Low morale among employees is bad news for any company. Employees with low morale are less likely to be engaged and/or motivated. They’re more likely to have high rates of absences, and their unhappiness will likely create customers who are also less than satisfied, whether that be through actual interactions or the quality of their work.
Disengaged employees are one of the top reasons businesses fail, but creating the right culture combats those issues. Successful businesses are the companies who recognize that putting people before profit always pays off.
Create an Atmosphere That Works for Them
Crafting an environment that bolsters morale starts at the most basic of levels. It starts with the attitude and thought you put into the daily experience employees have while at work.
It’s important to foster an atmosphere where creativity can flourish. The components that make that a reality come both from the things you do do, as well as the things you don’t do.
Do: Do provide a comfortable work environment where your employees have all the tools they need to succeed. Do think about how you can utilize the tools available to you to benefit employees. Do think about how you can use the budget in new ways to incentivize. Do communicate well.
Don’t: Don’t impose unnecessary restrictions that make it seem like you don’t trust your employees. Don’t overwork people. Don’t hold people back unnecessarily. Don’t play the blame game.
Spend Time Together Outside Work
One of the most important ways a company can foster fun and connectedness among employees is by investing time in things that aren’t work. If the focus is only ever on work, then employees will inevitably struggle to ever associate their work or coworkers as anything but energy sucks.
Consider how you can bring employees together in ways that will allow them feel refreshed and recharged and that will allow them to see their coworkers in a new light. How do you do that? You get them out of the office and help them see each other in a new light.
You could head to your city’s beloved team’s game as an outting. Escape Rooms are timed, problem-solving group challenges that are both entertaining and can even be a bit adrenaline pumping. For something a little less fast-paced consider something like cooking or painting classes.
Celebrate Their Accomplishments
This is true in every area of life, not just the professional arena: when people believe that what they’re doing matters, they’ll be far more likely to dive-in wholeheartedly with all of their resources and attention.
The key here is value. Does the company as a whole believe in the value of the product/services they’re offering? Just as importantly, does the company value each individual and their contributions?
If your employees value the priorities of the organization they will invest in the work, because it isn’t meaningless to them. They will see that their time investment is valuable.
In the same vein, employees will ascribe value to what they’re doing if their achievements are recognized and celebrated publicly. Acknowledging pivotal work is crucial for creating a company culture that reinforces productivity.
Recognize Them For More Than Their Work
If a company manages to consistently place the humanity of their employees at the forefront, those employees will be more likely to utilize their innate gifts to succeed.
All successful businesses keep the bottom line in view, and that makes good sense. However, that focus will actually be detrimental if they do not also manage to give employees time off to do good things that they care about.
If you want employees with the empathetic know-how to reach customers, you should give them the opportunity to do something like volunteer. If you want passionate employees, you should give them the time off to pursue the things the love. If you want certain traits to be apparent in the workplace, are you allowing your employees to foster those traits?
We’re All in This Together
Or, at least we should be, even at work. Over-worked, under-appreciated employees are on the fast-track to burnout and thus, low morale. But that never has to be the case, because every company has the ability to promote a robust, healthy culture.
It’s simply a matter of taking a hands-on approach. Actively and consistently assessing how you can do better and more effectively support your team is the only approach that will yield a truly successful organization with invested employees.