How to Boost Employee Morale? 15 Effective Ways

Happy employees make up a successful organization. Employees who carry high morale demonstrate better performance at work. Studies show that companies with a positive work culture experience a 4x increase in revenue.

As employee morale and engagement remain crucial determinants of an organization’s success, organizations must shed continuous focus on working out innovative, viable employee engagement ideas.

This blog has outlined the importance of measuring and maintaining employee morale. We have also presented the employee morale definition along with some proven strategies to boost the same.

If you are exploring how to increase the morale of employees and build a positive work environment, this blog is a must-read.

What Is Employee Morale?

Employee morale describes how team members feel about the overall ethos and their organizational role. In other words, it encompasses their emotions, behaviors, thoughts, and opinions about the workplace.

Employee morale is often confused with employee satisfaction and happiness. In reality, it is broader than employee satisfaction and covers how they align with the organizational values, their performance, and their approach toward taking up the tasks assigned to them. 

Employee morale has a profound impact on the following attributes. 

• Employee engagement
• Employee productivity
• Employee loyalty
• Employee turnover
• Return on Investment

Employee morale describes the depth of the team members’ social connection and attachment. Many internal and external factors influence an organization’s culture, so improving employee morale requires a holistic approach.

Given the distributed nature of today’s workforce, keeping track of morale, satisfaction, and happiness becomes a complicated task and demands innovative methods.

How Important Is Employee Morale?

Employee morale is crucial for an organization’s success as it is closely related to employee satisfaction and overall productivity. When you boost employee morale, the entire workspace feels positive and vibrant, and employees work with increased dedication and commitment. Low employee morale impacts the mental and physical well-being of the employees.

Following are some benefits businesses can achieve by promoting employee morale.

1. Increase in Productivity

When employees feel heard and appreciated, they are more likely to invest their fullest abilities and potential to achieve business goals. Doing so will help you achieve more, leading to an overall rise in business productivity.

2. Reduce Employee Attrition

Employees are less likely to leave a positive workspace. When they are happy and satisfied with the culture and environment of an organization, they feel valued, which reduces employee attrition rates. Doing so helps save the cost of hiring and training new employees.

3. Deeper Collaboration

Naturally, when employee morale is high, there is a greater sense of bonding between the team members. They naturally get along well, and better collaboration yields quicker solutions to problems and challenges.

4. Safer Workspace

A psychologically safe workspace is imperative to channel the employee’s focus and efforts on work. A culture that does not punish employees for voicing their opinions and thoughts helps forge a safe and secure workspace. Doing so eventually improves the work morale of an organization.

5. Reduces Absentee Rates

Employee absenteeism is a critical issue, and the absences cost $2500 yearly for salaried employees. When employee morale is low and the workspace is not so positive, they lack the motivation to come to work and deliver.

On the other hand, when employee morale is high in the workspace, they enjoy coming to work. This boosts their confidence and motivation to work, eventually reducing absentee rates.

How to Measure Employee Morale?

Measuring where the team stands is important before working out ways to boost employee morale. But, measuring employee morale is not as easy as it may seem.

Businesses adopt different strategies to measure employee morale based on the industry, size, and scale of business operations. In this section, we have listed some important ways businesses boost employee morale.  

1. Employee Morale Survey

One of the easiest ways to improve employee morale is to conduct an employee morale survey. It helps understand how people feel about the organization’s culture, vision, and goals, the benefits offered, and their work in their designated role.

Doing an anonymous survey helps employees provide open feedback and offer recommendations to improve employee morale. 

2. Pulse Surveys

As the name suggests, pulse surveys help capture the team’s pulse and morale. They are quick and have around 5 questions to capture your employees’ feelings and how you can foster enhancements.

Most businesses take up quarterly surveys, and some do it on a monthly or weekly basis too. It becomes difficult for the HR department to roll out surveys often. On the other hand, doing it quarterly or yearly leads to recency bias. So, you should figure out what works best for the size and scope of your business.

3. Sentiment Analysis

In sentiment analysis, you should have open-ended questions and then analyze the text in the answers to understand the overall sentiment of the employees.

It could be positive, negative, or neutral, and based on the feedback received, the HR department should work out strategies to boost the work morale of the employees. They can do so using a reliable HR software system.

4. Analyze the Performance Data

Employee performance is directly related to the culture and work ethos prevailing in the organization. Minor dips are common, but if you notice a deeper dip or sustained lows in the performance of employees who used to perform better, you must pay attention. It’s time to work out strategies that help boost employee morale.

5. Exit Interviews

Exit interviews are crucial in helping organizations measure their work culture and employee morale. People tend to be honest during their exit interviews. Moreover, they would have also scouted for a job recently. Their insights would help organizations work out strategies to improve their culture.

Businesses should consider conducting exit interviews for all employees who voluntarily resign. Seeking opinions from people laid off or terminations may paint an unrealistic picture. Limiting the exit interviews to just long-timers or good performers may also lead to bias. 

6. Perceive Subtle Nuances in Culture

While tracking employee morale, you must look deeper beyond the surface. When you do interviews or surveys, you must look further and understands if people with the same culture, traits, language, gender, etc., share the same feeling and thoughts about employee morale.

