The well-being and satisfaction of employees is the best indicator of a companies’ success. And why should we take this statement as true? Well, it is proven that a happy person who is comfortable with their environment is and feels more productive which can be seen in the outcome.
Getting our team to feel this way can be a challenging task but we are here to help!
- It doesn’t matter what type of company you are in charge of, the most important thing to do is to remember that each individual in our team is a human being.
- We are all very different, so meeting the individual needs of everyone is impossible, but employers should recognize the basic needs of employees as members of society.
- The policies and regulations in your company must always be inclusive.
Causes of low morale and how to recognize it early
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One of the foundations of organizational culture is employee morale because it defines the work environment and consequently the productivity of its employees. But it is a complicated concept because many aspects affect morale and that can cause it to drop.
Although there could be many other factors, here are some of the causes for low employee morale:
- Bad team communication
- Non-compliance with employee policies
- Low workplace culture
- Incomplete or inadequate tools
- Incorrect remuneration
- Excessive workload
- Personal problems
- Health problems
The key to a happier team is to identify these problems in time and establish the best plan of action. We recommend that you implement the following strategies:
Analyze the company culture
The first step is to examine the current state of the culture within the company. Make sure that the mission, vision, and values aim to maintain a positive environment and are clearly defined.
The next step is to share this with employees and align all staff accordingly. By doing this, we want each team member to feel part of the company and that we all seek a common goal.
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Keep in touch with employees
One-on-one meetings: Knowing what an employee thinks and giving them the openness, trust and space to be honest, is one of the greatest responsibilities of management.
You can't know for sure what an employee cares about unless it's from his/her mouth.
Holding regular meetings to gather information or to impart information is a good practice to keep the communication channel open at all times in an efficient way.
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Managers are coaches
This is a misconception that many companies continue to make. A manager today is no longer a "task manager", rather he must be a coach, support for the team members.
The person who, when detecting the delay in the delivery of a job or not the expected quality of it, does not scold or complain but asks and is interested in knowing the reasons for offering real solutions.
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“Nobody knows everything
Everyone knows something
Between all, they know a lot”
Boost morale in your team
To improve the morale of a company there are several specific tips but it is important that as an employer you allow your imagination to also take part.
It should cover several aspects and the first would be to promote teamwork by helping us with these tips:
1. Set team goals
As a company, we pursue a single objective that can be called "success", but to achieve it, all team members should know and should be aware of the everyday goal, of the projects, of the tasks. .. of the company.
Employers are the ones who will share these goals with all team members and must therefore ensure that they are fully understood.
When having goals as a team, it is necessary to understand that the responsibility for success or failure will lie with the team , not just a single person. We will all be responsible for the well-being of our workplace.
2. Delegate Responsibilities
For every employee, the opportunity to grow and learn new things is always motivating. And this is one of the benefits that delegation of tasks gives us.
On the other hand, delegation encourages collaboration and teamwork from the point of view that not all of us know everything, also helping to reduce and balance the workload of all team members.
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3. Work through conflicts
The effective and rapid resolution of conflicts in the workplace is vital so that teamwork is not affected. Conflicts are something that we will not be able to avoid because teams are a group of people with different personalities sharing knowledge, ideas, suggestions, and time.
As a coach or manager, your mission is to find a quick solution to any conflict to avoid gossip, misunderstandings, or resentments between the members of your organization.
Ideally, you may first speak with the parties involved and depending on the relevance or impact of the conflict then share it with the rest of the team, ask for suggestions or externalize the conclusions obtained from such a situation for the benefit of all.
4. Active breaks
You may wonder, how an active break can improve teamwork and motivate my employees?
Well, the idea of active breaks is that we take 10 minutes a day to do a dynamic or a series of exercises or a small game in which we all share a moment as a team.
Employees must organize themselves in pairs or groups to prepare their active breaks and, in turn, direct the rest of their colleagues.
The idea is to work hard as a team but also rest, improving our health by reducing stress and relaxing our posture.
The next vital aspect of boosting employee morale is showing appreciation and of course, celebrating. Showing your employees how much you value their work and how important they are to the team is a simple but highly effective way to boost morale:
5. Celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and promotions
- Let's take 30 minutes to share a piece of cake or a sandwich and celebrate these dates with our employees.
- If time is an issue, an email or team chat message with a greeting card would be a nice small detail.
