Have you taken the temperature of your work environment recently? Are you greeted by positive, sunny dispositions amongst your team members or a more frosty reception? It makes a noticeable difference to your business.
Oxford University researchers have proved that happier workers are more productive – 13% more productive in fact. So it pays to invest in improving your employee experience to boost employee morale.
You’ll be pleased to know that doesn’t mean tripling everyone’s salary and investing in perks like ping pong tables and a free bar on a Friday. It’s about creating a positive company culture, investing in people as individuals and honing your communication skills. This is all the more important with remote work which has become commonplace since the pandemic.
Here, I’ll share 10 ways to boost employee morale. Some are pretty quick wins whilst others involve a change in strategy and will take time to implement and reap the benefits.
What causes low employee morale?
Let’s start with the negative. When people are disgruntled at work, it’s often down to the following factors:
- Ineffective communication
- Poor leadership and management
- High accident/incident levels
- Organisational changes
- Lack of career development opportunities
- Bad recruitment decisions
- Low salary
- Unappealing company culture
- Feeling overworked and under-appreciated
- Bullying, harassment or discrimination.
Is this striking a chord? All too often managers point the finger of blame at employees. But remember when you do that, only one finger points at them and three point back at you. It’s time to look in the mirror and figure out what you can do better. Do nothing and people will leave your business.
What are the benefits of high employee morale?
Now, let’s look at the positives. Giving employees reasons to be cheerful results in hard work. That means happy employees and a happy business owner. According to Oxford University’s Professor De Neve, “We found that when workers are happier, they work faster by making more calls per hour worked and, importantly, convert more calls to sales.”
High employee morale helps with:
- Higher productivity levels
- Better quality work
- Effective teamwork
- Less absenteeism
- Improved employee mental and physical health
- Increased employee engagement.
How to boost employee morale
You can see why you want a more positive company culture and happier team members. Now, I’ll take you through some ways to do it. But we warned, some take a bit more effort than others. Transforming a company culture, for example, won’t happen overnight.
Here are 10 things that you can do to help employees’ morale.
1. Check in with team members regularly
It’s a simple thing, but having a weekly one-on-one meeting with people matters. It’s dedicated time for them to discuss things with you. And that’s a two-way conversation where you listen and they talk and vice versa. It means you both know what’s happening. It can help an employee to feel valued and heard.
It’s also worth doing this on a wider scale with employee surveys and opportunities to provide feedback. Gauging opinion and understanding how people feel about your business and work environment can be enlightening. Responding to employee feedback and actioning their suggestions is a positive move that can increase employee engagement and reduce employee turnover.
2. Open communication
Clear and open communication is such a positive factor. When you share your company values and vision with enthusiasm, your employees are more likely to buy in to them. Understanding business priorities, as well as challenges, helps your teams to appreciate what you’re working on and how they can help.
On an individual basis, it pays to be transparent about salaries or career progression. Don’t let money be the elephant in the room. Have the chat. Let employees know what they can expect and when. It’ll help them feel more valued.
3. Respect them as individuals
Take an interest in their personal lives. When you know each other as individuals, you’re able to support each other better, especially when life throws a curveball. This is all the more important with remote employees who can feel isolated and disengaged from their teams.
I let my employees have the day off on their birthday. It’s a simple gesture that makes a positive difference. It’s a way to show employees gratitude for their hard work.
4. Invest in employee development
Yes, people want to be well paid but they also want to learn and grow. Investing in their professional development will earn massive Brownie points for you as an employer. Plus, their career growth and education brings new skills into your business. It’s a win-win.
Training and development can sometimes be the preserve of new employees as part of their onboarding process. But it’s a real incentive for most employees, whatever their level or length of service. It’s an attractive perk that’s been proven to increase productivity, engagement and employee retention.
5. Promote work-life balance
Looking after our mental health, as well as physical wellbeing, is of paramount importance. As an employer, there are numerous initiatives you can introduce to enhance employee wellbeing. Simple things like encouraging downtime and lunch breaks in the workday can have a positive impact on employee mental health and overall wellness.
You may not have a great work-life balance yourself, but you should encourage it for your employees. Remote working really works for some people and makes their life easier. By not spending time commuting, they have more time to exercise or care for family members for example. Being understanding and respectful of people’s commitments, health issues, or even preferences, means a lot to an individual. By offering flexible working options, you’ll bring out the best in team members.
6. Celebrate achievements
Recognise and reward people’s achievements. I don’t just mean the big stuff like clinching deals and hitting targets (although that should be marked too). Thank the person who took a new employee under their wing or cleared up the shared drive. Celebrate a work anniversary. Being thanked and celebrated makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. It doesn’t always have to come from you either. Peer-to-peer recognition makes a positive difference too.
7. Be approachable
I hear so many stories of people who’ve worked for horrible bosses. Spending your days treading on eggshells and predicting their manager’s mood is exhausting, stressful and demotivating.
Be the approachable manager who’s always willing to help and listen to their team members. Keep your door or inbox open for them. You’re part of the team too, and need to collaborate as well as being a problem-solver.
8. Encourage teamwork
According to Gallup, having work friends lifts morale and is a huge motivator. That’s to be encouraged. Organise work social events – even online ones – to get people talking, having fun and forging friendships.
Team building activities don’t have to be big initiatives like raft-building and survival skills in remote locations. You could go bowling, try an escape room or host a quiz. Teamwork builds trust, camaraderie, and also boosts employee morale and engagement.
As a new employee, especially with remote work, these events really help to make you to feel part of a team and get to know colleagues as individuals.
9. Make them feel part of something bigger
As a business leader, it’s your job to motivate, encourage and include your team in driving the company forward. You need to convey the company vision with passion and enthusiasm, and provide your teams with a roadmap of where it’s heading.
But you also need to translate it to an individual level. Show people their role in achieving those goals. When people understand their role in the bigger picture, and feel a part of something, it can be hugely motivating and engaging.
It’s important to then break down that wider goal into achievable personal targets with specific milestones – also known as KPIs.
10. Develop a positive company culture
“Smile and the world smiles with you,” so they say. Positivity is infectious. Once it’s in your business, it spreads from one to another (like the office cold!).
Your company culture reflects your business’s personality. It’s about your shared beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviours. When employees feel their values align with their company’s values, they’re motivated and feel more connected to the business. It’s real feel good stuff.
You can’t just set and forget a company culture though. It ebbs and flows and evolves over time. It needs to be monitored and worked on. As company culture declines, staff retention does too, so make the effort to keep it positive.
What will you do to improve employee morale?
Put simply, unhappy people cost your business money. They’re less productive and more likely to leave. Their attitude’s contagious too, it can spread amongst your team. When people leave, your human resources costs soar as you need to recruit new employees.
Stop the rot before it sets in. Take action to improve employee morale in your workplace and you’ll reap so many rewards. I’ve shared 10 of my top tips here, but I could go on! If you’d like to chat about the specifics of your business and your own situation, I’d love to connect with you. Get in touch and we can work on this together.
