Building Morale In The Workplace
mo·rale - the confidence, enthusiasm and discipline of a person or group
As stated, morale has to do with confidence, enthusiasm and discipline - three things that are key in a workplace. Therefore, in order to think about building morale, people first need to think about…
- How can I make my employees/colleagues feel more confident in their jobs?
- How can we get everyone more excited about what we are doing at work?
- Is everyone being disciplined (in regards to everything from when they they roll into the office to how much effort is being put into sales, marketing, etc.)?
Once these questions and are answered and tweaks have been made, you will see an overall uptick at your place of work: People will be more calm and collected, will be more eager and will be more successful… and those are all amazing reasons to build morale!
We will soon go over some steps to take to achieve this, but first, we want to point out the other side of things. When employees don’t feel confident, excited or disciplined, they feel doubtful, uninterested and confused. They will not work in a positive or efficient way, and this could lead to turnover.
Many factors go into the cost of a turnover - such as how much each person makes, what their role was in the company and how long it takes to find a replacement. Still, a study was able to find that the average cost to replace someone is 16% of an annual salary. This mean that if you are replacing someone who makes $10/hour, it will cost you over $3,000.
So, as said, building morale is vital, and here is how to do it...
Specifically, here are ways to make those in your office feel more confident:
- Make them feel welcomed from day one. Welcome gifts such as clothing items, desk tools and tech gadgets make employees feel like
they are truly part of the team. As soon as a new hire walks through the doors, he/she needs to know everything that will help in getting the job done and needs to know that he/she is appreciated. - Have regular check-ins (formal and informal). Within businesses, a big part of confidence comes from knowing when we have done a job well. That being said, employers and bosses need to make sure they are checking in with every single person; from formal meetings each year to emails that thank someone for a certain task, recognizing efforts will build morale.
- Give them more responsibilities. On a similar note, employees can be given even more to do, once their strengths have proven to be a hit. This will definitely up that self-esteem!
Here are ways to spark more enthusiasm within your employees:
- Offer rewards, benefits and celebrations. When someone lands a new client or when someone is having a birthday, make a big deal about it. Everyone loves freebies, so hand out swag, offer vacation time and bring in cake to get people excited.
- Brag about each and every win. Furthermore, make sure everyone else in the office knows about the wins that the team is making; mention it in the company newsletter, make a speech at the beginning of the week, post about it on social media or present a medal… These will all be noticed and will make others want to please you, too.
- Make work interesting. Since 87% of employees that feel engaged at work are less likely to leave than those who feel disengaged, it is crucial to bring a little fun into the mix. This will look different for everyone - depending on the size of the workplace, the industry, the location and the goals - but just make sure that no one is getting stuck in a rut or feeling left in the dark.
And here are ways to make your workplace more disciplined:
- State and restate rules, guidelines and expectations. Every so often - especially when there are new hires and when a new year rolls
around - remind employees of the rules and set expectations. These guidelines should be restated now and then, to keep things in order. - Reprimand bad behavior. When these rules are broken, there must be consequences. This can be tricky, but it will help keep everyone in line and will help everyone have more respect for you.
- Show appreciation for those who follow the rules. On the other hand, when expectations are met and rules are followed, point it out to everyone, to give the office something else to strive for. This is another place where swag, like headphones or mugs, would come in handy!
As you can see, there are many ways to build morale, and there are many reasons to make sure it is being done. When a workplace is more confident, excited and disciplined, it will be more successful, as well.
