25+ Proven methods for boosting employee morale in Your Workplace

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How does your company culture affect employee morale? Are you aware of ways to boost employee morale?

These questions might come to cross your mind when it comes to employee morale of your business, workplace, or office. 

Employee morale is important because it affects productivity and retention. If employees are happy at work, they’ll perform better and stay longer.

There are several things you can do to improve employee morale. For example, you can provide them with opportunities to develop their skills, give them recognition, and reward good performance.

So without giving much thought, let’s dig deep into the different ways you can boost employee morale, and know more about this. 

Surefire Ways to Boost Employee Morale at work

Positive employee morale leads to increased productivity and efficiency in the workforce, as studies have shown.

If your company hits hard times, you may have to rely on your employees to help it pull through; if they’re not happy, they won’t be able to perform their best.

If there’re any issues with staff morale, then they’ll probably not be motivated enough to work extra hard to save the company.

However, if there’s a high level of work morale, then those same employees will likely be willing to do whatever it takes to save the company.

Solid company culture will help you attract and retain top talent. Reducing staff turnover will be easier.

A good and healthy work environment is vital for creating an enjoyable work culture. Employees who feel valued by their employer are more likely to be productive and happy at work. They should be involved in the hiring process themselves.

If employees feel good about their jobs, they’re less likely to leave. The domino effect: high morale among employees reduces workplace accidents, which leads to fewer absences and lowers workplace stress, which then results in less paid time off.

Common Causes of Low Morale and Keys to Preventing Them

The causes of low morale in the workplace are many. You may not be aware that your own attitude can have a negative effect on your team and your organization as a whole. The following article will help you identify some of these causes and provide solutions.

Lack of Communication

When you fail to communicate clearly and openly with your team, you could end up causing hurt feelings and misunderstandings. If you want to boost morale, then you must ensure that everyone knows what is expected of them.

Lack of Growth 

Lack of growth opportunities in a workplace leads to low morale. If you find yourself stuck in a rut, then you need to make changes to improve things. This includes making sure that new skills are taught and that there are plenty of chances for career development.

Bad staff morale can stem from both a lack of career opportunities for employees and a lack of personal growth opportunities for them.

If the company isn’t growing, or if its job doesn’t provide them with new challenges, employees can become bored and uninspired.

Research has shown that employees who don’t grow are likely to become disengaged and may even leave their current position for a more challenging one. This is the opposite of staff morale.

Poor Management Skills

When you lack management skills, you could find yourself dealing with problems that you didn’t anticipate. If you aren’t managing your team properly, they might start feeling frustrated and disrespected.

This can lead to a lot of stress and anxiety in the workplace.

If this is happening at your company, it’s time to take action. You need to learn how to manage people better so that you can help them grow professionally.

You also need to look into ways to motivate your team members.

Leadership Problems

Poor leadership usually leads to low employee morale. Leaders must understand how their behavior impacts the team. Morale will be affected if they don’t address the issue. And if nothing gets done, morale will only drop.

Inadequate Training

You need to make sure that all of your employees receive adequate training. This includes training on how to handle difficult situations, such as conflict resolution.

Training is important when it comes to improving employee performance. It helps them understand how to use specific tools and techniques effectively.

However, training alone won’t always be enough to keep your team motivated.

If you aren’t providing adequate training, then you could find yourself losing valuable staff.

It’s essential that you offer ongoing training to your team members. This way, they know exactly what they need to do to get ahead.

If you aren’t offering training, then you could lose out on talented individuals.

If you want to boost morale in your workplace, then you need to invest in training programs.

Inadequate Pay

Some workers may feel underpaid because they believe that they deserve more money than they actually get.

Others may feel dissatisfied because they don’t think that they’ve been given enough opportunities to advance within the company.

Lack of Clarity In Communication 

If employees don‘t know what you expect from them or they aren‘t aware of what‘s happening in the company, they‘ll lack the motivation to perform at their best. If you want to boost morale, this won’t be the way to do it.

Unfair Treatment

Some managers may treat employees unfairly due to personal animosity or jealousy. It’s also possible that you may be treating one person differently from another based on race, gender, age, sexual orientation, or disability status.

It’s important to remember that you cannot control everything that happens in your workplace, but you can control how you react to things that happen. By taking steps to address each of the above-mentioned cases, you’ll be able to improve employee morale.

