It’s the end of an extremely busy month. Your employees have two weeks’ worth of work to fit into two days – and that’s not even including end of month reports. They are stressed, exhausted and communication is limited to sighs and profanities. Without intervention, it’s a formula for disaster.
Office morale is more complex than employees simply wanting to have fun. It is something that you should be consistently monitoring because if left to fester, spread and intensify, low morale can have detrimental effects on productivity.
Here we tackle the best ways in which you can help boost your team’s morale – instantly!
1. Praise
You are never going to eradicate stress from the workplace; it is often unavoidable. However, you can improve the way in which you and your employees approach stressful situations. One of the most common causes for low morale is employees’ feeling unappreciated. A simple ‘well done’ or ‘great job’ from a Director can lift morale in an instant. We all like our hard work to be appreciated don’t we? Simply put, don’t underestimate the power of praise.
2. Positivity Breeds Positivity
Similarly to how laughter can be infectious, so can negativity. If you hear an employee panicking to their colleague – offer some reassurance or logical advice. Help to rationalise the situation and devise a brief plan together before the negativity spreads. If you know there are other employees who have time to spare, encourage them to step in and help. A problem shared is a problem halved and no doubt, that employee will need help in the future too.
3. Fuel Body and Brain
When you’ve fallen behind on imminent deadlines, stopping to eat isn’t high on the priorities. Yet, this is when exhaustion kicks in. Employees end up running on a toxic mix of caffeine and adrenaline, and we all know what comes up, has to come crashing down. Why not assign someone to do a lunch run? It might be yourself or another member of the team, or if your entire team is busy, get lunch delivered to the office.
4. Listen to your Employees
It’s up to you to spot the difference between tongue-in-cheek moaning and serious complaints. If one of your employees hints that they have been burdened with a list of things to do that aren’t their responsibility or that another employee isn’t pulling their weight in a group project – you need to address this issue.
However, we would advise doing some due diligence first. Actively find out from your team members why they are stressed and what you could do to help the situation. These conversations may be uncomfortable to begin with, but they’re also a great way to get honest feedback, enabling you to tackle problematic issues within your company.
5. Bring in the Professionals
No one likes to admit that they need guidance and support, especially the person who is meant to be in control of the operation. However it’s possible that company-wide organisational issues or time management could be the route of stress in the workplace.
Outsourced specialists, such as business consultants, can help to identify problems with a fresh approach. The specialists can provide employers and employees alike with innovative ways to improve workload management and stress levels.
Most of these solutions don’t take much time at all but you will feel the benefits instantly, and ultimately, it’s up to you to keep an eye out for decreasing morale and nip it in the bud before it starts to negatively affect productivity.
Remember – praise your team for their efforts and don’t be too proud to admit when you need some guidance yourself.
