Employee morale is an extremely important, yet often overlooked, aspect of office culture. High employee morale is typically a sign that you have a strong company culture. When morale is high, your team will possess a positive outlook, derive greater satisfaction from their work, have a better attitude and perform their jobs more confidently. In other words, high morale directly translates to creating an atmosphere that allows your employees to perform at their highest levels on a regular basis.
When you neglect this aspect of your company culture, it can have a devastating impact on your business. Low employee morale can often lead to a toxic work environment that creates high levels of dysfunction. With websites like Glassdoor making it easy for current and former employees to rate morale and overall company culture, this information will also be readily available to individuals interested in applying for your open positions.
Positive employee morale can have a far-reaching impact on the success of your company:
Due to these important benefits associated with high employee morale, it’s crucial that you take a proactive approach to this aspect of your company culture. The following tips will help you boost morale and maintain a happy, inspired team.
Regular communication between your managers and the employees they supervise is an important way to improve morale. This communication provides important benefits:
A great way to improve these lines of communication is to set up weekly one-on-one sessions between your managers and their team members. While this can be time consuming, the benefits of these interactions make this time investment extremely worthwhile. These conversations will not only help your staff feel valued, ensure their voice is heard and build trust, but it will also make it easier for your managers to effectively understand the interpersonal dynamics of their team members.
Some useful questions for your managers to ask during these one-on-one sessions include:
Your employees are more likely to have high morale when they see that they have the ability to grow in their job. This growth can take many different forms. While promotions and upward advancement within the company is always desirable and will improve employee morale, these opportunities aren’t always available. You can achieve similar improvements in morale by providing your team with the ability to grow their skills.
Sending your staff to a conference, paying for a course, or offering similar professional development opportunities will help employees feel like they are gaining skills that will help them progress in their career. This will typically improve job satisfaction, which will boost morale.
It’s natural to expect your employees to work hard and give their best effort at all times. However, there is a difference between expecting your team to work hard and driving them to the point of burnout. When employees get overworked to the point of burnout, their morale will often plummet and they may start looking for a job that offers them better balance.
The high turnover that occurs when employees are overworked and experience burnout can be costly for your business. It takes a tremendous amount of resources to hire and train new staff. In addition, your remaining team members will be forced to work harder to ensure all work gets done while you’re hiring a replacement for the employee who quit. This can lead to additional burnout among your staff.
Your employees have personal lives which are just as important to them as their jobs. Whether it’s family obligations or the desire to pursue their passions, your staff needs time to focus on these aspects of their lives. Creating a culture that values the time they spend outside of work as much as the time they spend at work can significantly boost morale.
Some policies which promote healthy work-life balance include:
When employees work hard, it’s important to recognize their accomplishments and show them that you value their contributions to the team. Everyone wants to feel appreciated, and this positive feedback is an easy way to boost morale.
You can do this in several ways:
Team building activities provide several important benefits that will improve morale:
Team building activities are extremely important with a remote workforce. Giving your staff an opportunity to interact in person once in a while will help you maintain a stronger, more supportive culture. These activities can be just about anything that foster authentic interaction, from happy hour to an organized activity that provides an opportunity for fun interaction.
While the tips discussed above can put you on the right track towards improving your employee morale, it’s important to understand that the right combination of tactics for your business will vary based on your company culture and the dynamics of your team. In addition, maintaining high morale over time requires ongoing effort that includes listening to your employees to understand what they respond to and what doesn’t resonate with them. Finally, it’s crucial that all of your efforts are authentic. Otherwise, they will most likely ring hollow and not achieve your desired result.
If you’re getting the picture that boosting employee morale is a challenging endeavor, you’re 100% correct. That’s why it can be helpful to have a third-party employee engagement professional to help guide you through the process. At PassioHR, we can set you up for success.
Our exclusive Elevated Engagement Plus™ Approach is focused on helping you create a more successful and inspired organization. We accomplish this by taking the time to get to know your business in depth and understand your unique company culture. This allows us to make customized recommendations that will more effectively motivate your team and keep your employees happy. As we help you build a stronger culture, you’ll see this reflected by a boost in your employee morale which can help you retain talented people for longer and enjoy higher levels of productivity.
Contact us today to schedule a consultation.
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