6 Ways to Quickly Boost Employee Morale

A lack of employee morale does not just make the workplace a not-so-fun place to be. It has a direct and oftentimes significant impact on the bottom line. Also, employee morale, whether it’s poor or positive, tends to have a contagious effect on the rest of your employees. As a result, it’s especially important to regularly boost employee morale. This can be done in a number of ways.

Communicate

Communication can be an often overlooked aspect of management. Ensure that open lines of communication exist and are regularly utilized between management and employees. Be proactive! Check in with various members of your team, not just middle managers. It’s important to know how people in all areas of the company are doing, and it’s important for them to feel like they’re truly being heard. Also ensure that it’s a two-way street. Keep your employees up to date on any impending changes and about other issues that will affect them.

Take Breaks

Although the common thinking is that the more time that is not spent working, the more harm will occur to the bottom line, but it’s not as simple as that. Burnout is a real issue, and overworking employees has a tremendously negative effect on morale. Encourage them to take lunch breaks that are out of the office. Getting outside helps encourage creative thinking. Increase how many vacation days that they’re provided, and ensure that they’re taken. Offer sabbaticals. Consider offering to take the staff out for lunch or drinks whenever someone has a birthday.

Take Outings

Take a company-wide outing. The benefits of doing so are plentiful. Some of the most significant ones are that it provides rest to likely stressed brains, and it provides a means for your employees to bond, which would result in them working harder for each other. Hitting a few rounds at the Golf Course of the Everglades in Naples FL is one option for Florida-based companies. It’s a great way to get outdoors, do something physical, and chat about non-work related topics.

Release Toxic People

Toxic people often have a tremendous effect on fellow employees. This is true if it’s a co-worker, but it’s even more the case when the toxic person is a supervisor. Employees take in the energy from their boss much more than they do from any other single employee, and releasing these types of individuals has been shown to greatly improve morale than promotions and raises. Those who you should especially consider releasing are those who intimidate, belittle, lie, refuse to accept accountability or motivate primarily through fear.

Give Bonuses

Not only should you give merit-based bonuses, but also give bonuses that are unexpected. This will often have a tremendous effect on your employee morale. Even though you should also provide bonuses that are related to contributions, unexpected ones tend to have an even greater impact.

Be Lenient With the Weather

If excessive snow has fallen in the area or enough rain has fallen for flooding to occur, be lenient with employees. Not only is it safer to keep them at home, but it also improves office morale to not have people forced to come in when the conditions are as dire and challenging as they can be in these situations. Also take into account that if schools are closed, employees with children will find it nearly impossible to secure childcare for them.