To run a great company that is profitable and provide an amazing employee experience at the same time is very difficult. But think about it - what good is a company that makes a lot of money if it does not have happy employees? To create amazing job satisfaction, you need to boost employee morale.
But that is easier said than done. Today, we're going to show you how to improve employee recognition, foster employee engagement and create the kind of company culture that your employees will love.
What is employee morale?
The general employee morale definition is the ethic, attitude, or outlook that an employee has and how that impacts their role in the business.
Typically, this will make a difference in a wide variety of things, like the speed, productivity, quality and attention span of an employee. In many ways, good morale can be one of the most essential things for your workers and as a result, the success of your company.
A positive employee morale is a consequence of many things: a healthy work life balance, low stress levels, great employee feedback and more.
With all that in mind, let’s consider how to improve employee morale, as well as other info and tips that may give you a helping hand.
What factors affect employee morale?
In most instances, there will be a variety of things in a company that can have an impact on morale, both in a positive and negative way. Because of this, learning a little more about good ethics for a business will often make a big difference if you’re looking to improve in this area.
There are simply so many factors that can be related to this. For example, many managers find that creating a more positive environment in the workplace will be beneficial in a variety of ways, particularly in promoting employee morale.
A more negative atmosphere however, will often lead to a decline in morale, which often results in slower and lower quality work overall.
Here are some of the most typical factors that will contribute to employee engagement and morale:
- leadership and management
- work environment (physical + work life balance)
- recognition and awards
- opportunities for growth
- communication
- job satisfaction
- team dynamics
- organizational stability
- workplace relationships
- company values and culture
There’s a lot more that can be taken into consideration too – all the more reason why it can be essential for most businesses to assess the situation in their workforce and find ways to improve the self-confidence of their team.
Regardless of any other factors, it’s important to consider your business’ unique needs. After all, what works for one company may not work for another, so it’s always best to consider your options carefully.
The importance of employee morale
While we’ve briefly looked into it, we haven’t fully explained why employee morale can be so essential to the majority of businesses.
Out of the many points, it’s worth remembering that poor morale can significantly impact numerous aspects of a business; whether it’s the productivity of the workforce, the quality of work you put out, or a wide variety of other things that will generally be important to your success.
The more you work to foster an optimistic, positive work environment overall, the less you’ll need to worry about these kinds of issues being a problem for you.
Here are some of the things that show good self-esteem in the workplace:
- Excellent collaboration and communication skills
- High employee engagement with no negative attitude
- Good retention and an ability to focus
- Solid overall performances throughout the year - employees willing to go the extra mile
- A happy demeanor that encourages others to work better
If you’re looking for a solution to low morale, it will usually be a good idea to conduct an analysis of the general ambiance of your workforce. Thankfully, this isn’t too hard to do. It doesn’t have to be costly either – as long as you know the right questions to ask, you’re likely to learn a little more about what needs to be done.
The types of questions can vary from one business to another, so make sure to tailor your survey to your unique needs and individual employees in your team.
Seven tips for boosting employee morale
With its many advantages, most businesses can benefit from high morale among their workers – and it doesn’t have to be too hard for you to create this in your place of work. Fortunately for anybody who’s looking to improve this aspect of their business, there are a variety of ways to go about it even without needing to do a survey.
Here are just 7 tips that we think will help you in building employee morale.
Introducing team building activities
In many cases, positive and productive employee interactions tend to be an excellent method of helping people to bond in the workplace and support each other, which can be excellent for morale. Because of this, it’ll often be a great idea to consider some team building games.
These activities might not lead to increased employee satisfaction immediately but will contribute to company morale over time.
Build relationships with employees
One way to boost team morale? Get rid of poor communication in the workplace.
Take the time to build strong relationships with your employees. Considering everything mentioned in the point above, it shouldn’t be too hard to guess why it can be essential for managers to also put in the effort to have a bond with their workers.
In fact, it can often be more important for a manager or employer to nurture good relationships, so it’s generally going to be more than worthwhile. You can see lower employee turnover rates over time, especially with remote employees.
Invest time in task and project management
Usually, streamlining tasks and assigning work to those who are best suited to those particular projects will be a great way to keep your employees’ spirits high. Essentially, you want to make sure that they have jobs that they’re well-versed in, as it will make it easier to complete them without any hiccups.
Remote workers can especially benefit from great project management. With a great project management tool in place, you can monitor employee performance and see who delivers high-quality work with a positive attitude.
Diversify your hiring methods
If you’re hiring new workers, be sure to consider the different ways you can do so. Generally, there are many great recruitment methods and it can be important to look out for signs of candidates with a good attitude. Making a positive start and continuing with this will often be a great way to keep the morale up.
True business leaders look into different avenues for hiring. Great people don't look for career opportunities on job boards. More often than not, they are passive candidates who are not looking for a new job. Whether it's because of a lack of career advancement or positive work cultures, they are looking for a change.
Make sure to have a plan for winning over those candidates too.
Create the perfect work environment
Simply offering a positive, welcoming and friendly place to work can often be essential to boosting morale. When your team knows that they’re safe, comfortable and among friends, there’s far less stress to get in the way of work, putting the focus on the business’ needs.
You can introduce all kinds of activities to make employees feel more welcome. Happy hours, gatherings and other types of social events are just a starting point. Make it a point to collect employee feedback regularly and find out what employees really need in the organizational structure and day-to-day operations.
For a positive morale boost, give employees public recognition. Positive feedback in private is great, but giving regular recognition in front of the entire company is even more valuable.
See how your employees work
Sometimes, just taking a look at how your workers go about their day-to-day tasks can help you to better understand if any extra effort on your part is needed to bring them up. For example, you can use time tracking to see when employees prefer working. You can see correlations between good and poor performance and shift times.
By noticing when and how your employees work, you can improve organizational performance and make a positive impact on employee growth too. While monetary incentives are great, sometimes listening is all it takes to have more engaged employees.
Stay consistent over time
Fostering self-confidence and teamwork in your employees can without a doubt be important for your business, but team morale is something that you’ll need to uphold over time, rather than being a simple one-time fix. Monitor the morale in the workplace regularly and put in the effort to ensure that it stays high.
While there may be many more things that you could do, we hope that these examples will help you to at least get a better idea of how to work on boosting morale among your employees.
Wrapping up
For business owners, team morale should be just as important as making a profit. Great morale leads to improved company values, lower turnover rates, and better employee retention, eliminated employee burnout and much more.
And if you want to take workplace morale to the next level, try tracking your time at work! Don't see it as a way to spy on your employees - instead, have a positive outlook. You can more effectively measure how long it takes for things to get done. This way, you can allocate shifts better, and assign tasks and projects more efficiently.
Sign up today for Unrubble, and start tracking your time for free!
