Maintaining positive employee morale is essential for a successful business. Boosting employee morale can be done through various means, such as creating a positive work environment, providing feedback and recognition, and developing a sense of community. By implementing these strategies, businesses can also improve employee satisfaction and productivity.
The best way to know how to boost employee morale is to review data regularly and then act on it by speaking with your team about their needs, training your managers, encouraging people to take time off, and reviewing your benefits package. Below are five ways to boost morale at work.
1. Measure Employee Morale
Before you can take action, you first need to measure employee morale to identify what you must improve on. Here are some approaches you can take to measure it.
One of the best ways to get a genuine sense of employee morale is through anonymous surveys. Some employees are understandably suspicious of whether a survey is truly anonymous, so use an established platform to gather these results. Many platforms gather and compile results for you, using aggregate data that shows trends in your company.
You can also create your own survey or customize our free Employee Engagement Survey below.
Your survey should be short, consisting of at most 10 questions that ask employees about their happiness at work, if their manager supports them in their role, if their productivity has been recognized, if they would refer someone to work at the company, and more. These items specifically can help you understand where your employees’ morale sits.
To obtain a more concrete figure, use a scale of 1-5 to determine the morale of your employees.
1 = Not at all/never/no/poor
2 = Rarely/probably not/not great
3 = Sometimes/occasionally/maybe/decent
4 = Often/most likely/pretty good
5 = All the time/very much/yes/awesome
Surveying workers also gives you data from across the company. While you won’t know which employees answered each question, you will be able to chart this data and gain impressions. Say you asked all 10 staff members to rate their happiness on a scale of one through five—if more than one gave a low rating, you need to take action, as low morale can spread like wildfire.
High employee turnover is usually a sign of problems in your organization and can exacerbate morale issues. When employees see colleagues leaving in droves, they get concerned about what’s going on and may become disengaged.
There are many causes of turnover, some outside of your control, so taking proactive steps to combat it can help change the trend. It’s important that you calculate staff turnover on a monthly basis and look at your historical turnover data over the last quarter, six months, and year. If you see high turnover rates at any point, you may have a morale problem.
The same is true for employee attendance issues like absenteeism. It is a problem that can have serious consequences for an organization. It can lead to decreased productivity and morale, as well as increased costs. To reduce absenteeism, employers should focus on prevention by providing remote work for commuting or travel issues, a family-related paid time off (PTO) policy for caring for loved ones, and good employee benefits, such as health insurance (i.e., free annual checkups) for those with health concerns.
Great managers support employees and give them the space required to succeed. While every manager should know what their team is working on and do whatever they can to support them, they shouldn’t micromanage.
Managers should review performance with each individual on their team at least once per year in a formal setting and more frequently in less formal environments. Even for informal discussions, managers should record information discussed and any relevant performance data. This data can be used to spot patterns of poor performance, which can be a clear indicator of falling morale.
2. Provide Growth & Teambuilding Opportunities
Employees want to feel like they’re a part of something bigger than themselves. They also want opportunities to grow and develop within their company and in their personal lives. If a company is stagnant or doesn’t encourage employees to better themselves, morale often drops.
Plus, without growth and new challenges, workers frequently become bored, disengaged, and unmotivated. You might even lose them, further increasing turnover and decreasing morale for those who remain.
Offering growth opportunities through training and development is one of the best ways to bring about positive changes and boost employee morale. Providing your staff the chance to know more about the teams they work with through company activities will also help them understand how to effectively interact with their colleagues in order to accomplish work goals.
We highly recommend that you do both: offer formal training programs to enhance their skills and schedule informal sessions like team building exercises to build camaraderie and trust between team members.
Training programs can help improve morale and loyalty among employees, which can be beneficial to your company. There are different types of employee training programs. Some of the most common include learning new skills, taking courses in new areas of expertise, and participating in professional development workshops.
You can enroll workers to classroom-based workshops or online learning sessions to help enhance their skills and make them better prepared for promotions. However, if you have an in-house HR team that can manage employee training tools, you may want to consider getting a learning management system (LMS) for your company.
Here are a few solutions that you can check out:
| Software | Best For |
|---|---|
| Thinkific | Creating engaging employee training programs |
| 360Learning | Collaborative employee learning and customer training |
| TalentLMS | Industry-specific and compliance training |
| Trainual | Onboarding and new hire training |
If you’re looking for more LMS options, check out our guide to the best personnel training software.
