Employee morale has been an increasingly prominent talking point in recent years. This is because recent developments have illuminated a counter-intuitive truth about the link between employee morale and productivity.
While employees have traditionally tried to inspire workers to work harder via strict policies, it’s actually much more beneficial to make your employees happy. Workers who like the work that they do and the place in which they work are consistently shown to be more productive. This means that employers are looking for new ways to improve morale among their employees in order to reap the benefits of this surprising correlation. Here are a few ideas.
Incentives
One way to boost morale around the office is to provide additional benefits in exchange for meeting productivity goals. By offering such incentives, you can potentially light a fire in the hearts of your employees, because the promise of an interesting reward is a powerful thing. One example of such a reward is a company cruise.
For example, a Panama Canal cruise can be the getaway of your employees’ dreams, especially if it’s a reward from the company for all their hard work. Likewise, special bonuses have long been a staple of modern businesses. However, these are few and far between and have little to do with the quality of performance. Instead, a business could implement a smaller monthly bonus to those who achieve certain milestones.
Accommodations
Accommodations around the office can go a long way to improving the moods of your employees. This can entail a wide range of changes made to your place of business, but the basic idea is to make your place of business a fun and comfortable place to be. Famously, many tech companies have elaborate rec rooms for their employees to great success, but that’s just one example. A number of smaller changes can also do the trick, albeit to a lesser extent.
Color theory can be important here, as the colors one sees subconsciously affect one’s state of mind. For instance, cool colors tend to be calming, while warm colors evoke a sort of passion. Therefore, one way to get your employees jazzed about their work is to ditch the all white aesthetic of most offices in favor of something that evokes one of more of these emotions while remaining subtle and tasteful. To that end, canary yellow or sky blue would make a great mixture of form and function.
Communication
When in doubt, don’t be afraid to ask your employees what would make your office a better place to work. There’s really no substitute for direct feedback, though this method will certainly require some denials and compromises if employees ask for changes that are unfeasible.
However, this will open the door to making more guided changes, rather than simply taking a shot in the dark. That, in turn, will improve the odds that the changes have the intended effect. Likewise, more open and honest communication in general will help to make your business a more hospitable place to work.
There’s one thing that no one likes, and that’s trying to work for someone who hasn’t clearly expressed what they want or need. While protocol is often sufficient, it can leave lingering questions that stress your employees out. Therefore, an employer should strive to be as transparent as possible about what is expected of employees, as well as encouraging of those who have further questions.
While it may seem like a no brainer, many employers fail to do this; this is simply because humans are inherently fallible, especially when it comes to social interaction, and it can be difficult to approach your boss with concerns when you can’t get a read on them.
Employee morale is much more important to the productivity of a company than previously thought. Therefore, the tough love approach of decades past is being phased out in favor of reverse engineering productivity from a positive mental state. Using these tips, you’re well on the way to giving your employees authentic reasons to give it their all at your company.
Interesting related article: “What is Motivation?“