Employee morale is imperative for corporate success. Bad morale makes it harder for your employees to be productive and can act as a breeding ground for a myriad of other issues. Bad morale can eviscerate any attempts to grow a company, as well; it’s hard to out-recruit high turnover, after all.
A happy employee is one that feels empowered by their work and comfortable in their role; that allows them to be more productive and achieve results that will allow a company to grow. On top of that, higher employee morale at an organization lowers employee absenteeism and truancy. Employees with higher morale actually want to be at work and organizations that can find a way to boost employee morale experience higher employee retention and less turnover.
By proactively increasing morale, you get more motivated employees who feel like their contributions are making a difference – and that can make all the difference in a corporate environment. There are a few different strategies that an organization can take to keep employees’ eyes on the ball and enthused to go to work every day.
Inspirational Corporate Speakers
Motivational speakers have always improved workplace morale, even before employee morale was a commonly discussed term in the business community. Still, the idea of booking an inspirational speaker might strike some managers as a waste of time.
Here’s the thing: A motivational speaker speaks on topics that go beyond the workplace. They can help your employees to order their lives, to achieve a better work-home balance, and to achieve dreams that have nothing to do with their work environment. By showing a vested interest in your employees’ lives, you are showing that you care about them beyond what they can provide to your company. That’s a huge first step to improving morale.
More companies are choosing to book inspirational corporate speakers because these are people who have already accomplished a lot in the corporate world. Managers are seeing inspirational corporate speakers as an investment in their employees in that corporate speakers provide fresh perspectives and further support corporate values.
Corporate speakers have also been said to refocus employees on the most important tasks that lie ahead and boost productivity by getting employees more committed to their craft.
Use Social Media
Social media can be used for both marketing and bolstering employee morale in the sense that managers can praise employees for going the extra mile to improve customer experience in a way that increases employee satisfaction and morale.
Encourage Employee Feedback
Employees are at their best when they feel that they have open lines of communication to their managers and administrators. Managers, in turn, make their best decisions when they know exactly what’s going on in the trenches.
By finding out what sales associates and marketers are actually feeling and experiencing, managers can take the pulse of their employees, their products, and their customers more effectively.
Custom Employee Recognition Pins
Increasing employee recognition has the effect of bolstering employee morale and increasing employee engagement at a particular company. Consider the inverse of having an employee recognition program – employees who feel that their contributions aren’t really that important or, worse yet, unrecognized and forgotten.
Pins that reward employees for accomplishing specific tasks or benchmarks can make employees feel in closer alignment with management and the overarching goals of the company. The effect is a more collaborative, positive workplace culture and higher returns.
Encourage Actual Lunch Breaks
Creative thinking has been shown to take a nosedive if employees are forced to stay in the same workplace for hours on end. Encouraging employees to grab a coffee or go to the conference room and enjoy some catered food improves morale and brings everyone to the office closer together.
Simply swapping one environment for another can have a stimulating effect on problem-solving. Two of the greatest philosophers in history, Immanuel Kant and Arthur Schopenhauer, made it a point to go on a one-hour walk every day to clear their heads after spending the lion’s share of their days at their desks.
Encouraging employees to stretch their legs can give them a new perspective on a problem. The mind does most of its hardest problem solving subconsciously, so never underestimate the importance of taking a break after working hard for hours.
Team-building Trips
Speaking of collaboration, team-building trips are great for an organization because they provide employees with positive reinforcement and encourage employees to be more creative in their problem-solving. Too often, companies can become complacent with the habitual ways in which they tackle a problem.
Team-building trips help to infuse a sense of collaboration, creativity, and effective communication into an organization. Employees might find that by opening the lines of communication to an employee in another department the creative product is greater than the sum of its parts.
Scavenger hunts and touring the outdoors together are increasingly common ways that employees can problem solve and get closer outside of the workplace. That same enthusiasm will eventually filter its way back into the workplace and seriously boost employee morale.
Incentive Programs
Offering employees rewards in the form of gift cards and Kindles loaded with books on business success will show employees that you’re taking notice of their contributions. Better yet, ask employees which courses they’d like to pursue then sign them up if their performance warrants it. Having incentive programs such as gifts, classes, or extra vacation days can go a long way in making your employees feel appreciated.
The modern workplace has its fair share of challenges. Employees are less likely to stay put unless the company that they’re employed by makes a sincere effort to retain them. That makes an empowering and rewarding workplace extremely important. By striving to invest in your employees’ well-being, you can have a happy and healthy work environment for everyone.