Whether it’s because your employees don’t feel like they’re being heard or your workforce is fast-approaching burnout, low staff morale is something you want to avoid at all costs. Many times, the effects of low staff morale are felt more gradually. As trust and enthusiasm for the job dwindles, team members can become bored in their role and disillusioned with you as an employer. Unsurprisingly, this has a massive impact on productivity and your company culture at large.
Fortunately, it’s easy enough to turn things around. Need some pointers on how to improve staff morale in your office? Read on for everything you need to know to turn things around.
Why keeping staff morale high is important
High employee morale is a clear indicator that you’re doing something right as a business. Low employee morale suggests the opposite, painting a picture of employees who are disengaged with their work and unhappy with you as an employer.
Positive employee morale brings many benefits to an organisation. For starters, it drives productivity. The happier people are in their roles and the more invested they are in a company’s mission statement and values, the more effort they’ll invest in their daily tasks.
Maintaining high levels of employee morale is particularly important if your workforce is made up of many creative roles. Unrealistic deadlines, a lack of essential resources, and high stress levels are killers of creativity. By removing them, you ensure employees can truly focus on their work and thrive in their roles.
If employee morale is consistently low, you’ve most likely also got an issue with high turnover rates. The less satisfied and more undervalued your employees feel, the more likely it is that they’ll be looking elsewhere for more rewarding opportunities.
Finally, there’s the issue of compromised customer satisfaction. A disenfranchised employee isn’t the best advocate for your company. Their disinterest in their work and lack of respect for you as an employer can translate to how they deal with customers. This can quickly impact your reputation as a brand, leading to customers leaving you for competitors in droves.
What causes low employee morale?
Dwindling levels of employee morale is a problem for any business. If you stand any chance of keeping low staff morale in check, you’ll first need to identify what’s causing it.
Poor communication
A lack of communication is often the culprit. Clear communication is essential for every company, from managers passing on instructions to direct reports to employees sharing feedback and concerns with senior stakeholders. Open lines of communication are crucial for maintaining positive working relationships and ensuring morale remains high. However, this hinges on management who can give clear direction and employees feeling comfortable enough to come forward with feedback.
Lack of employee recognition
Positive recognition goes a long way in ensuring employees feel valued. The more valued your staff feels, the more motivated and productive they’ll be. There are many ways you can recognise the contributions of your employees, including incentives like extra paid time off and one-off bonuses. Sometimes, a thank you is all that’s required to spur your staff on to succeed.
Unhealthy work-life balance
A poor work-life balance can prove disastrous for companies. When employees are forced to juggle their personal and professional lives, burnout is inevitable. Eventually, overworked staff are going to be looking for opportunities elsewhere with an employer who can offer them the work-life balance they’re longing for.
No growth or development opportunities
One of the easiest ways to guarantee employee satisfaction and high morale is to offer your workforce development opportunities. If someone can’t imagine a long-term future with an employer, there’s a good chance they’ll search for a role elsewhere that does offer growth potential. Increased turnover, along with a high employee churn rate, can cause disruption and lead to low staff morale.
No positive workplace culture
Looking for an easy way to improve staff morale? Focusing on enhancing your employee experience and engaging your workforce. A positive company culture should encourage collaboration, with every employee feeling valued and confident in their role.
How do you know if staff morale is low?
There are many indicators that staff morale is low. One of the most telling is a high turnover rate. Whether it’s burnout, coworker disputes, or low salaries putting a dent in staff morale, a high number of outgoing employees paints a clear picture that something is wrong within your organisation.
Productivity is another useful metric for measuring employee morale. When engagement begins to suffer and low morale sets in, staff are far less likely to deliver expected results, let alone go above and beyond for their employer. It’s even more of an issue with virtual roles, with a remote employee far harder to motivate.
Another sign of low morale is changing attitudes within your workforce. Are employees who once thrived in their roles now displaying a negative outlook on their work? Low morale is almost certainly the cause. To avoid a domino effect where entire departments lose interest in their work, improving employee morale should be a priority.
Tips for improving staff morale
Wondering how to improve low staff morale? If the signature signs of a disengaged workforce are causing issues within your business, boosting employee morale should be at the top of your agenda. The good news is that it’s easily fixed. Below are just some of the ways you can transform team morale for a happier, healthier workforce.
1. Promote a healthy work-life balance
Long hours and unrealistic deadlines can lead to employees feeling overworked and undervalued. In a worst-case scenario, it can really affect the mental health of your workforce. To overcome this problem and encourage a healthier work-life balance, make sure you’re setting realistic goals and providing your teams with sufficient time to complete their tasks.
2. Offer growth and development opportunities
Increase job satisfaction and secure long-term loyalty by giving employees a clear roadmap to success within your organisation. Offering staff training and development opportunities benefits both the employee and employer. Individuals are allowed to grow professionally, while companies guarantee a highly skilled workforce.
3. Encourage employee feedback
Encouraging employees to offer feedback is a surefire way of identifying low morale within your company. However, staff need to feel comfortable enough to do so without the fear of reprisal. You can canvas opinions for feedback on specific projects or short-term tasks, or for more general topics that affect your entire company.
4. Open clear lines of communication
There’s no room for poor communication in a successful business. If there’s no direct line between team members and management, they can feel closed off from the business at large and worry about their future within it. Communication should be a two-way street, with employees comfortable enough to reach out to management.
5. Prioritise employee recognition
Showing employees that you value their contributions is a good way of maintaining morale. To avoid your best talent departing for competitors, you should consistently recognise employees who go the extra mile. You can incentivise things with recognition awards or make a company-wide announcement via email.
6. Organise team-building sessions
Looking to increase employee engagement? Team-building activities are an effective way of bringing employees closer together and nudging morale in a positive direction. You can set aside entire days for team-building sessions or incorporate smaller activities into regular meetings, while many exercises can be held remotely.
7. Introduce incentives
Incentives are one of the best ways to motivate employees and increase morale. Whether you’re offering gift cards, paid time off, or bonuses, a rewards program gives employees a tangible goalpost they can strive for.
8. Build a more diverse workforce
A diverse workforce brings many benefits to an organisation. Employers reap the benefits of a wider raft of talent and skills, increased rates of productivity, and a more innovative approach to everyday tasks. For employees, the opportunity to learn from their colleagues, often from widely different backgrounds, can be very appealing and keep morale high.
Maintaining morale throughout the employee lifecycle
It’s never too late to tackle the issue of low employee morale. A disengaged workforce can be reinvested in your company’s mission statement and values with team-building initiatives, incentives, and open communication channels. However, it’s far easier to start as you mean to go on. With a first-rate recruitment strategy and an effective onboarding process, you can keep employee morale high from the off.
Looking to overhaul your hiring process? With recruitment software like Teamdash, it’s easy to iron out the kinks. This full-featured applicant tracking system gives you an instant snapshot of every candidate, where they are in the process, and what they can bring to the table. You can also cast the net wider when looking for talent, with job board integrations and useful career page builder tools. If that isn’t enough, you can say goodbye to menial manual tasks and embrace the power of recruitment automation.
Looking to redefine recruitment and boost employee morale while you’re at it? Why not book a Teamdash demo today?
