The level of employee morale in a company can be the making or breaking of the enterprise. When morale is high, people tend to work harder and are happy to go the extra mile whenever required. When morale is low, productivity falls, staff turnover increases and businesses struggle to reach their goals.
If you want to ensure your company has the best possible chance of succeeding and that your staff stick around even when times get tough or the workload becomes increasingly challenging, then keep a close eye on the morale of your employees and strengthen it when needed. The following tactics are a great starting point.
Celebrate achievements
As your business grows and develops, it’s natural to want to keep your focus on the next set of targets you want to achieve. Although this kind of thinking can help to ensure your company is always moving forward, there is a risk that all the smaller goals and targets you have met and surpassed along the way get overshadowed.
Taking the time every now and then to reflect on what has been achieved up until this point in time will give your employees a boost by letting them know their efforts have not gone unnoticed. Consider handing out small awards for those staff who have gone above and beyond the call of duty or simply arrange after-work drinks in the office one night and give a brief talk about how far the company has come in recent months.
Prioritize health and well-being
Tending to the emotional and mental health needs of your employees, in addition to ensuring they get a sense of fulfilment from their work can pay huge dividends in terms of productivity, engagement and overall cohesiveness. Studies show that the happier your employees are on a day-to-day basis, the less likely they are to call in sick.
Providing your staff with exercise facilities or negotiating a corporate discount with a local fitness center can help mitigate the negative effects of long hours spent sitting at a desk. Flexible arrangements that allow employees to occasionally work from home can help to relieve the tedium of a long commute while ensuring staff have access to healthy food choices, especially during their lunch breaks, can help with overall wellness.
Never delay payday
Everyone wants to feel valued, and multiple surveys show that the most important element of any job to an employee is his or her salary. As a consequence of this, few things cause the level of employee morale to sink faster than a late or missed payment, so it’s essential that your company has a reliable payroll system in place. No matter how much your employees share your vision of the future, their loyalty will quickly start to falter if they stop being compensated for their efforts.
Regardless of the actual cause of the missed payment, most employees will assume that the company is in some form of financial trouble and will start looking for new employment elsewhere. If you want your employees to always the maximum amount of effort into their work, show that you truly value them by always paying them on time.
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