Building morale at work basics
Employee morale refers to employees’ collective outlook, confidence, attitude, and satisfaction. Morale directly influences your company’s operational success.
Boosted morale and positivity at work bring a noticeable increase in productivity because employees typically deliver higher-quality work when they feel happy and motivated. Higher morale can lead to better collaboration between team members and help them work together toward goals.
Building morale at work also benefits your organization as a whole. A positive work environment nurtures innovation by making employees comfortable enough to propose innovative ideas. Content employees who feel valued often think more creatively and take the calculated risks necessary to make breakthroughs in their current jobs and beyond. Because of these benefits, it’s important for businesses to find ways to increase employee morale.
How to boost morale at work
Boosted morale in the workplace can substantially impact your company’s future, but it goes beyond the occasional team outing or email. Growing morale requires a sustained commitment to creating a fulfilling, supportive setting that makes employees feel valued and heard. Employers and HR professionals have numerous ways to boost staff morale sometimes involving creative solutions.
For example, many companies let workers explore their passions or give back to the community with incentives like paid time off (PTO) for volunteer work. The methods you choose to improve employee morale depend on what your workers want and need the most. Here are a few examples to get you started:
1. Create a positive environment
A positive work environment boosts morale and fosters a productive, efficient workplace. Improve physical comfort with well-lit spaces, ergonomic desk furniture, office plants and a clean area for employees to complete their work. A positive environment also requires creating a culture of respect and support that echoes throughout your organization.
Transparent, effective communication forms the foundation of a positive workplace, ensuring each employee feels heard and understood. Also, open-door policies bolster confidence in management and let workers freely express concerns and ideas in a safe, inclusive space that’s welcoming for everyone.
2. Say thank you
Never underestimate the importance of expressing gratitude for a job well done or when a team member goes above and beyond. Showing workers you respect them makes a world of difference when you want to improve employee morale, and it helps create a culture of gratitude within your workplace.
When workers feel genuinely appreciated for their efforts by management, it uplifts their spirits and solidifies loyalty and commitment to your organization. Write a simple thank you note or email or add tangible rewards, such as gift cards, to your thank you notes.
3. Recognize milestones and achievements
In addition to recognizing workplace achievements, you can also let employees know you care about them by celebrating personal milestones like birthdays. Simple gestures, such as taking staff to birthday lunches and recognizing achievements at team meetings, foster a sense of community that reinforce employee satisfaction.
Likewise, tangible rewards, such as gift certificates, offer a direct acknowledgment when workers show their dedication by working extra hours or performing tasks outside their usual responsibilities.
These employee morale boosters motivate your workers with acknowledgment and appreciation while encouraging loyalty and productivity.
4. Champion work-life balance
Demonstrate your commitment to work-life balance when you’re looking for ways to boost staff morale and overall employee well-being. For example, you might offer employees memberships or discounts to fitness clubs or classes or bring in a yoga instructor to teach meditation or stress reduction classes.
Morale boosters like these show workers you prioritize their health, encourage a healthier lifestyle and give employees a break from their everyday routines. Your company, in turn, potentially benefits from championing healthy work-life balance for employees due to the increased energy levels and focus these activities provide.
5. Try flexible scheduling
Flexible work options help employees better manage their time, and they may come in the form of work-from-home opportunities, flex days and customized schedules designed around their personal commitments.
These morale boosters give employees autonomy without interfering with their work responsibilities, showing you trust them to make good decisions. This extra confidence boost empowers your workers by making them feel professionally and personally supported.
6. Promote from within
Employees work harder when they anticipate a tangible reward for their efforts. This desire for incentives makes developing and promoting people from within the organization prudent when looking for ways to increase employee morale. Internal promotions typically boost morale at work because it allows employees to see that their talent and quality work is recognized and rewarded.
Also, promoting high-performers helps you create a solid, stable workforce, boosting your chances of keeping institutional knowledge within your organization and potentially saving money on employee turnover costs.
7. Provide more PTO
Providing more paid time off (PTO) goes a long way in boosting employee morale, especially when workers feel empowered to use it. Many employees take less PTO than they earn, with many banking those days for future use due to a company culture that discourages taking time off for emergencies, much less holidays.