Say, when a woman feels low on morale, you must upon other women and try to understand if that is the case with women in general. On the other hand, if an employee in the sales department reports low morale, you must understand if other employees in the same department share a similar feeling. Doing so helps businesses design custom strategies and tactics to promote employee morale.

Factors Affecting Employee Morale and Productivity

Employee morale is a complicated phenomenon determined by several factors. We have listed some of the important ones in the coming section. So, if you are exploring how to improve employee morale and job satisfaction, read on.

1. Communication

Communication is crucial in promoting employee morale in an organization’s workspace. It is only a natural phenomenon that employees will have very different opinions and viewpoints. A psychologically safe space is about enabling constructive dialogues, embracing diverse perspectives, and letting productive disagreements.

The workspace should provide a safer space for employees to communicate their opinions, thoughts, and beliefs without fear of judgment. Doing so helps organizations devise strategies to fix problems and boost employee morale. 

2. Organizational Culture

Organizational culture directly and profoundly impacts employee satisfaction and morale. Employees feel more aligned with the organization’s goal and vision when a positive work environment is rendered. They tend to collaborate more when their colleagues and leaders value their thoughts and opinions. 

For example, a culture of excellence that promotes and encourages continuous learning is beneficial to employee morale. Providing staff members with access to platforms like Standards Courses where they can get educated in the most important international management systems, obtain professional certifications, and advance their careers is a great strategy to raise their morale and motivation levels.

3. Organizational Structure

An organizational structure has a significant impact on employee morale. An unorganized structure creates confusion and chaos, adversely impacting employee morale.

When there is no clarity on how the employee’s role and contribution align with the organizational goals, then he/she may feel disconnected from the purpose. The lack of alignment and clarity to the organizational vision impact employee morale to a notable extent. 

4. Work-life Balance

An HBR study shows that employee morale improves when organizations promote work-life balance. When employees know they have unwavering support and assistance from their leaders, they feel positive and develop a stronger attachment to the organization.

A balanced lifestyle at work and home boosts employee morale, productivity, and satisfaction, leading to a healthy work life balance.

5. Career Opportunities

Organizational leaders and managers must understand that employees have personal and professional goals. Staff morale decreases when they feel that the scope and opportunities for their career growth in the organization are limited.

They start looking for other opportunities that align with their purpose and goals. On the other hand, employee morale increases when their work provides them with learning and growth opportunities. 

6. Proper Supervision

The degree and quality of supervision play a huge role in boosting employee morale. When employees have a clear direction of their expectations, they tend to perform better.

On the other hand, they do not like being over-supervised or micromanaged. So, achieving the right degree of supervision that offers direction without too much interference is important for promoting employee morale.  

7. Rewards and Recognition

Leaders and managers must credit the team and recognize their contributions in driving the organizational purpose and success. 

Organizations must also offer rewards, incentives, promotions, and compensation based on the employee’s performance. Doing so will motivate them to perform better, as employees feel warm and positive when their efforts are recognized.

Also read: List of Best HR Tools for Employee Engagement

How To Improve the Morale of Employees? 15 Proven Ways

Now that you know what influences employee morale and satisfaction, it is important to understand how to improve it. In this section, we have outlined some strategies and tips to help you boost the morale of your employees.

1. Educate Your Leaders 

A simple way to boost team morale is to educate your leaders on the importance of employee morale. The saying, “People join an organization but leave managers,” implies the role of leadership in promoting employee satisfaction and morale.

A good leader instills a sense of purpose, confidence, and motivation among the team members and drives them toward the organizational goal and vision. 

Educating the leader on the importance of employee morale and how it impacts the team’s productivity and organizational efficiency helps boost employee morale.

2. Emphasize Work-life Balance

Organizations prioritizing work-life balance have high employee morale and lower employee attrition rates. When employees have a balance of personal and professional life, they tend to feel positive and motivated at work.

Doing so improves their productivity and reduces burnout and stress. Overall, prioritizing work-life balance helps achieve a positive work environment and culture.

3. Seek Feedback

With remote and hybrid work becoming mainstream, seeking periodic employee feedback allows one to convey their concerns. Organizations can also understand the problems and address employees’ challenges in their workspace. They can find ways to sort them out before they become potentially serious and harmful. 

When you seek regular feedback, they feel valued and show a greater commitment to improving. You can do so by circulating a weekly, monthly, or quarterly questionnaire. You can also request informal, unstructured feedback at the end of a meeting, brainstorming session, or project completion.

4. Employee Recognition and Rewards

Recognition and rewards are excellent ways to appreciate the effort the employees invest in driving the mission and vision of the organization.

Offer incentives, rewards, and promotions to the deserving so they feel motivated and appreciated at work. When you do so, employees tend to invest their fullest abilities into performing their assigned tasks.

When employees feel recognized and rewarded, they feel empowered and motivated to work, which, in turn, increases the overall employee morale in an organization’s workplace. You should consider using employee management software systems to avoid favoritism and bias in recognizing the employees.

