia competition.
If you have remote workers, find team-building activities designed specifically for them!
BE HONEST
Make every effort to be as transparent as possible. When morale is poor, don't try to hide problems or avoid conversations; you'll just cause more harm. While you work together to resolve any concerns, your staff will admire your honesty. Inform them about company changes, new protocols, and client feedback, among other things.
TRAIN MANAGERS
If managers are not the direct cause of low employee morale, it is their obligation to improve it. Make sure all of your managers are trained in emotional intelligence, communication, providing and receiving feedback, and diverse leadership styles.
Because managers have such a direct impact on employee engagement and morale, investing time in training them is one of the most significant techniques for improving morale.
When employees have a greater understanding of the company's operations, their job happiness and self-esteem improve. Employee morale and loyalty to the organization can both benefit from training. Employees who believe their firm provides outstanding training chances are less likely to leave within a year than employees who believe their company provides bad training opportunities.
CREATIVE INCENTIVES
Now, this isn't a long-term answer, but when employee morale is low, amusing employee rewards can help. Bring in some puppies from a local shelter, hand out scratch-off tickets, and allow staff to work from home for the day – it's astonishing what these employee incentives can accomplish.
Alternatively, you can create something that will assist your staff in their personal and professional development. Enroll them in a course that relates to their professional responsibilities, or give them materials to study to help them improve their skills. According to studies, the longer you stay at work, the more crucial it is to go out of the office, even if only for a few minutes, because creativity suffers when you don't switch environments.
KEEP LINES OF COMMUNICATION OPEN
Improving employer-employee communication can have a large payoff. Begin by establishing clear and attainable goals for each employee. To keep track of progress and clear up any misunderstandings, schedule one-on-one sessions. Make the most of every opportunity to communicate! Share good news from the company, such as a new product in the works or a fantastic customer review.
Additionally, you should check in with your employees on a regular basis and ask them questions such as:
How do you feel about your job/manager/coworkers?
Are you encountering any difficulties? What can I do to assist you?
Do you enjoy your job? What can I do to assist you?
You must communicate openly and frequently with your staff about concerns and accomplishments that are significant to them. This one is crucial in terms of raising employee morale.
ENCOURAGE R&R
According to studies, only one out of every five persons takes a lunch break, and white-collar workers are the least likely to do so. That suggests that far too many employees are having their lunch at their desks!
We know that people become more creative and innovative when they shift their environment, particularly when they are exposed to a natural or nature-like environment. As a result, being inside and in the same place is adverse to innovative thinking.
Encourage your employees to take a five-minute break from their desks every hour. Grab a cup of coffee, go for a walk outdoors to get some fresh air, stretch your muscles, and so on. When you make this a habit, you will be happier and more productive since you will feel refreshed.
According to studies, the longer you stay at work, the more crucial it is to go out of the office, even if only for a few minutes, because creativity suffers when you don't switch environments.
NURTURE DIVERSITY
Your employees will feel and understand that thinking outside the box or being different is an asset to the firm if you promote workplace diversity. Teams and firms that prioritize diversity offer a variety of ideas, views, and learning opportunities. Diverse employees (such as those in a multigenerational workforce or working with Generation Z) can pool their diverse talents, experiences, and skill sets to come up with innovative and creative solutions, whereas a group of people with similar backgrounds and skill sets may choose to solve a problem the same way they always have.
The bottom line is that workplace diversity brings your staff together, allowing you to do more work as a team while also improving corporate morale!
ZERO TOLERANCE FOR BULLYING
No one enjoys being bullied, and this is especially true in the office or any other setting. Bullying at work has a negative influence on people's enjoyment, as well as their health, productivity, and self-confidence, leaving victims feeling trapped and powerless.
Bullying in the workplace can and will have a negative influence on your company's morale. It's critical that all of your employees realize that there is a zero-tolerance policy for workplace bullying, and that you follow through on these promises to ensure that no one feels treated unfairly at work.
CREATE A REAL BREAK ROOM
Designate a distinct area for employees to go to every day or when they need a break to rest for a few minutes. These decompression or recharge rooms are more than just a simple café or chair grouping at a handy location for catching up with coworkers or a cup of coffee to get the day started. They're spaces where employees can rest, stretch, nap, or even meditate for a few minutes during their workday.
Create a comfy, separate area where employees can relax and recharge while also talking, discussing, and exchanging ideas, all while increasing corporate morale!
KEEP OFFICE PLANTS
People who worked in offices with plants and windows felt better about their jobs and the work they did, according to research, than those who worked in windowless buildings with no greenery nearby.
There is a link between employee morale and the presence of vegetation in the workplace. Plants not only purify the air by removing hazardous pollutants, but they are also one of the cheapest and most effective methods to improve your employees' experience at work, according to studies. Unlike standard air filters, they improve over time as they mature and are more cost effective in the long term. Purchase some plants that do not require a lot of water or sunlight from your local nursery.
REMOTE WORKERS NEED LOVE TOO
Since 2020, remote working has become the norm around the world. The strategies you use to motivate your in-house staff, on the other hand, will not work for your remote workforce. Because remote work can be isolating at times, most remote workers feel detached. They are frequently left out of the loop, silent, and even lonely.
As a manager, you must discover strategies to make your remote employees feel valued and motivated. Here are a few examples of how you can accomplish this:
Streamline communication.
Establish clear routes of communication.
Be clear on expectations.
Implement remote team building games and activities.
Focus on performance.
Make scheduling easier to connect remote and in-office workers.
Trust that they'll get the job done (don't micromanage).
Create a positive company culture.
Give recognition and even develop remote team leaders.