Teambuilding activities are great morale boosters at work. It allows team members to discover each other’s skills, strengths, weaknesses, and personal traits. Aside from positively impacting employee morale and productivity, these informal training sessions can lead to improved communication, stronger work relationships, and increased trust between members of the team. Ultimately, it will make employees feel more connected with their colleagues.
This can be a three-day outdoor event or simple one-day or one-hour exercises that you hold at the office. It can be for small or large teams and typically includes fun games—although, some activities can be physically taxing (like a sports challenge). For other suggestions, check out our article on teambuilding exercises for work, which contains more than 20 ideas and activities.
A quarter of the companies that joined a TravelPerk survey said that they arrange teambuilding events like simple get-togethers once every month. Nearly 70% of the respondents also prefer team lunches or dinner, while 50% are planning teambuilding activities with venues that are near their offices.
3. Train Managers
Effective staff management is crucial to improve employee morale and retention—and that begins with your managers. Your managers must have solid people management skills. Too many lack good people skills or don’t prioritize their colleagues when managing a team. Because they work directly with your employees on a micro level, they may directly affect your company’s morale levels.
Remember, workers rarely leave companies—they leave managers. When managers are overbearing, aggressive, unsympathetic, and constantly looking over employees’ shoulders, that sets a bad tone. Managers must understand that their behavior directly affects the team and be able to react to employees who need different management styles.
Training them on managing people effectively, executing proper communication, and giving recognition and feedback is crucial. Even if they aren’t the cause of low employee morale, it is their job to fix the issue. So, you must train them to spot and deal with faltering morale.
Here are some tips on how your managers can serve as morale boosters at work through open communication and employee recognition.
Strong communication is a key skill of managers who enhance employee morale. Your employees need to understand what you need from them. That starts by setting clear and realistic expectations for each employee and position. Leave no ambiguity when discussing what’s needed with each worker and department.
The most effective way to communicate transparently is to hold regular check-ins—tell your team what’s coming and what they can do to push an existing project over the finish line. This is also a great opportunity to speak about their morale and make sure they’re happy and getting the support they need. If it’s clear that one employee or department is struggling, don’t ignore it or try to hide the issue—that’ll only make matters worse.
Offer Job Clarity
Employees need to understand what their role is and how it fits into the bigger picture of their organization. Too often, however, they are left with insufficient job descriptions and poor management—so they are just figuring it out. That’s not a good way to get support from your team.
If they don’t know what’s expected of them, then you can’t hold them accountable, and they won’t have any motivation to get the job done. Communicate with your team clearly and often about what’s expected of them and how you will support them.
Gallup reports that barely one-third of workers are engaged in their work. That low level can lead to toxic workplace behavior and relationships, which further reduce morale in your organization.
Collaborate With Remote Employees
While employees enjoy remote work, and many companies have found it to increase productivity, it also creates collaboration problems. Video calls, chats, and emails grow stale and lack the impromptu collaboration you get by being in the same physical space. So, make sure you proactively manage morale and engage remote employees, as both are increasingly vital to your company’s success.
Did You Know? Even though collaboration with team members is typically lower with remote employees, a Gallup survey found that employees who work exclusively remote are 32% more engaged than those that work only on-site.
While maintaining good communication is key, you should also train your managers to recognize deserving employees for their contributions and achievements at work. Remind them to be on the lookout for small to big accomplishments to help workers feel valued and inspire them to do better at work.
The recognition can be a simple “pat on the back” or a formal award with a monetary reward. Managers can also verbally acknowledge their employees’ contributions during one-on-one sessions, or publicly congratulate them via an announcement posted on the company’s intranet. You can also check out our guide to showing employee appreciation, which contains more than a dozen suggestions.
4. Encourage Disconnection From Work
When companies think about ways to boost employee morale, they often overlook genuine breaks and disconnection. They think that the way to overcome a drop in morale is to dig deeper and focus intensely on work. Unfortunately, that can have the opposite effect.
Workers today are pretty terrible at taking even a lunch break, let alone a full vacation. That’s because so many companies offer PTO as a benefit but don’t encourage employees to use it. By reminding employees to disconnect, whether it’s for an afternoon or a week, you can help them get refreshed. You might be surprised by the productivity increase you’ll see.