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 PTO days and encouraging their use. Well-rested, refreshed employees have better attitudes toward their work and often produce higher-quality work.
8. Offer incentives
Offering commissions, bonuses and simple rewards for quality performance typically goes a long way in building morale at work. It helps to focus these morale-boosting programs around clearly articulated goals and offer incentives that your employees truly value.
Profit-sharing programs give employees a vested interest in your business’s success, while seasonal contests that create friendly competition can add fun to the workplace.
Consider using group incentives that utilize the individual strengths of each team member to ensure everyone has something to contribute. Likewise, morale boosters for individual employees might include extra PTO to improve their teamwork or leadership skills.
9. Build effective teams
Cohesive teams produce high-quality work, and structured team-building exercises offer a fun way to encourage individuals to work together effectively. Consider activities such as giving them a test project to complete in a set amount of time to improve communication or taking them off-site to an escape room to challenge their problem-solving skills.
Create collaborative groups comprised of individuals with complementary strengths and weaknesses. This balance boosts team morale by ensuring they have everything they need for success while helping you optimize your business operations. Other benefits include improved communication by assisting employees in breaking down barriers and gaining a better understanding of each others’ perspectives.
10. Support career development
Assisting employees with career and leadership development helps identify candidates for internal promotions and fosters professional growth, ultimately strengthening your workforce. Comprehensive training programs for new employees—and others who want a refresher course—help everyone feel confident about how they do their jobs, whether they’re on track for leadership or not.
Tailor offerings for seminars and webinars based on employees’ specific needs and goals to help them fully realize their potential. You might also set up a mentorship program that pairs seasoned professionals with those on similar career tracks to improve knowledge transfer efforts while building a company culture of learning and support.
11. Seek employee feedback
Asking employees for their opinions and ideas helps them feel like they matter to management and the company. When workers feel heard and know they can go to their managers with any suggestions and concerns, they usually feel more connected to your business, resulting in boosted morale.
Seek staff feedback by implementing regular employee surveys that include questions about job satisfaction, management practices and the workplace environment. Making these surveys anonymous can encourage honest, constructive feedback, and using the results to take visible actions shows employees you’re serious about listening to and resolving their issues.
12. Take social responsibility
Showcase your commitment to issues your employees care about when seeking ways to increase employee morale. Cultivate a sense of pride and purpose in the workplace by setting up employee resource groups (ERGs) that let workers join affiliation-based teams and provide them with PTO for volunteer work the ERG performs together. Include volunteer work in your program that aligns with each group’s focus, such as supporting local charities or providing community service. You can also suggest these groups head up internal initiatives such as reducing waste and promoting recycling in your facility.
Getting creative with various techniques helps your business craft novel ways to boost staff morale. Everyone in your company has unique needs and abilities, so making each employee feel like you value their well-being and time helps with your morale-boosting efforts. By improving how you treat your employees, your business cultivates happy, positive workers who deliver high-quality results.
FAQs about boosting morale in the workplace
How do you rebuild morale after negative events?
Events such as layoffs or interpersonal conflict between team members may lead to low employee morale, making rebuilding morale imperative. Communication lies at the heart of improving morale in the workplace when these unfortunate events occur. Working harder to develop relationships with individuals and having honest talks about what went wrong can help. Also, find ways to support staff who have difficulty accepting the changes. Going forward, do your best to improve employee optimism and enthusiasm and build upon successes by celebrating when things go right.
What are some morale boosters for remote workers?
Remote employees experience the same issues as physical staff when things go wrong, and they have the added problem of isolation. Boost remote employee morale by creating a company 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, providing clear, focused expectations and delivering fast, honest feedback via phone calls when situations need a personal touch.
What are the main causes of low employee morale?
According to Deloitte Insights, lack of trust due to leadership deficits is one of the main drivers behind low employee morale. Constant monitoring and micromanagement make employees feel less trusted, so in turn, they feel less invested in the business and less motivated to provide more than what’s expected of them.
