As we head into a new year, the uncertain economy and ongoing pandemic have resulted in low morale across many businesses. Low morale results in increased absenteeism and eventually turnover, which costs your business money. Learn what you can do to boost employee morale in 2021 and beyond.
Enforce Work-Life Boundaries
When your employees are constantly working, especially if they’re remote, they blur the lines between their home life and work life. This results in neither side of their life being productive and fulfilling. Help them keep their work-life balance in check by setting clear boundaries. Slack recommends setting a boundary such as “off-limit” times for emails and checking that your employees do not respond to their emails during their off time.
Encourage employees to take breaks during their day and fully utilize a lunch break away from their desks. Sitting without breaks all day is not only harsh on your employee’s bodies, but it stagnates their thinking as well. Think about implementing programs that encourage scheduled time away from desks – such as apps or Slack integrations that remind employees to take a much-needed breather away from their work.
Give Frequent Praise to Boost Employee Morale
When your employees do a great how, how often do you recognize their work? Likely, not often enough. Gallup performed a poll and found that only one out of three workers in the United States felt recognized for their work in the last week.
When given often and in a meaningful way, workplace recognition changes brain chemistry and results in more creativity and better production within your team. Employees who feel recognized feel valued and build a sense of loyalty to the company, resulting in lower turnover rates. When giving praise to your employees, take their own preferences into account. If an employee prefers praise in private, don’t put them on blast in public.
Work on Really Building Teams
There are endless lists of teambuilding activities that you could try to boost morale, but it is important to understand which activities work well and which result in failure. Team building activities that feel like work and occur infrequently aren’t likely to make your team engaged and boost morale.
Utilize team building activities that you can implement frequently and that have a clear goal. One of the best ways to boost morale within your team is to have the team members get to know each other better. Have your entire team fill out our assessment and then view their results within our Team Room. At a glance, your team can see how diverse their thinking is between the team members. They can easily learn how to communicate with each other more effectively and discover and biases or challenges that the team may face.
Ask for Opinions
Ask your employees what they need to boost morale, feel more engaged in their work, and listen to them. Your employees know best what is lacking in their day-to-day work. Ask them in a group, in one-on-one sessions, and in anonymous surveys to get a variety of authentic responses. When you encourage employees to contribute to changes within the workplace, they feel a sense of control and ownership in the outcome. They’ll be happier and more engaged during the process. You may find that employees lack the tools or equipment necessary to complete their tasks or that they’re overworked in general.
If you discover that you have the wrong person in the wrong role, have them take our assessment and read their PIC report. The PIC report will guide you with suggestions as to what role may best suit your employee so that you can retain that employee in a role that suits both parties.
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