10 Surefire Ways To Boost Employee Morale

As a business leader, a large part of your company’s success relies heavily on your workers’ morale and engagement. Unfortunately, statistics show that only 36% of employees are actively engaged in the workplace. Low employee engagement leads to lower productivity, poor job satisfaction, fewer sales, and higher records of losses. If you have noticed a downward trend in your employees and business activities, you must ask yourself if you are doing your best to keep your employees engaged and encourage them to use the most of their potential. Sure, you cannot please everybody, but when your employees feel they are receiving your support, it motivates them intrinsically and pushes them to perform at their best. As a result, employees that are more productive in the work environment are more likely to stay longer, reducing turnover rates. So, what are some of the best ways to keep your employees’ morale up? Check out some of these helpful tips to adopt.

• Conduct an employee morale survey

If you want to know how low or high your employee morale is, you must conduct a survey. A survey is an excellent way to get a glimpse at the level of morale in your workplace. It doesn’t require a lot of resources to create a survey, and it shouldn’t take your workers more than thirty minutes to complete it. When creating a survey, ensure that you ask the appropriate questions directly linked to employee morale. You can ask your workers about the work environment and communication style and even encourage them to make suggestions. All survey responses must be anonymous so that your workers feel safe and comfortable sharing their honest experiences and opinions with you. Additionally, you should also consider creating a scale for your employees to rate to help you properly measure and evaluate your employees’ overall level of morale.

From the responses you receive, you can now develop strategies to help you improve employee morale if it is too low. That way, you would have listened to everyone’s suggestions making them more appreciative of your efforts. 

• Provide your employees with cool incentives

Providing your employees with amazing incentives is a great way to raise their morale. It’s not a long-term solution, but it can be a good tip to bring them back on track. It could be a fun day out, giving your workers the day off or the chance to work from home for a day. You can also develop programs designed to help your employees develop professionally and personally. You can encourage them to sign up for a course paid for by the company or at subsidized costs. These programs or courses should be tied to their professional duties to help them perform their jobs better. It might even spark their creativity after months of feeling down and unmotivated. 

• Train managers

Your managers are there to lead your employees; as such, the responsibility to keep employees motivated rests on their shoulders. As a business owner, you must ensure that your managers are enrolled in training programs to improve their emotional intelligence, communication skills, and leadership styles. These skills would be beneficial to ensure they understand the importance of employee morale and increase morale in them. Additionally, training your managers gives them the skills to identify low morale and implement smart strategies to boost it.

• Corporate gifting

Giving corporate gifts to your employees shows that you appreciate their work. It also contributes largely to building a positive work environment. During difficult times when your workers are struggling with stress and burnout, these gifts can help them feel that their sacrifices are not in vain. Such gifts also serve as a great way to welcome new workers and keep them motivated. Fortunately, you do not have to spend time or money looking for appropriate gifts. Many gifting companies, such as Dynamic Gift, have a wide range of budget-friendly custom-made corporate gifts you can give employees no matter the occasion. 

• Improve your communication

There’s nothing that kills employee morale than poor communication. Newer generations of workers entering the professional world place a high value on effective communication. They prefer receiving more information before working on tasks and value feedback and active listening. 

There are various ways to enhance communication in your workplace. You can schedule weekly team meetings to ensure that all workers are updated on tasks and projects. It would be best if you also made it a point to know your workers and identify the best communication channels. You can also hold communication training sessions, document meetings, and send recaps whenever needed. Feedback is highly crucial in boosting employee morale. How else would they know they are doing the right thing?

• Encourage your employees to rest

Constantly working can take a toll on the health of your workers, and when they aren’t feeling their best, it can affect their morale. If your employees are too scared to ask you for a break, you’re doing something wrong. As a leader, you must be concerned about your workers’ physical and mental well-being. Work-related activities are one of the major sources of stress among employees in the States, putting them at risk of developing life-threatening diseases in the long run. About 62% of workers say they are highly stressed and suffer from extreme fatigue. 

It would be best to encourage your employees to take breaks whenever necessary. Workers that know that you value their well-being will be more motivated to work with you. You can support their well-being by giving them flexibility and time off options to improve their work-life balance. Another popular suggestion is to set up a reward scheme that awards employees who adopt healthy workplace habits to improve their wellness. 

• Encourage your workers to take breaks

If you’ve noticed that your workers are making it a habit of eating their lunch right at their desks or not at all, it’s time to encourage them to take breaks. Sometimes when the workload gets too much, it stifles your employees’ creativity and innovation. Encouraging them to take regular breaks during working hours can revitalize them and give them fresher ideas. 

Ensure that your employees spend a few minutes away from their desks to walk outside or get a cup of coffee. As you encourage them, you will slowly develop a culture where your workers are happier and can contribute more. Implore them to embrace breaks to spark their creativity. 

• Know and involve your employees

You must know your employees. After all, you only have to reach into your employee database to gather information from them. And while you’re not mandated to know everything in their lives, taking the chance to get to know your employees can go a long way in improving their morale. How else will you know how to improve their morale if you do not know them? Sometimes, it takes a little discussion to understand why a person behaves as they do. 

Aside from getting to know your employees, it would help if you also involved them in projects and other activities. Give them the chance to plan some non-work activities to plan something they like. Giving them the chance to participate will also positively influence your workplace culture and improve morale. 

• Recognize your employees’ efforts 

Being recognized for your achievements is such a pleasant feeling. Sometimes, a simple “thank you” will go a long way in boosting your employees’ morale. As a leader, the more you recognize your employees for their good work done, the better your work environment becomes. 

Ensure that you build a culture of recognition, where everyone feels they are contributing towards a shared goal. You can show your appreciation by telling them or introducing employee rewards programs. You can also commend an employee through an internal newsletter or share on social media. Be sure you update your company frequently to celebrate milestones, whether it’s the arrival of a new hire, work anniversaries, or an employee spotlight. 

Employee recognition is perhaps the fastest way to boost employee morale. It gives your workers a sense of accomplishment and makes them feel valued. This, in turn, yields higher productivity and better engagement, and even your customers would be satisfied.  

• Promote diversity in the workplace

Diversity should be a priority for your business, as it gives all kinds of people with unique talents the opportunity to work and earn a living. Diversity encourages people, especially your workers, to appreciate different points of view and an opportunity to learn from each other. It also fosters creativity, effectively boosting morale in the workplace.

Morale can be the glue that holds your business together. When your employee morale is high, you can face challenges and share your wins. When employees feel valued and appreciated, it fosters a harmonious environment where every individual works towards a common goal. With these tips, you can boost employee morale as quickly as possible. By keeping your workers highly engaged and ensuring that they flourish in a productive environment, you can reduce your employee turnover rate and improve your business’s output.