Whether you've determined that your business has an employee morale issue or you want to up your employees' motivation, there are several excellent ways to boost employee morale and motivation without incurring high costs.
Low employee morale can adversely affect your ability to attract and retain the best employees and have a detrimental effect on productivity. Maybe you suspect that you may have a problem with low morale because employees are exhibiting signs of low morale or because a survey that you've done of your employees indicates it. If this is the case, you need to determine which aspects of your workplace are creating dissatisfaction with the job and find ways to remedy them.
Even if you don't have a low morale problem, you may want to jump-start your workforce into higher levels of productivity. Being proactive in this area makes good business sense.
So whether your employees are disgruntled or not, you should check out these strategies to see how you can make their work lives more satisfying and productive:
- building employees' involvement in the business
- building employees' self-esteem
- recognizing and rewarding employees
Building employees' involvement
Every employer's dream is to have employees who care as deeply for the success of the business as they would if the business were their own. While you may never get employees to care that much, you can build a sense that what's good for the business is good for them. Here are some steps to building that type of commitment and involvement:
Identify any problems that might stand in the way. Again, the types of problems that lead to absenteeism, turnover, and generally low morale will be barriers to developing the type of commitment to the business that you're seeking.
Share your vision and the mission of the business. As the leader, you need to have some goals for the business. If your goal is to have the best reputation for customer service, for example, employees know what to strive for and have a goal. Getting them involved creates ownership of the business's vision. If employees understand why the goal is important, they will feel personally responsible for making it a success.
Give some power to employees. If you want employees to care, you have to give them some responsibility and some decision-making latitude. Employees have to believe that the decisions they make and the work they perform has a direct impact on the product or service you provide. This may be easier to achieve and demonstrate in a small business than it would be in a larger one.
Encourage risk-taking. Let employees experiment and try to find new ways to help the business reach its goals. Don't create a culture where employees are afraid to try anything new because if they fail they will be punished. Allow a certain amount of failure, and reward people for trying.
Use reward systems. When your employees do well, reward them. Tailor your reward systems to specific accomplishments. If you have one employee who sells 25 percent more than everyone else, but everyone gets the same bonus, your star sales rep. isn't going to be particularly motivated to excel in the future.
Plan social and athletic activities. These types of activities allow people to interact with each other on a level that can build stronger professional bonds. If your business is small, perhaps just an annual dinner or picnic somewhere is enough. If you have several employees with a similar hobby or athletic interest, maybe your business can sponsor a team in a local league.
Warning: Be sure to protect yourself from workers' compensation liability by making the event completely voluntary. Also, arrange for the event to take place during non-work hours. If you have questions about whether a particular event will expose your business to liability, consult an attorney.
Building employees' self-esteem
Many people believe that work performance is a reflection of how employees feel about themselves and their work. If an employee is proud of the job that he or she does, the work quality will reflect that. Employees who have bad self-images are more likely to exhibit those negative feelings in their work.
So, how can you boost employees' self-esteem? There is an infinite number of ways, depending on the employee and the means at your disposal. Some ways are as simple as recognition; a simple thank you or a reward for a job well done. This can be particularly gratifying for an employee with a behind-the-scenes job.
Other ways to help build employee self-esteem are:
- Sponsor employees in weight control or fitness programs.
- Pay for employees to attend public speaking or other professional development classes.
- Pay for employees to learn about personal financial planning, either through classes or literature.
- Ask employees to teach you and other employees a skill or procedure that they do well (this has the added bonus of doubling as cross-training of the staff).
- Recognize successes, both personal and professional, such as an employee completing her graduate degree or an employee earning his black belt in martial arts.
Recognizing and rewarding employees
Everybody likes to have his or her achievements recognized by others. Even though personal satisfaction will come from meeting a predetermined goal, it is always more meaningful if someone else is there to share the success.
Workers are usually not averse to putting out an extra effort when the business needs help in overcoming a problem or meeting a production deadline. But if the extra effort goes unnoticed, employees will wonder why they should bother. A moment or two from you to thank the employee and emphasize how that employee's efforts have helped will cost nothing and will go a long way toward increasing the employee's self-esteem and motivation. And sometimes, something more is required, which is why you may want to implement some sort of recognition and reward program.
Learn 5 Effective Ways That Instantly Boost Employee Morale and Motivation
