How to Keep Employees in Good Spirits
We all know how it is to go from an excited new employee who has finally gotten the position after weeks of interviews, mixed with uncertainty, to a drained worker bot who loathe coming into the office. There are many factors that are involved with an employee’s morale being crushed like a soda can under a tank.
So how does a company keep up employee morale? Also, what are the factors that lead to low morale in the office? There are many, but let’s narrow them down.
What Causes Low Morale in the Office
Human beings are an emotional bunch. Some days you can feel like taking on the world and buying the New York Stock Exchange like Jeffrey Sprecher. Other days, you are down on your luck and in a funk not wanting to come into the office at all.
But why is that? Why such a flip-flop? Why can’t the office be someone’s happy place?
Typically, if you ask people to rank their happiness as a rung on a ladder with ten being the happiest and one being the lowest, people usually rank their happiness as a seven on average.
This is even after they have had milestones happen. Yes, they will report either being at a ten when winning the lottery, or lower, for example, when there is a death in the family. But after a while, they will rank their happiness around seven.
So How Can You Improve the Morale in the Office
There are six ways you can improve employees’ attitudes and emotional well-being.
Make sure the candidate fits the culture.
One of the biggest factors is who is a part of the culture in the first place. Controlling who is allowed to become a part of your work environment is a huge consideration.
Talent and diversity are must-haves. What we fail to realize is how important personality is to the work culture. Are you bringing in open-minded people who love to conquer challenges or are they introverts who have paralysis by analysis?
Asking certain questions can help ascertain the different personality types so that there is a nice blend of cohesive personalities that create a homogenous vibe.
Give feedback weekly.
Giving frequent feedback is a good way to increase morale and keep morale high. People like to be recognized for their work, ideas, and creativity. By giving them positive or negative feedback you reinstate or create a feedback loop where they keep high performance or correct their erroneous behavior.
Monthly, semi-annual, and annual award ceremonies are another great way to recognize individuals and teams across the company. This creates a good vibe and gives people something to look forward to; something to strive for.
Encourage self-development and self-improvement.
We all strive to be better people, better human beings, better friends, family members, neighbors, and coworkers. Incorporating some way for information to be accessible to your coworkers in a structured way will improve morale.
Scheduling a financial adviser to instruct a five class course for those who would like to improve their credit, learn to create college savings for a child, learn about stocks, cryptocurrency, and buying a house and other investment properties will empower them with more added value.
Improve the social self.
Making time for yoga, volunteering to feed the homeless, planting trees, cleaning the river, mentoring kids, and meditation are other ways to ameliorate mental, social, and emotional health.
When we give back, we feel better about ourselves and our mission. We feel better about our team, our company, and our work friends. We come together and have a general sense of significance. It shows our concern for the future and is in itself a selfless act.
Allow time off.
So this one connects with reason number four. Allowing your employees to have time off in an easy, seamless way. This can be as sick leave, time to deal with a new child, a sabbatical, time to run errands, or attending to a sick family member.
Remove actively disengaged employees.
A disengaged employee is someone who does not participate in activities, meetings, social events, etc. They are quiet and standoffish. They have nothing to contribute and aren’t enthusiastic about doing their job.
An actively disengaged employee is someone who actively complains about a coworker, business model, or project. They actively spread their disagreeing views and energy. They try to get others to do the same until there is dissonance among the department, building, or company. Removing this person before they spread the dissonance will improve and keep high morale.
Remember that people have ups and downs in their life. Most feel happy with their lives. To keep high morale in the office, encourage self-development, allow time off, promote well-being, improve financial knowledge, and remove actively disengaged people.
