Employee morale boosters basics
Employee morale refers to the overall outlook, confidence, attitude and satisfaction of employees at a workplace. Positivity at work drastically increases productivity, which can potentially boost profits. When employees are happy and motivated, they perform higher quality work, collaborate better in teams and are more innovative, making morale boosting practices a win for everyone.
How to boost morale at work
Boosting morale in the workplace can make a substantial impact on the future of your organization. Use these morale boosting tips to make your company an uplifting work environment:
- Say thank you
- Champion work-life balance
- Promote from within
- Offer more vacation days
- Provide incentives
- Build cohesive teams
1. Say thank you
The importance of expressing gratitude can’t be overestimated when you’re searching for employee morale boosters. Showing workers you respect them makes a world of difference.
Ways to say thanks include writing thank you notes, taking staff out to birthday lunches, providing gift certificates for putting in extra hours and recognizing achievements at team meetings. These morale boosters for employees motivate workers and ensure they feel acknowledged and appreciated, which encourages loyalty and productivity.
2. Champion work-life balance
Demonstrate the importance of work-life balance by offering employees memberships or discounts to fitness clubs or classes, or bring in a yoga instructor to teach classes on mediation or stress reduction. Work-at-home or flex days may also help employees better manage their personal and work lives.
By showing employees you care about their physical and mental health, you bring positive energy to your business and foster a morale boosting workplace that supports a better work-life balance.
3. Promote from within
Employees work harder when they anticipate a tangible reward for their efforts. This desire for incentive makes it prudent to develop and promote people from within the organization when you want an easy way to boost morale at work.
Promoting from within can significantly improve the attitude of staff when they see talent and quality work recognized, helping your organization boost team morale and create a solid, stable workforce filled with highly competent individuals.
4. Offer more vacation days
Many employees take fewer vacation days than they earn. Unfortunately, when employees don’t take time from work to restore themselves, it may negatively affect your attempts at morale boosting. To counteract this, consider offering more vacation days and promoting their use.
Well-rested and refreshed employees have a better attitude toward their work and colleagues, and they also frequently produce higher quality work and better ideas for your company. Keep in mind that happy individuals create happy groups, so more vacation days may help boost team morale.
5. Offer incentives
Offering commissions, bonuses and simple rewards for quality performance typically goes a long way in improving morale in the workplace. It helps to focus these morale boosting programs around clearly articulated goals and offer incentives your employees truly value.
For example, if you want to boost team morale, shape incentives in a way that brings out the individual strengths of each team member, so everyone has something to contribute and can enjoy the fruits of their collaborative labor. Individual morale boosters for employees may include bonuses, time off for improvement in a weak area or rewards for taking charge and guiding successful team efforts.
6. Build teams
Great teams produce high-quality work, and morale building exercises bring members together for fun activities that strengthen bonds and develop teamwork. Creating collaborative groups and using those groups to boost team morale may significantly improve the performance of both the groups and their individual members.
When deciding on how to group workers, it helps to consider individual strengths and weaknesses. Balancing teams out into complementary forces with everything each needs for success can help you optimize your efforts for boosting employee morale.
Last thoughts on boosting employee morale
Getting creative with a variety of techniques helps your business craft novel morale boosters for work. Each person in your company is an individual with unique needs and abilities, so making each employee feel like your company values their well-being and time helps enormously with your morale boosting efforts. By improving the overall dynamic of how you treat your employees, your business cultivates happy, positive workers who deliver high-quality results.
FAQs about boosting morale in the workplace
The answers to these frequently asked questions about boosting morale in the workplace can help you with morale boosting efforts.
How do you rebuild morale after negative events?
Events, such as layoffs or interpersonal conflict between team members, may lead to low morale among employees, and rebuilding it can seem like a daunting task. Communication lies at the heart of improving morale in the workplace when these unfortunate events occur. This means you may have to work harder to develop relationships with individuals, have honest talks about what went wrong and work together on ways to help staff members who are having difficulty with the changes. It also helps to stay enthusiastic and build upon successes by celebrating when things go right, even if it’s just to get a morale boosting win on the board.
What are some morale boosters for remote workers?
When you think about how to boost morale at work, you most often think of physical workplaces. However, remote employees experience the same issues as physical staff when things go wrong, and they have the added problem of isolation. One great morale booster for remote employees is creating a work culture that includes them and gives them chances for personal interaction with other workers. Other ways to boost both individual and team morale for remote workers include checking in often, keeping expectations clear and focused and providing fast, honest feedback via phone calls when situations need a personal touch.