How to Course Correct Low Employee Morale in the Workplace?
Employee morale in the workplace is a key driver and backbone of any organization’s success. It refers to the physical/emotional well-being and job satisfaction that an employee experiences at their workplace. Furthermore, it is reflected in their performance, outlook, and approach to managing tasks.
High employee morale ensures increased productivity, motivation, efficiency, and engagement at work. On the contrary, low morale results in disengaged employees, reflecting low productivity, unplanned/prolonged absenteeism, high turnover rates, etc. It also compromises project quality leading to client dissatisfaction and reduced profitability.
As a result, it’s critical for managers to course-correct low employee morale issues and implements deliberate steps to boost the same.
This blog highlights several ways organizations can improve employees’ morale and maintain a healthy work environment. But first, let’s understand the negative impacts of low employee morale.
1. How can Low Employee Morale Negatively Impact a Business?
The success of an organization depends largely on its employees. However, the workflow gets disrupted when resources are underutilized, hindering their professional growth. In addition, lack of empowerment, poor communication, and inflexible working conditions also contribute to low employee morale. It leads to disengagement at work, avoiding participation and interactions with peers, and taking frequent unplanned leaves.
As a result, employees’ performance drops, and so does their productivity, causing turnovers. When organizations fail to address these issues on time, it negatively affects business goals, decreases efficiency, and hinders timely project delivery. Furthermore, even if they manage to deliver projects on time, the quality is far from acceptable, leading to the loss of recurring deals from the customer.
Let’s discuss the action points for organizations to combat low employee morale in their workplace.
2. 7 Effective Ways to Improve Employee Morale in the Workplace
Spotting low morale in employees is not enough. Organizations need to address it as well. Enlisted below are some strategic solutions organizations can implement to resolve the issue.
2.1 Allocate work based on skill set and interest
When employees are assigned work that falls beyond their expertise, it puts them under pressure and leads to job stress. Further, it disengages them and lowers their morale. Therefore, it is important that managers allocate work based on employees’ qualifications, skillset, and experience.
Managers can also encourage employees to select projects or tasks that interest them. Doing so will increase their motivation to work and deliver high performance. In addition, the freedom to choose work will make employees feel trusted by their managers, thereby boosting retention rates and improving their morale.
2.2 Provide cross-departmental opportunities
Employees who work on the same task or project for a very long time and with the same team get bored as work becomes monotonous. This can reduce their engagement and lower overall morale. Therefore, managers can provide cross-departmental opportunities to increase their engagement, improve productivity and diversify their skillsets.
In addition, when employees get exposure to different kinds of projects, it helps them hone multiple skills and grow professionally. This also enhances creativity and knowledge sharing and improves their morale.
2.3 Grant autonomy and avoid micromanagement
Micromanagement stifles creativity and confidence leading to low employee morale in the workplace. Further, it may result in job stress, increased absenteeism, reduced motivation, and unplanned attrition. Micromanagers scrutinize each step their employee takes and criticize them if it’s not according to them, resulting in poor workplace relationships.
Therefore, managers must give autonomy so that employees can work in a way best suited to them. It will empower employees to unleash their creativity and fresh perspective in making decisions of their own will. Moreover, it will further boost employees’ attitudes about work.
2.4 Implement an open-door policy for communication
Employees feel disengaged and demotivated when there are communication gaps in the organization. As a result, they do not freely express their ideas, ask questions, and communicate with their seniors. Therefore, an open-door policy within a firm is essential to gauge and maintain employee morale.
Open communication promotes a welcoming work culture that enables managers to encourage healthy discussions and provide constructive feedback. Further, it will restore trust and strengthen the employees’ relationships with their peers and management.
2.5 Conduct training and upskilling programs as per IDP
When the workplace becomes stagnant, employee morale can decrease. This also leads to low-quality work that dissatisfies customers and stakeholders, thereby reducing profits. Thus, companies can provide professional development opportunities, as per individual development plans or IDPs, and conduct training and upskilling programs for their employees.
It can empower employees to hone new skills according to the changing demand of the markets. Further, training and upskilling programs will also help organizations to deliver quality projects, and gain a competitive edge.
2.6 Reward and recognize employees regularly
When organizations do not appreciate employee’s contribution and efforts, their morale declines. This will also lead to low productivity, high turnover rates, etc. Therefore, managers need to give their employees adequate recognition and celebrate their accomplishments from time to time.
While not always monetary, they can offer non-cash rewards like access to a course, a thank-you note, a ticket to their favorite team’s football match, and shouting out on the company’s social media handle. This will reinforce a positive work culture and boost employee morale. As a result, employees will put in extra effort and attain better results in the future.
2.7 Have recreational activities for employees
Employees spend long hours brainstorming, researching, and attending meetings with clients. As a result, they have hectic schedules and stressful hours. Unfortunately, it can lead to physical and mental health problems that reduce their ability to perform optimally and lower employee morale.
Therefore, organizations can host recreational activities, games, and events where employees can participate and have fun regularly. It will help employees build a stronger bond with their colleagues, release job stress and take a break from their sedentary lifestyle. In addition, such activities will help improve their morale, enabling them to perform the tasks better.
The following section explains how resource management software can help boost employee morale in the workplace. Let’s take a look,
3. How can a Resource Management Tool Help?
Saviom’s resource management software enables organizations to tap into the maximum potential of their workforce. To begin with, it offers 360-degree visibility and advanced filters that help managers deploy the best-fit resources to the right projects matching their skillset. Thus, eliminating instances of under/over allocation.
In addition, the utilization reports and heatmaps help to keep employees optimally utilized. It also allows you to avoid overutilization and eliminate employee burnout.
The tool also allows managers to publish open positions mentioning specific details such as skillset, qualifications, experience, etc. It gives employees the freedom to choose work of their interest and expertise, boosting employee engagement and morale.
Conclusion
Employees are the engine that runs an organization. Therefore, managers must stay forewarned of the low morale signs in their workplace. They can implement the above-mentioned strategies and pair them with a robust resource management tool to enhance employees’ performance and gain overall profitability.
So, how do you maintain employee morale in the workplace?
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