Abrupt Changes In Leadership 

Change can be difficult to deal with but it’s an inevitable part of life.

When there is a merger or a new employee at the top level, morale can be affected by the change in the company culture. Because if the company culture changes so does staff morale.


How Positive Employee Morale Benefits Your Business

Positive employee morale is the key to a successful company. It’s not just about having happy employees, it’s also about keeping them engaged and motivated. If you want your employees to be productive, then they need to have high levels of morale.

Employees who are unhappy are less likely to work hard and put in the extra effort. They’re also more likely to leave the company for better job opportunities elsewhere.

This means that you need to take action now to ensure that your employees stay motivated and loyal to your business.

Employee retention

Low employee morale can make employees unhappy, undervalued, and unappreciated, which can result in higher turnover. Maintaining morale is important for avoiding unnecessary turnover and increasing staff loyalty.

Work performance

High morale helps employees feel good about themselves and inspires them to perform at their best.

Employee motivation

When employees feel appreciated and are provided with opportunities to develop their professional skill sets, they’re motivated to take action to accomplish work goals.

Communication

When employees have harmonious relationships and communication with their managers and co­ workers, they communicate effectively and hold positive attitudes.

Employee productivity

When employees believe in their company’s mission and can see themselves progressing professionally with their company, they tend to produce more work at a quicker pace.

Collaboration

Employees who feel supported and in synch with their colleagues are motivated and excited to work together on new projects.

Employee engagement

High morale encourages employees to feel present and engaged with the tasks at hand, instead of feeling overwhelmed with bigger-picture items.

How to Measure Employee Morale

How to measure employee morale is a question that has been asked for years. It’s one of those questions

that people have been trying to answer for decades, and it’s still an open question today. The problem with measuring employee morale is that it’s subjective. Employees may say that they are satisfied when actually they aren’t.

There are many ways to measure employee morale. Some of these include:

Conduct an employee morale survey

Conducting a company-wide survey is an efficient way of monitoring employee morale without using too much time or resources.

To conduct a successful study, be sure to ask relevant questions and use the results of those questions to improve your business.

An important question to ask is whether your company’s mission and purpose make you feel like your work matters.

You’ll also need to create a moral scale to help you measure your level of morale.

For example, if an employee answers yes to only three out of 10 questions, you can conclude they have low morale. If they answer “yes” to six questions, then you can conclude that their moral is medium.

Check employee history

It’s important to check employee history regularly to see if there are any indications of morale variations or trends.

There are several indicators to look for when evaluating a potential hire. These include absenteeism, production quality (i.e., the quality of the product), training records, and the total number of grievances filed against the employee.

If you notice any high fluctuations in employee morale, be sure to talk to them about it.

Conduct one-to-one interviews

Interviews are a good way to get first-hand information from employees about their work, co‑workers, managers, and their organization.

When conducting an effective interview, be certain to select the questions you’re going to ask beforehand and prepare a scale to help you evaluate the level of morale.

It’s also important that you document the information you get from each employee that you interview so that you’re able to look for patterns over time and identify trends.

Observe employees at work

It should be a natural and regular part of any manager’s job to observe his or her employees at work.

Managers should take care to carefully observe their employees’ actions and behavior, document these observations, and then meet with the employees to discuss improvement opportunities for the company.

Observation is most effective when you’re observing for positive reasons. Observation is not a good way to punish or fire an employee. Instead, observe him or her to see if there is something that could be done to help the person flourish in his or her career.

Conduct group interviews

Group interviews are a good way to get an inside look at group dynamics.

To conduct a successful interview, create your questions ahead of time and scale them up before you go into an interview.

Make sure each team knows that the purpose of the interviews is to gather information and help improve — not to put people on the spot or embarrass anyone.

Group interviews also encourage team members to come up with ideas to improve things as a group.

Monitor performance data

If your company provides performance metrics for each team member (e.g., productivity), you can use these metrics to track individual performance, like on-time deliveries and team member output.

If you notice consistent trends of poor performance, talk to employees about what changes you could make to improve their feelings about their work.

Factors that could negatively affect employee morale include poor leadership, lack of training, high turnover, etc. 

Effective Ways to Boost Employee Morale

There are many ways to increase employee morale. However, some of these methods will require additional investment while others will only cost time.

