It is never a good sign for a company when employees are negative or unhappy about their work environment. Building positive employee morale is not difficult, but can dramatically affect a team member’s outlook on their workplace and help retain higher talents. Working on employee moral takes a tremendous amount of commitment, and attention on the part of a supervisor and upper management of an organization.
Employee morale is the overall outlook, attitude, satisfaction, and confidence that colleagues feel at work. When employees are positive about their work environment they believe they can meet their most important needs at work. Factors that can contribute to positive employee morale include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Treating employees with respect.
- Providing regular recognition.
- Offering open and regular communication.
- Providing employee feedback and managerial coaching.
- Offering above industry-average benefits and compensation packages.
- Providing employee perks (e.g. company discounts) and company activities (e.g. after-work parties and gatherings)
- Positively managing employees within a framework of goals, measurements, and clear expectations.
Almost anything you do as a manager that contributes to a positive work environment for employees will help to build employee morale. When you take the initiative to implement the above factors, employee morale can remain high even during difficult and uncertain times. The results will not only be good for you and your employees, but also for the success and reputation of your business.
Sandra Summerhayes & Associates, an independent consulting agency that focuses on employee, team and organizational development, designs and delivers training sessions and seminars for various organizations throughout Ontario. Her team works closely with businesses to help them improve their working environments by identifying departmental gaps and then creating and executing action plans. For more information about Sandra Summerhayes & Associates visit www.sandrasummerhayes.com.
