A high morale work place is essential to any business. Low morale can quickly take your business off the rails and lead ultimately to business failure. The root cause of low employee morale can be numerous including job security issues, limited upward mobility, lousy management practices, excessive outsourcing, lack of fair pay and much more.
To increase employee morale, you need to understand that a diversified approach to remove morale blockers and enhance staff motivators will work best to rid your business of poor morale.
Impact of Low Employee Morale
What does low morale cost to your business?
Like a disease, poor morale can infect every aspect of a business. It can lead to reduced productivity, reduced revenue, high staff turnover and more. According to Sirota Consulting, the share price of low morale companies saw only a 3% increase in price versus an industry average of 16%.
11 Employee Morale Boosters
Morale boosters can take the form of recognition, compensation, special perks or simply terminating employees. Here are 11 low cost morale boosters:
Welcome Ideas: Employee morale improves when staff feel they are valued. Share and implement their innovations and ideas.
Keep Score: Mount a large score board in the office to recognize top performers and to motivate those on the bottom of the list.
Inspect: The old management adage, inspect what you expect is true. Companies with a lack of focus can confuse staff and lead to less morale.
Thank You Notes: Send a special thank you letter to your staff’s family or spouse, praising their good work and efforts.
Huddle: Have a daily morning huddle to highlight tasks for the day and to cheer yesterday’s wins.
Open Up: Provide an open forum or one-on-one time to allow employees to express their concerns and feelings can be an easy means to boost morale.
Have Fun: Special events and outside work activities can take the pressure off the day-to-day grind in the office.
Show Charity: Get your staff involved in a bigger cause to help them see there is more to life than work.
Add Perks: Use low cost perks such as a Foosball table in the lunch room.
Fire Staff: Sometimes the root cause of low employee morale can be a staff member whose negativity brings down the group. Even a top performer can bring down staff behind your back.
Measure It: Keep tabs on the levels of morale in your business by regularly measuring employee satisfaction.
The backbone of business success resides in the productivity and output of your employees. Those companies who remain vigilant to the signs of low morale and who focus on improving morale can thwart off the impact of a low morale workplace.
