Morale drives workplace productivity. Your company’s success relies on happy and engaged employees. High morale is only sometimes how an office functions. Low morale can also have damaging effects, reducing contributions to company goals and potentially leading to workplace conflicts.
If you want to learn how to improve morale in the office, here’s what you can do to facilitate a more engaged, positive, and happy workplace.
Ask for Feedback
Talk to your employees one-on-one or in a group setting to get their opinion on morale. Listen for common themes that bother them and ask for suggestions.
Give Employees Feedback
Acknowledge your team’s hard work individually and as a group. Employees get demotivated when they need to know whether their performance is good. Don’t forget to recognize the good in your workplace and spotlight your high performers.
Hire Office Cleaning Services
If you don’t already, hire office cleaning services to keep every corner of your workplace tidy and clean. No one wants to work in an unkempt, dirty, and debris-filled office. An office cleaner tidys up every night, clears the day’s mess, and prepares your space for a new day.
Develop Strong Managers
A weak, mean, or ineffective manager should be re-trained or let go. No one wants to work for a poor manager. Provide employees with trustworthy, respectful managers who deliver on what they say.
Incentivize Performance
It may be a financial bonus, a gift, or an in-office incentive, but incentivizing employee performance can make work more fun and competitive. It gets people invested in what they’re doing while also showing appreciation and is a simple way to motivate.
Challenge Workers
If low morale is due to losing interest, talk to employees individually to see what challenges them. It may involve new tasks, repositioning certain employees in new roles, or adding employees to projects that provide them opportunities for learning, creativity, and self-expression.
Develop Employees
Show your team members you are interested in them by offering different forms of training and professional development. Help them improve their work performance and develop a career, creating leaders. In turn, this boosts your workforce’s strength.
Revise Company Culture
Company culture is your company’s beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviours. It extends to pay, benefits, workload, performance management, and other elements of daily management.
If your company has hit a rough patch or morale has plummeted, it may be time to revise, reevaluate, and redefine its culture. This may include moves such as a pay raise or an adjustment to benefits.
Hold Team Events
Host team events like lunches, dinners, seasonal parties, birthdays, and more. This is a more casual non-work setting where your team can foster bonds and relationships that tighten your team.
Foster More Collaboration
Structure work for a team-based environment—Foster collaboration. Encourage workers to pair up or work together on projects. This sets the stage for fun and connection and is a particularly productive way to tackle tasks.
Emotional Support
Lend your employees emotional support when they need it. This is part of establishing and maintaining a positive work-life balance. Allow employees some freedom and work with them to accommodate challenging personal situations. Your workers will value you more for it.
Set Clear Communication
Clear, transparent communication from management down is essential. When employees don’t get all the necessary information, some naturally speculate and gossip. This can lead to misinformation spreading and a lack of trust. Instead, alleviate this risk by being clear and timely with all communications at an individual and group level.
Build Trust
Trust improves morale, and there are two primary ways to build it. Listen to employees’ concerns and respond to them in a way that makes them feel heard. Set an example by demonstrating positive characteristics you wish to see in employees.
New or existing company policies may receive resistance or negative feedback. Analyze the general opinion of different policies and procedures.
Adjust Deadlines
You may be setting too harsh deadlines. Failure to complete tasks may result in stress and pressure. See if you’re creating an unnecessarily stressful workplace by setting aggressive deadlines that your team struggles with.
Promote Creativity
A person who has a chance to create will feel engaged and empowered in the task. Find ways to give your team members the chance to develop. This may involve finding new, innovative ways to work or setting a regular hour every Friday to sit down and brainstorm. As a result, this will also give your team something to look forward to.