10 Effective Ways to Boost Employee Morale at Work Place
1. Be transparent.
Don’t attempt to hide problems or avoid conversations when morale is low. You have to remain
transparent to boost staff morale. Your employees will respect honesty while you work together to
fix any issues. Inform them about company updates, new protocols, customer feedback, and more.
2. Communicate often.
Going off the last tip to boost employee morale, be sure to communicate! Share positive company
announcements, like a new product in development or a glowing customer review. Your employees
are human beings too and you need to treat them that way too. Communicate and loop them into a
conversation that can directly affect them.
Additionally, you should check in with your employees on a frequent basis, ask them:
How are you feeling about your job/manager/co-workers?
Are you facing any challenges? How can I help?
Are you happy at work? How can I help?
You have to provide open, regular communication about issues and achievements that are
important to your employees. As far as boosting staff morale goes, this one is huge.
3. Give employee recognition.
Focus on the good! When employees feel truly appreciated, they have more self-worth and become
more productive employees. How Full Is Your Bucket proves that employees who receive regular,
positive recognition will experience:
Higher productivity
Better engagement levels
More loyalty to the company
Higher morale
Better customer satisfaction.
4. Get employee feedback.
Getting employee feedback is a great way to boost employee morale. When you show employees
that you’re listening, they will feel heard and are far more likely to be motivated. But it isn’t enough
just to collect feedback, you need to act on it as well. Even if you don’t implement each piece of
feedback, be sure to thank your employees for sending in their thoughts and suggestions.
5. Offer employee growth.
Boost employee morale by giving them a sense of purpose so they have a goal to work towards and
something to look forward to. It doesn’t have to be a job promotion, instead, you can send them to
a course or conference to better their professional skills. Employees want to feel a sense of growth
to be truly motivated.
6. Run a calm, healthy & organized company.
Sure, pushing yourself and your team to the limit sounds like the right thing to do and is inspiring,
but it won’t work in the long run. Your goal should be to reduce stress, maintain a healthy work-life
balance and to run a calm, healthy and organized company.
Offer an EAP (employee assistance program) that helps employees work through problems and
stress, whether it’s work or home-related. An EAP is designed to help your teamwork through
issues that may impact their health and wellness, or even their work performance.
7. Train managers.
If managers are not the direct cause of the low morale, the responsibility to fix employee morale is.
Be sure to train all your managers in emotional intelligence, communication, giving feedback and
recognition and different leadership styles.
Managers can directly impact engagement and morale, so investing time in training them is one of
the most important strategies to fixing low morale
8. Organize team-building activities.
Make team building games enjoyable and education at the same time, that’s a surefire way to
lift employee morale for the time being. (This isn’t a long term solution but it can do the job just the
same). Organize a scavenger hunt or create an office trivia challenge to energize your employees.
9. Have amazing employee incentives.
Now, this isn’t a long term solution, but when morale is low, dishing out some fun employee
incentives can do the trick. Bring in some puppies from the local shelter, give out some scratch-offs,
let employees work from home for the day – it’s amazing what these employee incentives can do.
OR, you can develop something that can help your employees evolve personally and professionally.
Sign them up for a course that ties to their professional responsibilities or give them helpful books
to read to develop their skills further. But studies have also found that the longer you stay at work,
the more important it is to get outside of the office, even if it’s just for a few minutes because
creativity can take a hit when you don’t change environments.
10. Encourage genuine breaks.
Research has found that only a mere one in five people take a lunch break and that white-collar
workers are actually the least likely to take a break. And far too many staff members eat lunch at
their desks!
We know that creativity and innovation happen when people change their environment, and
especially when they expose themselves to a nature-like environment, to a natural environment. So
staying inside, in the same location, is really detrimental to creative thinking. It’s also detrimental to
doing that rumination that’s needed for ideas to percolate and gestate and allow a person to arrive
at an ‘aha’ moment. – Kimberly Elsbach, professor at the University of California who studies
workplace psychology.
Encourage your employees to get away from their desks, at least for five minutes every hour. For
example, grab a cup of coffee, take a walk outside for some fresh air, stretch your body, and more.
When you make this a habit, you are happier and can contribute greatly to the bottom line because
you’re refreshed.
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