In any workplace, it’s common to experience low employee morale from time to time, but when it’s always low, it can significantly risk your team’s productivity and efficiency. Your employees may miss deadlines, have low engagement in brainstorming sessions, have minimum participation in weekly meetings, and previously enthusiastic team members may seem quiet and far away.
Before we get into why this could be happening and what can be done to change it, let’s highlight what the term ‘morale’ precisely implies.
In simple words, morale is defined as an individual’s emotional and mental state. Whereas employee morale refers to the overall satisfaction, motivation, and pride associated with the organisation. Employees who are content, motivated, and positively affiliated with their workplace tend to have higher employee morale. Studies show that employees with low morale are less engaged and experience more workplace depression. However, when your employees are motivated and engaged, they become more competent and creative, willingly working more hours.
As the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the businesses worldwide struggled to adjust to the new normal, employee motivation and productivity took a huge hit. With low confidence and job instability, employees’ performance suffered, and customer satisfaction dropped significantly. After a year of the world’s work-from-home experiment, employees returned to offices, but team spirit and motivation seem somewhat lost. According to a recent Paychex survey, two out of five workers have reported experiencing a dip in morale after returning to work. They reported problems such as depression, lack of motivation, reduced focus, insomnia, and decreased teamwork.
So what can be done?
3 Ways to Boost Employee Morale
If your employees feel distracted and demotivated, they will be unable to focus on their work, and the effects can be devastating for your organisation. The good news is that you can do plenty to bring their confidence back. Here are three ways you can encourage a thriving culture at your workplace and boost morale:
- Open Communication and Feedback Incorporation
One of the most effective ways to improve employee engagement is through open communication and frequently incorporating one-on-one feedback. A transparent communication process helps develop an environment where employees are at ease. When they see you encouraging involvement in business matters, they become engaged and feel comfortable sharing their opinions.
Give voice to your employees’ concerns as it’ll foster happiness and create an atmosphere of collaboration. With high morale comes great motivation and a good employee-employer relationship. Take their feedback on specific business issues. Because you’ll not only receive suggestions and ideas to make the company better, but some of them might also actually be useful and prove valuable. Gallup’s State of the American Workplace report shows that companies, where teams are actively involved in decision making saw a 17% increase in productivity while 41% reduction in absenteeism—leading to 21% greater profitability.
- Personal and Professional Development
“You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.” – Zig Ziglar.
Motivate your employees to keep their personal and professional lives separate. A perfect work/life balance might be challenging to strike, but it’s crucial to ensure your team doesn’t have to take their work commitments home. As a manager, it’s your responsibility to ensure that everyone works within deadlines without compromising their peace of mind.
You can establish clear work hours and be lenient with employees taking time off once the work is complete. This will help them master the balance and encourage them to return to work with more energy and enthusiasm. Every employee has a different talent, thinking capability, independent lifestyle, and a life outside work. While traditional employers crave strict accountability, younger employees consider jobs where they can get some freedom and mental peace, so try to keep up with changing trends and behaviors.
- Self-Accountable Teams
Delegate your team with responsibilities and trust to handle the work without micromanaging them. This is a great way to stimulate a self-accountability system at your workplace. When your employees hold themselves accountable for their actions and work as a team, it builds a high-performance culture and becomes the ultimate motivator to victory.
For example, if you trust your employee to solve an ongoing problem, they might give it their best and take charge of that responsibility. Whether it’s going to take great lengths to achieve what’s expected of them and come back to the team as a champion or giving their best attempt, in both situations, they will be able to show their leadership skills and can take pride in what they do. As a result of this trust, you can positively impact employee morale.
Need Help? Contact The Experts!
TecSolve Australia can help. We offer small to medium-sized companies strategic support to align their business strategies and bring about a positive change in employee engagement and confidence. We help managers identify the problems, gaps in the communication process and provide the right tools and effective strategies to implement in the process to achieve a healthier outcome.
Get in touch with us today to discuss your workplace concerns. We’re here to help.