You should start by implementing a few simple strategies. These include:

  • Giving regular feedback
  • Providing clear goals and objectives
  • Offering flexible working hours
  • Encouraging teamwork
  • Creating a positive environment

These are all easy ways to boost morale. You shouldn’t underestimate the importance of making sure that your employees are satisfied with their jobs.

Boosting Employee Morale Through Communication

Communication plays a vital role when it comes to improving employee morale. When people don’t communicate well, then they often end up feeling isolated and alone.

One of the best ways to boost employee morale is to encourage open communication between managers and employees.

It’s important to understand that you can never force someone to talk to you. Instead, you need to use persuasion techniques to get people to open up.

One of the easiest ways to persuade people to speak openly is to give them a chance to express themselves.

You can do this by asking questions such as “What are your thoughts on…” or “Have you ever thought about…”

Another technique that you can use is to let people know what you think. For example, you could say things like “I really admire how you handled that situation” or “I was impressed with your ideas today.”

Another thing that you can do is to listen carefully to what other people have to say. Make sure that you pay attention to everything that they tell you.

Finally, you can ask your employees directly for advice and opinions. By doing so, you’ll be able to find out exactly what they think and whether there’s anything else that you can improve.

Provide Required tools And Stay up-to-date with the latest tools

Make sure your employees have access to the best, fastest, latest, and most efficient tools available so they can be more effective.

It’s essential to provide employees with coping mechanisms and stress management techniques so that they can enhance their mental health and well-being. It might mean providing preventive care services (such as immunizations), company training programs, coaching or off-site workshop session.

Strengthen Your managers

Managers directly affect the morale and engagement of their employees at their respective companies

Make sure to train managers on emotional intelligence skills such as monitoring and supporting employee morale, providing feedback and recogni­tion, communicating effectively, and employing effective leadership styles.

Managers should also have an open-door policy, so that team members can give feedback when they need to and share their concerns whenever they want.

Run A Calm, Healthy & Organized Company

Sure, pushing yourself to the limit sounds like a good idea, but it won’t work in the long run because it doesn’t help you achieve your goals.

Your goal should be reducing stress, maintaining a healthy work-life bal­ance, and running a calm, healthy, organized company.

Provide an EAP (Employee Assistance Program) that helps employees work through problems at work and/or at home.

A Wellness Program (EAP) is designed to help your employees work through issues that may affect their health and wellness, and/or their work performance.

Get Employee Feedback

Employee feedback is an effective way to boost employee morale and improve performance. Showing your employees that you’re listening makes them feel heard and motivates them to be more productive.

But it’s not enough just to collect user feedback; you also need to take action on it. Even if you don’t implement every piece of feedback, be certain to thank your employees for submitting their thoughts and suggestions.

Studies have shown that employees who receive regular feedback from their managers are more productive than those who don’t.

  • 87% of employees say they want job development, but only 1/3 get the feedback they need.

  • Gallup estimates: 
    • that disengaged employees cost U.S. companies $450–$550 billion every year in wasted time and productivity.

    • that employees who don’t receive any feedback are 40% more prone to disengage

    • 78% of employees reported that receiving recognition motivates them to do their job.

    • Motivation pays off for companies with more skilled workers because they experience twice the revenue growth and profit margins than companies with less-skilled workers.

All of the above shows that implementing and fostering a cultural environment where employees feel free to provide honest feedback is not just a “nice to have” or something that happens during the annual performance review.

It’s an essential part of year-round performance evaluation and development.

Measure employee morale regularly and make positive changes

One of the best things you can do for your employees’ morale is to regularly monitor their morale and use their feedback to make positive changes to your company culture.

It’s important to meet with employees one-on-one and in groups to collect feedback and collaborate.

Create a growth plan with employees

Create a career development plan that helps employees advance their careers by outlining what they need to accomplish to get promoted, meet the organization‘s goals, and improve their skills.

Find the balance between employee independence and accountability 

Many employees crave autonomy at work but many employers crave accountability. Find the right balance between supporting independence and accountability by setting clear and fair boundaries.

For example, if you allow employees to design their own schedules but then hold them accountable for those schedules by having them log their hours, they may be less likely to take advantage of that flexibility.

Be Transparent

Be as transparent and open as possible. Don’t try to hide problems or avoid conversations when morale is low. Doing so will cause more harm than good.