5. Offer Great Benefits
The most long-term solution for boosting employee morale is providing great employee benefits that support workers. There are different benefits types—from high-quality healthcare and retirement plans to PTO and vacation incentives. Building an exceptional benefits package will not only help you attract qualified candidates but also retain top talent.
While it can be costly at first, investing in your staff members will improve morale and productivity, increasing your company’s profitability in the long run. Some common benefits to include are:
- PTO and other leave types (e.g., birthday leave)
- Medical insurance (including dental and vision)
- Retirement plans
- Life and disability insurance
- Flexible or remote work options
- Employee referral program
- Wellness programs
- Computer equipment stipend
Why Employee Morale Is Important to Your Business
Employee morale is critical to a business’s success for a number of reasons. Morale influences and interacts with a host of other qualities, including motivation, engagement, satisfaction, and happiness.
High employee morale generally corresponds with positive developments in the other areas mentioned above, ultimately resulting in increased productivity, reduced turnover, and better-served customers. Low employee morale, of course, generally indicates the opposite and may result in lower productivity and higher turnover.
By understanding the importance of employee morale, businesses can develop strategies to improve how their employees feel about their jobs and employer.
Let’s take a look at how Google (and parent company Alphabet) has focused on employee morale and engagement to drive results. As one of the world’s largest companies, there are aspects of Google’s corporate culture that won’t be applicable to small and midsize businesses, but the overall approach is worth examining.
In addition to its financial success (it’s one of the world’s top 5 most valuable companies), Alphabet/Google has consistently been named the best place to work by Forbes, Fortune, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor, among other sources.
So, how has it managed this? In large part, by aligning with the tips we’ve covered in this article.
- Measurement: Google’s HR department is guided by science, relying on data analytics (employee turnover rate, manager-to-employee ratio, number of promotions, etc.) to provide insights and steer decision-making. Additionally, it uses Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), an annual gDNA survey, and tools such as Manager Upwards Feedback to regularly solicit feedback from across the organization.
- Growth Opportunities: The company has made development a key tenet of its culture, which can be seen in its highly lauded Creative Time Program. This program allows employees to devote 20% of their work time to innovative projects of their choice that will challenge them and enable them to explore areas of interest or areas outside their traditional duties.
- Management Training: Managers at Google are trained to be leaders, with a focus on what they do to support, encourage, and drive their team members to success. Being a good coach, listening, and focusing on team member well-being are some of the behaviors emphasized.
- Breaks and Disconnection: Flexible work hours, work-life balance, and work autonomy are all major components of Alphabet’s corporate culture. The idea of disconnection is also built into the company’s actual workspace, with areas of the office meant to enable relaxation, reading, and exercise, among other nonwork activities.
- Great Benefits: Alphabet is known for best-in-class benefits and has historically been a leader in benefits. For example, its transferable stock option program (2006) and employee death benefits (2012) were both cutting-edge offerings. It provides subsidies for various purchases, from gym memberships to electric cars, has cafeterias and snack rooms on its campus, and uses spot and peer bonuses to recognize and reward good employee work.
Common Causes of Low Employee Morale
There are many factors that may negatively impact employee morale. Here are some of the common causes:
- Poor communication between the managers and employees: This can lead to confusion and misunderstandings, ultimately resulting in workers feeling unmotivated and disengaged at work.
- Low job satisfaction: Employees who don’t feel challenged or are overworked may struggle with keeping their morale high at work.
- Poor leadership: If the managers have poor people management skills and fail to support, guide, and inspire their teams, then it can negatively impact morale.
- Insufficient recognition, incentives, and preventative care options: Employees who feel unappreciated or find the company’s benefits and rewards programs unattractive (or don’t meet their needs) will likely have low morale.
- Internal changes or reorganizations: Employees may feel some frustration, anxiety, or confusion when dealing with major company changes, such as mergers, staff layoffs, restructuring, and leadership changes. If not properly managed, these scenarios may affect staff morale.
Bottom Line
Knowing how to boost employee morale is essential to a productive and successful workplace. There are many ways to achieve this, including training your management team, providing employee development opportunities, and offering strong benefits. By implementing these strategies, you can help improve your employees’ attitudes and increase their productivity.
