How to Boost Employee Morale and Motivation
If your employees aren’t motivated, two things will happen.
Best case scenario: your business will chug unspectacularly along, doing just enough to stay afloat but never reaching the heights of productivity and performance it could achieve if your employees were motivated to do their best.
Worst case scenario: sooner or later, your business will sink without trace.
That’s how important your employee’s morale and motivation is. Happy employees want to be there. They’re aligned with you and your company’s vision. They’re going to work harder because they’re invested in what they do, see the value in what they're working to achieve, and want your company to succeed.
On the other hand, employees with low morale will be less committed, less productive, more likely to take unexpected absences, and more likely to spread stress and discontent among the other team members. Sometimes they'll do that deliberately by regularly coming in with a bad attitude and always looking for something to complain about or question. More often, though, they’ll spread a kind of passive-aggressive negativity, like a perpetual dark cloud that inevitably wears everybody else in the workplace down.
Knowing how to boost your employee's morale and maintain it is essential to running a successful business. In my opinion, you can’t be an effective leader without it.
The key benefits of boosting employee morale:
Increased productivity.
Increased efficiency.
Higher quality results.
Reduced staff turnover.
Fewer absences (i.e., less paid time off).
Less workplace stress/Zero (or, at least, extremely low) workplace conflict/Fewer workplace accidents.
Happier employees = positive word of mouth about your business in the outside world: when it’s time to hire new people, the best people will want to work for you because they’ll already know your workplace is a positive place to be.
During pressured times, if you need to rely upon your team members to step up and work extra hard, they’ll do their utmost to keep your company afloat.
How can you do it?
Ineffective leaders think it’s all about money. The better you pay your employees, the happier they’ll be.
That’s a myth. If all you’re doing to boost morale is offering a higher salary than your competitors or throwing in the occasional bonus to keep your team members on their toes, it will only keep them satisfied for a while. Money’s a fantastic incentive to show up in the morning, but it won't engage their hearts and minds.
As a leader, engaging your team member’s hearts and minds is your job. In fact, many studies have shown that demonstrating poor leadership is generally the root cause of most low employee morale.
Communicate your vision: know what you’re going after and be certain your people know it too. Make sure they understand their roles in your vision and how important they and their fellow team members are to making it happen. Identify ways to fire up their enthusiasm so they become as committed to your vision as you are.
Two other things to remember about communicating your vision:
Don’t overcomplicate it. Keep it concise.
Don’t pretend to have it all worked out. Leave room for adjustment and collaboration.
Focus on actions, not words: effective leaders don't just talk about what they're going to do; they take action and do it. You can’t expect other people to commit to your vision if you’re not leading by example.
Listen: Effective leaders actively listen to what other people have to say, and they try to understand the opposite viewpoint. They don't have to agree with that viewpoint, but they won't just dismiss it or wait impatiently for the other person to stop talking so they can start talking again.
Empower your people: don’t micromanage your team members; human beings are far more motivated when they’re given the autonomy to think for themselves and make their own decisions. In his book, ‘Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us’, Daniel Pink calls this “the purpose motive”. Put simply, that means people are happier and more productive when they’re given a direction, a mutually agreed realistic timeline, and the authority to act.
Demonstrate resilience: don’t cover up when things go wrong. Show your employees that you can handle the lows as well as the highs, that you take ownership of your decisions and that you’re able to learn and bounce back from your mistakes. Don’t be quick to attribute blame when things go wrong. Instead, concentrate on helping your people find a solution. Just as importantly, stay positive when you do it. Challenges are all part of the learning curve, and it will be a massive morale boost when your people see you understand that.
Be consistent and transparent: we’ve all met people whose opinions and attitudes change with the prevailing wind. Effective leaders don’t do that. An effective leader takes a stance on a given issue and doesn’t make sudden U-turns that throw everybody else off-balance. If they revise their opinion or change their course of action, it’s for solid reasons that everyone else understands. They appreciate how their behaviour affects their team and stand by what they say.
What else can you do to boost your employee’s morale and maintain it?
Improve communication: set clear and realistic goals for your employees, schedule one-on-one meetings to track their progress, and check in regularly to find out if they've got any feedback or concerns. Are they facing any unexpected challenges? What can you do to help?
Communicate regularly and transparently about company issues that are important to your employees. Share positive news, and don’t hide any bad news that could affect your employees. Instead, be open and honest and find an empathetic and constructive way to deliver the message. They might not like what you have to say, but they'll respect you for it, and it will stop any morale-destroying Chinese whispers from flying around.
Excellent communication is essential when it comes to boosting staff morale.
Put your employees first: empower them to do their jobs in the way that’s most comfortable for them, support them to overcome workplace challenges, recognise their achievements and share their success stories. Hold in-company surveys, and introduce an open-door policy so employees can have direct access to their senior managers and HR.
Giving your team members recognition makes them feel appreciated, increases their productivity, strengthens their loyalty to the company, and improves customer satisfaction.
Give your employees all the workplace tools to reach their goals and develop them to move up the career ladder. I've already talked about this in a recent article. Remember, offering your employee's growth doesn't always mean a job promotion. You could provide other morale-boosting incentives like sending them on a training course or to a conference to improve their skills, or you could give them the opportunity to study for a professional qualification that will enable them to move up in your organisation.
Organise team-building activities to energise your employees and encourage collaboration and problem-solving among your team members.
Encourage your employees to have a proper work/life balance. Make sure they take regular breaks and have a comfortable break-out area so they can take a proper time-out away from their desks. Also, don't let them fall behind on their annual leave allowance; how many of us have forgotten to take annual leave and then had to shoehorn it in at the worst time of year, so we don't lose it?
Keep your remote employees in the loop, so they don't feel left out of company initiatives, opportunities, events, and news.
Promote workplace inclusivity and diversity. I’ve recently written an article about that one too, so I won’t repeat myself!
Get rid of the bad apples and ensure that all your employees understand you have a zero-tolerance policy for workplace aggressors.
The Bottom Line
Knowing how to boost and maintain your employee's morale is essential to your organisation's success and your effectiveness as a leader. Make sure it's a major, ongoing part of your leadership strategy.