You’ll be able to get honest feedback from your team members if you’re open and honest about any issues. Let them know about company updates, new products, new protocols, and customer feedback.

Recognize and reward employees 

Make sure that you include employee recognition and employee feedback in your company-wide procedures

This can mean anything, from setting up an employee appreciation program to offering rewards for hitting specific metrics to simply saying, “Excellent work today, thanks.”

Boosting Employee Morale With Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is one of the best ways to improve employee morale. It works because it encourages people to try harder and perform at their best.

Positive reinforcement involves rewarding people for doing good work. In other words, you should praise employees whenever they achieve specific results.

For instance, you could say things such as “Great job! I’m glad that you were able to solve that problem.”

When you reward people for being successful, then they will feel more motivated to continue trying hard.

As you can see, there are many different ways to boost employee morale. If you want to increase productivity, then you need to invest in these strategies.

However, before you start implementing any of these methods, you first need to identify why your employees aren’t happy.

Once you’ve done this, then you can begin working toward changing the situation.

Provide Opportunities for Skill Development

If you want your employees to be productive, you need to make sure that they have the opportunity to learn new skills. This will help them grow professionally and increase their marketability in the future.

Organize Team Building Activities

Team building games are important because they help teams get closer together.

For starters, it creates a collaborative and motivated work environment, aids in problem-solving among team members, fosters meaningful and open communication among colleagues, promotes creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, enhances productivity, improves employee morale, and it keeps creative juices flowing!

Make team-building games fun and educational at the same time. It’s a surefire way to boost employee morale for the time being. Create a scavenger hunt or office trivia challenge to energize your employees.

If you have remote employees, then consider team-building games designed especially for them.

Recognize And Reward Employees Who Perform Well

You may think that recognizing employees who perform well is a waste of time or money. However, if you don’t recognize these individuals, they won’t feel appreciated and will eventually leave.

It’s not enough to simply pay people when they do something right. You also need to reward them when they do something wrong. By doing this, you show employees that you value their input and opinions.

Communicate Often With Your Employees

Communication plays an important role in boosting employee morale. When you communicate effectively, you create a sense of belonging among team members.

They’ll feel more connected to each other and be motivated to achieve common goals.

Communication between employees can be improved to help companies save money. Start by setting clear goals for each employee. Make sure they’re realistic.

Schedule one-on‑one meetings to track progress, and be sure to communicate at every opportunity. Post positive company announcements, like new products in development or glowing customer reviews.

You should also check in with your employees regularly and ask them: What are they doing? Are they having any issues?

  • How do you feel about your job/manager/co-workers?
  • Are you facing any challenges? How can I help?
  • Are you happy at work? How can I help? 

You need to communicate openly and regularly about issues and achievements that affect your employees. As far as boosting employee morale goes, this one’s huge.

Train Your Managers

If managers aren’t the direct cause of the poor morale, then the responsibility for fixing the morale lies with them. Make sure to train all your managers in emotional intelligence, communication, feedback, and different leadership styles too.

Managers can directly affect employee engagement and morale, so training managers is an important strategy for fixing low morale.

A small business publication found that job satisfaction generally increases and self-esteem improves when employees better understand their role within the company.

Training can also improve morale at work and increase loyalty to the company.

Employees who believe their company offers good training opportunities are generally less prone to quit their jobs within a year of receiving training than employees who don’t think they’ve received adequate training.

Encourage Employees To Take Genuine Breaks

Research has found that only a mere one in five people take a lunch break and that white-collar workers are actually the least likely to take a break. That means that there are far too many staff members eating lunch at their desks!

We know that creativity happens when people change their environment. And especially when they expose themselves to an environment similar to nature, a natural environment, we know that creativity happens.

Staying indoors, in the same place, is really detrimental to creativity.

It’s not good to ruminate too much. Doing so prevents ideas from percolating and gestating, which leads to an “aha!” moment.

Encourage your employees not to sit at their desks all day long. Instead, encourage them to take breaks every hour.

For example, get yourself a cup of coffee, go out for a walk outside, stretch your body, etc. If you make this a habit by doing it every day, you’ll be happier and you’ll be able to contribute greatly to the bottom line because you’ll be refreshed.

Studies have shown that the longer you stay in one environment, the more important it becomes to get out of that environment. Even if it’s only for a few minutes because creativity can suffer when you don’t change environments.

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