How To Boost Employee Morale In The Workplace
Want to drive engagement, motivation, and productivity in your workplace? You’re in the right place! Join us as we explore the benefits of high employee morale for both employers and employees, and why it’s the foundation for business success. We’ll also explain how to boost morale in the workplace so you can transform your company culture to help your people thrive – because that’s what we’re all about, after all!
What are the benefits of boosting employee morale?
There are plenty of benefits to boosting employee morale in your business, including increasing job satisfaction, improving mental health and wellbeing, and encouraging your team to take better pride in their work. But while the benefits for your employees are more obvious, high morale can also be hugely beneficial to you as an employer.
Here are just a few reasons why you should boost staff morale:
- Better productivity: when people feel positive about their work environment, they’re more likely to go the extra mile and be proactive, which will go a long way in terms of output.
- Strong teamwork: when morale is high, people engage with one another more and form stronger relationships in the workplace. In turn, this creates a more cohesive atmosphere where teams can collaborate better.
- Lower turnover rate: if your team members are happy and engaged, they’re far less likely to leave your company. On the other hand, if employees are disengaged, attrition rates can rise to 18% – 43% depending on whether the business is a high-turnover organisation.
- Better company culture: in companies with high morale, employees are more likely to lift up one another and be supportive. This helps create a culture of appreciation where individuals can truly thrive.
- Fewer absences: high morale has a positive impact on employee engagement, which in turn reduces burnout and absences. In fact, companies with highly engaged employees see 41% lower absenteeism.
What destroys morale in the workplace?
If you’re looking to improve workplace morale, it’s important to understand the factors that negatively impact it and lower employee satisfaction. This will help you identify areas for improvement within your company so you can begin the transformation journey.
Here are some of the most common reasons for low morale:
- Lack of trust: When employees feel that their employer or manager doesn’t trust them, they’re far more likely to disengage and possibly even vocalise their feelings to peers. This can create a toxic workplace culture where morale is low.
- Bad leadership: For 51% of employees, direct recognition from managers positively impacts their morale and engagement. If workplace leaders aren’t actively showing their appreciation for their team or they haven’t been trained to properly support employees, it can negatively impact morale.
- No employee incentives: if staff feel their efforts go unseen or there are no rewards to strive towards, they’re likely to lose motivation. And where there’s a lack of motivation, there’s usually a lack of morale!
How to improve workplace morale
We’ve shared six simple steps below to help you lift up your employees and boost the morale in your company. In no time, you’ll be helping your people thrive while improving productivity and performance. Exciting!
As an employer, it’s important to support your employees’ career progression and encourage them to explore opportunities to upskill. By giving your employees the chance to develop their skills through courses, training sessions and workshops, you’ll not only show them you care about their career development, but you’ll help them feel more fulfilled in their roles. In turn, this will give them a real morale boost!
1. Professional Development
Rewarding your staff for their hard work is a sure-fire way to improve workplace morale. Why? Because when people feel appreciated for the things they do and their efforts are noticed, they’re more likely to engage with their peers and strive for more.
But the important thing to remember is that rewards should be meaningful and given at the right time to truly resonate with people. That’s where a strong employee rewards system like ours can help! You can recognise your people in the moments that matter and deliver rewards that they’ll genuinely enjoy. Whether you’re recognising a long service milestone, birthday or special award, personalised rewards are a powerful way to boost your people and employee morale. Pretty amazing, right?
2. Rewards & Awards
Open, honest communication is key when it comes to boosting morale. If you encourage your employees to share feedback and voice their opinions in a supportive space, you’ll help them feel seen and empowered. Additionally, by making sure your leaders communicate clearly with the team, you’ll help break down departmental and hierarchical barriers which will increase team morale. So, where to start? Providing more one-on-one sessions, opportunities for feedback, and comms from managers will help you champion healthy communication within your business.
3. Champion good communication
We’ve touched on this a couple of times already, but the key takeaway here is that employee recognition directly impacts morale. When people receive a meaningful ‘thank you’ for a job well done or they have their moment in the spotlight for an outstanding achievement, they feel a real sense of appreciation from their colleagues which lasts. That’s why 26% of HR professionals want to introduce peer-to-peer recognition to boost morale and company culture.
But of course, recognition shouldn’t be a one-time thing. As an employer, it’s important to encourage your team to consistently lift one another up and celebrate them for the amazing things they do. You can do this through an employee recognition scheme where people can share peer-to-peer appreciation on a social wall and interact with each other in real time. With the right tools in place, you can foster a culture where appreciation and morale are abundant!
4. Bolster employee recognition
In a world filled with hybrid and remote working, it’s more important than ever to help your people connect and get to know one another better. If you make time to do fun and engaging team-building activities, you’ll encourage your team to collaborate and build strong relationships which will improve morale. Whether you do an escape room, scavenger hunt or something more out of the box, invite your whole team to the event and give them something enjoyable to look forward to.
5. Team-building exercises
Employee burnout is one of the top reasons for low morale. Understandably, when people feel mentally and physically exhausted, they disengage. This negatively impacts their wellbeing, performance at work, relationships and many other areas of life.
Here’s where you come in! As an employer, your employees’ wellbeing should be a priority – but not just because it’ll help your business. Take care of your people by helping them get a healthy work-life balance. You can do this by introducing initiatives like flexible working, wellness programmes or early Friday finishes. These will show your team you have their best interests at heart which is a great way to lift them up and boost employee morale.
6. Promote a work-life balance
Boost morale with Boostworks’ rewards scheme
Now you know how to improve workplace morale, it’s time to get to work! The best thing to do is focus on the biggest aspects that directly impact morale: recognition, wellbeing, collaboration, communication, development and rewards. It may seem like a lot, but by following the steps above, you’ll cover all these key things to help your employees thrive.
Oh, and did you know that you can make things even simpler with a tailored reward and recognition scheme? At Boostworks, we offer a range of powerful solutions to support your people and give them the recognition they deserve. From automated milestone awards and peer-to-peer recognition to wellbeing tools and personalised rewards, we can help you transform your company culture with boosts your employees will love.
Why not book a demo today and see our platform in action?