5. Set up a Suggestion Box

Setting up a suggestion box and seeking anonymous input and suggestions from employees help businesses derive employee morale ideas and solve challenges employees experience at the workspace.

Though many companies set up a suggestion box, they fail to open it and act on the feedback they receive. To set up the suggestion box, companies should appoint HR personnel to look after the feedback and suggestions weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.

Explore the suggestions and discuss them with the team. If you can accommodate the suggestions, create a roadmap for implementation. If that is too complex and hard to implement, then explore what made the employee suggest such a suggestion.

You should also discuss these suggestions with the employees during the meetings and let them know they are being considered for implementation. When you do so, employees know their recommendations are heard, and feedback is valued.

6. Organize Team-building Activities

Team building activities help employees bond better and develop a sense of attachment with their colleagues. You can organize a monthly or bi-monthly team lunch so the employees get to engage in informal interaction and understand each other better. You should work out fun ways to boost morale at work.

You should also organize formal team-building sessions led by professionals so the employees update their knowledge, skills, tools, and competencies periodically. This eventually boosts the team’s morale.

7. Enhance the Quality of Manager-employee Relationships

Managers and team leaders play a crucial role in determining employee morale. A bad manager can cause irreversible damage to the organizational culture and team morale.

So, the management must keep a tab on the managers. It should offer ears when employees complain about the managers. Doing so will help you sort out the problem before it goes out of your hands.

You should identify managers who rank low on promoting employee morale and put them through training and development programs. You can also promote workshops and events that help foster better bonds between the manager and team members.

8. Let Go of Employees Who Harm the Organization’s Morale

Beyond managers, individual team members also have a crucial impact on promoting employee morale. If an employee harms the morale and culture of an organization and seems like a misfit, you should talk to them and help them understand the importance of working in alignment with the team.

If they fail to improve and continue to do so, it is time to consider having a conversation with HR and see how you can let the employee go.

9. Stay Interviews

Stay interviews are equally important as exit interviews. Though most organizations conduct exit interviews, they do not focus much on conducting stay interviews. While exit interviews help you understand what made employees leave an organization, stay interviews help you understand the challenges and problems they face while choosing to stay.

You will get insights into what makes employees happy and determine the scope for improvements and enhancements. Stay interviews are usually conducted based on an open-ended questionnaire, so you gain access to the employees’ complete thought patterns and sentiments.

10. Do Frequent Check-ins

A simple way to track and boost employee morale is to regularly check with the team. Doing so will help you understand the following.

• Are employees looking for an extra hand of support?
• Are they happy and satisfied with the work they do?
• Is there a scope for improvement?
• What are they doing to mitigate stress and work anxiety?

Having informal conversations with the employees and asking these questions would help them understand how they feel about work and what can be done to promote team morale.

11. It is ok to Have a Bad Day!

Each of us, from leaders to workers, has a bad day. Acknowledge that it is always ok to have a bad day as long as it doesn’t harm customers and other stakeholders.

Motivate employees to look deep inside and determine why they feel so and how they can get out of there. Giving time and space to the employees to consume their emotions and comprehend why they feel so works better than expecting them to suddenly get rid of their feelings.

12. Proper Staffing Increases Employee Morale

Right staffing is integral in promoting staff morale. When a workplace is adequately staffed, employees don’t feel overburnt working overtime or extra shifts and have a better balance between work and life. They get to deliver high-quality work, and job satisfaction increases, which eventually drives employee morale.

13. Celebrate the Special Dates of Your Employees

Recognizing and celebrating special occasions of your employees, like their birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, etc., helps build strong bonds between the employees.

When you do so, you mustn’t miss out on any of the team members, as it may impact their morale. You can add the important occasions of the employees to the calendar in your employee management system. You may also consider offering incentives or rewards on their special occasion to acknowledge their contribution.

14. Promote Collaboration Between Team Members

Given the distributed nature of today’s workspaces, promoting connectivity and collaboration among your team members is crucial. 

You must host team-building events quarterly or semi-annually so the remote employees meet each other and build bonds. You should also organize daily meetings over Slack, Teams, etc., to forge deeper connections.

15. Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

Diversity and inclusion greatly impact employee morale. A diverse workspace provides more room for creative ideas and innovative offerings. When people from different educational, cultural, and geographical backgrounds get to work as a team, there is a huge scope for learning and development.

A diverse workforce may add no meaning unless the employees feel heard and included as a part of the team. Their differences must be valued, and work appreciated above all the disparities in the team. The right blend of heterogeneity and inclusivity increases employee morale in the workplace.

Conclusion

Employee morale impacts the productivity of the workspace, and so remains a crucial factor for organizations. Building a stress-free workspace for employees is a continuous job; nevertheless, organizations can work out ways to boost staff morale anytime. 

Beyond that, monitoring employee performance, seeking regular feedback, offering incentives and promotions, and promoting a deeper sense of collaboration help increase employee morale.  

Monitoring and measuring employee morale and working out relevant strategies may get difficult if you don’t have reliable HR software. HR software helps streamline and automate end-end employee management. Lower manual intervention means lower bias and higher job satisfaction for employees.