Small Business – Easy Ways to Boost Your Employees’ Morale
Employee morale affects performance. Study after study shows a significant percentage of worker morale is mediocre, at best. That’s often the case even for companies that are able to pay competitive wages and benefits. As you might guess, it’s a bigger quandary for business owners that don’t have enough cash flow for raises.
There are strategies you can implement if a valued employee wants a raise, and money’s tight. It’s also possible to sleep well and not worry about keeping your top employees.
What about the rest of the team? What can be done to improve the morale of employees to perform at their highest possible levels?
Employees, who otherwise have good attitudes, appreciate positive communication. They like knowing they’re contributing to the welfare of their employer, and that they’re appreciated as an asset to the organization.
To boost your employees’ morale, here are some easy-to-follow strategies:
Start a listening campaign. If it’s not your style it will take some gumption to ask your employees what they want. For example, when planning a staff party ask your workers for their preferences. But you’re a courageous entrepreneur, right?
At the minimum on a indefinite basis, you should smilingly walk the floor twice a day to engage your workers. It’ll only take a minute with each employee. Ask them open-ended questions about their hobbies or how they’re doing. Wait for the answers – be attentive – eespecially if they indicate they have a problem.
When’s the time to give feedback? You should always give feedback right away – whether a person performed a task well or poorly. Be specific. Make a note about the performance and slip it in the employee’s personnel file as a reminder at appraisal time.
A talented employee with a positive attitude will appreciate it.
Help your employees’ career growth. You can accomplish this without a big expense.For example, help them develop skills by giving them added duties. This will enhance their self confidence.
Besides, a good boss knows how to delegate.
Accommodate their schedule with flexibility. Flexibility is usually appreciated and is a great motivator. Sometimes employees need to leave work early to do an important errand. Perhaps they have a child playing in a championship Little League game.
Share information. Let the employees know how the business is doing – and how their work is contributing to any successes. They’d appreciate knowing if they’re making a difference — or how they can.
Moreover, share your vision for the direction of the company, what’s expected and how the performance of the workers will affect the outcome.
From the Coach’s Corner, here are recommendations for other workplace problems:
- How You Can Eliminate Destructive Conflict for Better Teamwork
- Workplace Bullies May Hurt Retention of All Employees, Not Just Victims
- Four Tips to Motivate Employees When You’re Facing Adversity
Money will buy a fine dog, but only kindness will make him wag his tail.
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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.
15 HR Strategies to Improve Your Business Performance
Studies show many employees are dissatisfied in their workplaces. Employee dissatisfaction, of course, will adversely affect a company’s performance.
In fact, a 2010 Hewitt Associates study indicated employee engagement is at an historical low – well, at least since the firm began researching the issue in the mid-1990s.
A lack of employee engagement means:
- Higher costly turnover
- Less focus on customer service
- Less productivity
- Weak profits.
In the UK, employees of family-operated companies have better employee relationships than other businesses. A University of Birmingham study concludes family business workers – 21 percent of the workforce – are more loyal. They are more engaged with their employers, show more commitment and have higher morale.
Another consulting firm, Mercer, concluded in its 2011 global study that 33 percent of U.S. workers are thinking about quitting their employers. Forty percent of millennials are also considering a job change.
There are countless other human resources studies with similar findings.
Higher pay and benefits are important to workers. But they’re not the greatest motivators, and employees often have more salient concerns.
So, the key is to take steps that lead to higher employee morale and performance. The bottom-line question for you: Do your employees mirror what you expect?
Assuming you’ve hired the best talent in terms of attitude, to improve your business performance, here are 15 HR strategies:
- Be authentic, not a patronizing employer.
- Walk the floor twice a day to engage your staff. Show empathy. Ask questions, such as “How are you?”
- Demonstrate your listening skills with open-ended questions. (“What is the dumbest thing you are on which you’re working?” or “Where is the company wasting resources – in time or money?”)
- Communicate what the company is doing and how it’s performing.
- Help employees to understand how they contribute to your bottom line. Show them your company-wide objectives and how their work contributes to your company’s performance.
- Give workers a purpose with challenges.
- Without being verbose, teach them how you think and why.
- Create collegial teams of workers without micromanaging them.
- Make employees a CEO of their work. Empower them to contribute ideas and allow them as much autonomy as feasible to make decisions.
- Encourage each employee to be customer-focused.
- Immediately, show appreciation for good work and counsel employees following sub-par work.
- Budget for development and training.
- Show flexibility to enhance employee balance for career and personal life.
- Establish an employee assistance program. Do what you can to help eliminate the employees’ stress factors so they can have maximum focus on their responsibilities. That includes financial tips. As my dad once told me: “It’s not how much you make, it’s how much you bring home.”
- Employees know who their toxic co-workers are. Don’t let the toxic workers hurt your workplace environment.
From the Coach’s Corner, here are more management suggestions:
- 20 Tell-Tale Signs – If You’re Under-Performing as a Manager
- 21 Quick Tips to Avoid the Dark Side of Management
- Human Resources – Profit By Not Letting Your Stars Become Free Agents
- Boss Checklist: 16 Strategies for a Competitive Edge
- Human Resources: 12 Errors to Avoid in Evaluations
“So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.”
-Peter Drucker
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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.