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6. The employee of the month award
Each achievement and accomplishment can be recognized with a congratulatory message or a publication on the billboard (physical or virtual) of the office and we can have several categories, for example:
- The best teammate
- The most punctual
- The one who fulfilled all the tasks within the expected time
7. Saying Thanks
This recommendation may seem trivial, but nowadays relationships are so impersonal and simple words like thanks, we have been simply forgotten and they can be incredibly valuable.
Thank an employee who worked overtime, or the employee who volunteered to work with another team member, or the employee who just lent you his/her pencil.
Communication is essential, so now let's see how to improve it within the company:
8. Weekly informative newsletters
We could provide information that may be useful to our team, through email campaigns or publications on the office board. There are many topics, among them you can consider:
- Recommendations to improve the ergonomics of your workplace.
- Foods within a healthy diet that increase your energy.
- 5-minute exercises to release stress and improve concentration.
Nowadays, with the COVID-19 pandemic, that has forced many of us to work remotely, you could share weekly newsletters with information on:
- Current situation of the pandemic in the place of residence of the members of our team.
- Tips to raise your defenses.
- Proper use of biosecurity implements.
- Basic biosafety standards.
- How to distinguish and face an anxiety attack?
- How to help people in my environment who have anxiety or panic due to confinement?
- How can I cope with my fear of going out and getting in touch with people?
- How do we adapt to the new normal?
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9. Open channel to ask and give feedback
Employees and employers should have the confidence and feel comfortable sharing their opinions, suggestions, and concerns. This strengthens teamwork and in turn, makes everyone feel part of a unit.
But it must be taken into account that part of giving and asking for feedback is also showing errors, asking for improvements, suggesting changes, and everything that can mean constructive criticism always based on mutual respect.
10. Make us more than just co-workers
You may not have thought of it this way before, but the time we spend with our colleagues at work is even greater than the time we spend with our families from Monday to Friday.
Then without realizing it, our teammates become our second family, so to speak.
And this is the best part! there are millions of activities that give us fun and relaxation as a team:
- Videoconference
Half an hour on Fridays at the end of the day to share a moment.
- Friday for dessert
Organize teams that are in charge every Friday of the month to share a small dessert with all the members of the department.
Make a game or a virtual trivia at the end of the week.
- Sharing time outside of work hours
Every semester organizes a meal with all the co-workers.
- Team building
Once a year, organize a sports day. It can be a morning in which we do soccer or ultimate frisbee tournaments, where the employees are divided into teams and we reward the winner.
- Celebrate Halloween
Make a costume contest by department and prepare snacks according to the date.
- Celebrate Christmas
Organize a meal and exchange gifts on Christmas Eve
- Volunteer together.
Once a year we all go together to do social work in a shelter.
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11. Social responsibility
As we said at the beginning of this blog, everyone in the company is human and as such we can have problems or calamities. Being support for employees boosts morale and creates a positive work environment, so a good idea can be:
- Have an employee committee that functions as social work.
Finally, to boost the morale of your employees, we recommend reviewing the culture of your company and the employee policies that you currently have implemented, perhaps a renewal is necessary:
12. Consider the employee's skills
At this point, we are talking about Talent Management, a complex but necessary concept.
When hiring a new employee, we should ensure their skills and strengths so that we can assign them the tasks that correspond to their profile. These can change over time as employees grow and learn new things.
Remember that something that frustrates a person a lot in a job is that they entrust him/her with tasks that he/she does not usually do because he/she does not have the necessary knowledge or experience and with which he/she does not feel comfortable because it increases the stress level a lot, thus lowering the level interest, productivity and commitment.
13. Training opportunities
As a company, you should think that investing in the continuous training of your employees in addition to motivating them personally and professionally is a benefit for the company because you will have trained personnel with increasingly better skills.
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14. Fair and adequate remuneration
This is an issue that companies ignore for many years, employees feel that their work is not appreciated when they do not receive fair remuneration. And although many persons accept this type of condition, with time it affects team morale and causing their commitment to decreasing.
15. Improve access to resources
The organization must ensure that all its employees have access to the tools they need to carry out their work without complications, from office supplies up to the necessary hardware and software according to the core of the business.
Nowadays, with the remote work trend that has gained prominence, the tools that facilitate team communication have great relevance, so having good software for internal communication and managing projects is an investment if we talk about improving the environment and workplace of our employees.
Final thoughts
Boosting company morale is not only the responsibility of employers but of everyone, as it is not simply a matter of attitude but the general culture of the company.
Having a positive environment in the workplace comes from the hand that all, employees and employers, have the commitment to be responsible with ourselves and with others in a way that in favor of the moral and the values of the company we are capable to pursue the same goal as a team.
