Not taking employee morale seriously can put a company at a severe disadvantage. Positive working environments made up of happy and valued employees will help a business to thrive.
When an employee feels appreciated by their company, they are far more likely to want the business to succeed, as opposed to neglected workers who are happy to give back what they receive; the bare minimum.
Making active changes to make employees happy will completely change the working environment for the better, so here are 10 simple things you can do to show your staff how much they are valued.
1. Introduce Flexible Working
Many people don’t work to the best of their ability during 9-5 hours, nor is this schedule suitable for particular lifestyles due to family or other outside commitments. So, introducing flexible working is a way to show employees that you are considerate of their home life.
Flexible working can mean many different things to different people and companies, such as compressed hours, part-time work, or remote working, so it is up to your company to work with employees to see what will work.
The two important elements to flexible working are to ensure you regularly review the system and that there are ground rules in place. A regular review will help to analyze how employees are doing, whether they need support in particular areas, and if the flexibility is working for the company.
It is also important to have ground rules in place to prevent any confusion for either staff or employees surrounding flexible working. Giving employees the freedom they need can be liberating and has the potential to do amazing things for any company.
2. Offer Office Perks
Another thing you can do to boost morale and show appreciation to your employees is to offer small office perks to make everyday working life a bit easier and more enjoyable.
It could be something as small as making sure the staff room is always stocked with a range of different teas to something bigger like a wellness station stocked full of smoothies and vitamin D supplements.
Speak to your staff and set up an anonymous box for employees to give suggestions. Perhaps there’s a demand for free beer on a Friday afternoon, morning yoga sessions once a week or an office pet. The smallest things can make a big difference when it comes to morale and the small monetary investment will be worth it for the boost in the mood of your employees.
3. Communicate Regularly
A simple way to make sure staff remain happy is to regularly communicate with them.
Make sure that as a leader, once a month you speak with the people you are responsible for looking after and ask them how they feel they are doing if they need additional support and if there were any changes they think could be implemented.
4. Provide Recognition For Good Work
Recognizing good work within your organization is an extremely powerful tool to keep employees motivated and happy. Underappreciation is a major contributor to poor morale, so reminding your workers that their work is appreciated and rewarding them for it is important.
Recognition comes in many forms. Smaller acknowledgments might include a shout-out in an email or at a work event, or simply saying thank you. Slightly larger rewards might be treating them to lunch and giving out gift cards. The most significant forms of recognition are promotions with increased responsibility and pay rises.
Whatever it is you choose, being renowned for rewarding good work is one of the best possible ways to boost morale. Just make sure to not reward people for the sake of it. Simple value really good work and you will notice a big difference in your staff.
5. Give Room For Growth
Something that will keep your employees motivated and happy is knowing that there’s room for growth. Offering development within your company and encouraging your staff to grow professionally will not only keep them satisfied but will also decrease the chance of them leaving to go to another company.
Not only could you regularly review roles to see if it is time for anyone to be offered more responsibility, but you could also pay for additional external training or conferences to expand their knowledge and allow them to bring fresh ideas back to the company.
This could be another form of reward for your best-performing employees or could be used as a form of motivation for employees who are keen for their skills to be tested.
6. Provide Team Building Exercises
Team building exercises have a reputation of being slightly cheesy, but they are a crucial part of any business.
Employees should be able to communicate well with each other, get on and be able to ask for help. Something interactive and fun is the best way to help a team bond whilst also boosting morale.
Things like company nights out, egg drop competitions, and scavenger hunts are all different from your usual awkward team-building activities but have the same effect. Try a new team-building initiative once a month, or when a new employee joins, and you will notice a big boost in how your team works together.
7. Make Lunch Breaks Obligatory
One of the best things you can do to help boost morale and productivity is to encourage employees to take their full lunch hour. You should create a working culture that makes staff feel fully comfortable taking a much-needed lunch break. Create a quiet break area with comfortable seating, magazines, and relaxing music to help your employees to clear their minds. This will show them that you value their work as well as their well-being.
A great additional touch would be to have healthy snacks in the kitchen for people to make the most of over lunch. Add a bowl filled with seasonal fruits that your employees can enjoy. Perhaps encourage staff to create a baking rota in which they take it in turns to bake or buy something to bring into work for everyone to enjoy.
Whatever it takes, do your bit to make sure your employees are taking their well-deserved break.
8. Bring In Plants
Workplace plants are a great way to boost morale.
Not only do they help to clean the air, but they also add a touch of freshness to create a fun and lighthearted working environment in which employees will thrive. Also, having to look after the plants as a team will be another long-term team-building exercise!
It may seem simple, but plants can help to cultivate a positive atmosphere which will translate into happy employees.
9. Trust Your Employees and Encourage Them To Trust You
Trusting your employees is an essential part of building morale. If you are constantly checking up on your employees and making them feel as if everything they do is closely monitored, it is likely to crush their confidence and stifle creativity. So, make sure that you only intervene when it is necessary.
Trust your staff and give them space to do their work and if it isn’t up to scratch, then you can get involved. Give them autonomy and they are likely to thrive. Ensure that any layers of management below you are implementing this.
Another important element of morale is to make sure your employees trust you. They should know that when you say you will do something, it gets done. You should also be approachable, considerate, and respectful of people’s privacy when they tell you something in confidence. Having a strong, trustworthy leader is something that your employees will respond outstandingly to.
10. Genuinely Consider Employee Input
Showing employees that you value their input and genuinely consider it is another way to boost morale. Their insights might be crucial in identifying flaws in specific areas of the business that you don’t work closely with regularly. So, this could be a fantastic opportunity for the company.
There are many ways to collect feedback or input, but this one will help to engage your employees and encourage wider input. You should have a box in your office or each department, that is specifically for employee input. Whenever a staff member has a suggestion or comment, they can write it down and put it into the box.
Once a month either you or a departmental manager can go through the suggestions and hold a meeting to discuss the points raised to see whether it is something that other people would find useful. This could be something as small as changing the teabag brand or as big as reorganizing your current filing system. This way you welcome new ideas and then give room for discussion to see whether it is worth implementing.
Final Thoughts
Morale is essential for any business and should be a priority. Even the smallest things can make a difference, so do everything you can to keep your employees happy and they will certainly reward you for it through their work. The core thing to remember is to remind your employees that they are valued and then find ways to show them how appreciated they are!