Do your employees look unenthusiastic and disengaged in the workplace?
Although it can be difficult to measure enthusiasm and engagement without doing a proper study, you can tell things aren’t well among your staff if production numbers are on a slump. Employee disengagement is costing American companies about $550 billion every year.
How do you fix this? Simple! Improve employee morale.
This, though, can be difficult to pull off unless you’re using the right employee motivation strategies.
In this article, we’re sharing simple but effective ways to boost staff morale and get productivity trending upwards again.
1. Listen to Your Employees
As an employer, you know the importance of keeping an open line of communication between management and lower-level employees. Unfortunately, not many businesses have this open line of communication.
It doesn’t matter whether you state in your policy documents that the organization supports open communication. Naturally, most of your employees will not air the views and opinions, lest they anger management. This is why it’s your responsibility to reach out and encourage your workers to speak up.
Open anonymous lines of communications if you have to and act on the information you receive. Let them see that you’re listening to them. Employees who feel their voice is being heard are 4.6 times more likely to be upbeat and put in their best effort at work.
2. Show Empathy
These days, it’s not uncommon to hear employees of top firms resigning because the firm isn’t making appropriate responses to emerging societal issues. These workers are resigning because they feel their employer isn’t empathetic enough.
In a small business like yours, your employees likely won’t resign. They’ll instead down their tools, which is more detrimental to your organization.
It doesn’t cost you anything to be an empathetic boss. Recognizing the emotions of your employees and responding appropriately will go a long way in making them feel that they work in an organization that values them. This is good for their morale.
3. Run Fun Contests
All work and no play makes you a dull boy or girl.
The same applies to your employees too. They are not workhorses or robots that keep at it without wearing down.
How about introducing some play at work? Running fun contests is a good way to do this.
For example, if your company is on social media, you can run a photo caption content. The caption with the most likes wins. And the winner gets an exciting reward, such as a week of working remotely or a gift card or whatever else works for your employees.
Role-based challenges can also do a good job. Whoever wins or completes the challenge can get a challenge coin. Be sure to read more about challenge coins and how you can use them to enhance morale.
These contents and challenges might add to your budget, but the return on investment is worth it for more employee motivation.
Improve Employee Morale Without Trying So Hard
You want your employees to show up at work looking and feeling happy, ready to go at it. This is only going to happen when you know how to improve employee morale. With this guide, you now know have a couple of effective tips you can use to boost morale.
Keep reading our blog for more tips and insights on how to improve employee morale. Visit the HR and Careers section of the Bootstrap Business Blog right now to learn more about motivating employees.
