Happy employees are the cornerstone of a productive workplace. A workplace with high employee morale can achieve any goal. Contrary to that, businesses have to pay a heavy price when employees feel down, dejected, and demotivated. Low employee engagement costs companies $450-500 Billion each year!
It is becoming increasingly clear that organizations should incorporate strategies to improve employee morale, innovation, productivity, and the bottom line.
Organizations must evaluate their employee engagement levels several times a year to create an employee-centric future-ready workplace that will retain a talented crop of employees and attract new ones.
Factors influencing employee morale
One of the most fruitful ways to boost employee morale and foster a happy work environment is to identify the factors affecting employee morale. Here are a few of them:
Leadership and management
They are the key factors that impact employee morale. Effective leadership can empower a motivated individuals, while poor leadership can lead to fledgling spirits at the workplace. Employers should always provide constructive feedback to make employees feel valued and empowered.
Two-way communication
Employees who feel acknowledged will likely perform to the best of their ability. Communication is a two-way street, and how the employer behaves will also translate into how the employee behaves. Employers must take employee feedback, share company updates, celebrate milestones together, and answer employee questions.
Employee appreciation
According to a study by Employee Getaway, 75% of employees get a motivational boost when managers appreciate their work and say “thank you” when they do good work.
Growth and development
Without enough growth opportunities, employees can start to feel stuck in a rut. That's why it makes sense for companies to prioritize employees’ professional growth and development. Companies must provide employees with the right resources to aid them in their work, invest in their future, and amplify their skills.
Strategies for boosting employee morale
Enhancing communication and feedback channels
- Have an open channel of communication with 1:1 meetings to enable employees to voice out their problems and share ideas.
- Organize team-building activities such as team lunches or virtual happy hours for your remote team to boost their morale,
- Adopt communication tools that ensure anonymity and confidentiality to make employees feel comfortable enough to share feedback.
Recognizing and rewarding employee contributions
- Give out well-deserved recognition to employees to unlock their true potential with a rewards system. Such a system can add points to the system and later redeem the points to get rewards like gift cards.
- Celebrate true efforts to develop work connections and fuel future performance growth by giving a shoutout to the employees on social media pages to laud their efforts.
- Hold regular morale-boosting meetings to celebrate individuals' and teams’ successes.
- Offer skill development opportunities and sponsor a certification course to celebrate and hone their craft further.
Promoting work-life balance and employee well-being
- Allow them to refresh and refocus. Help them maintain a work-life balance and good health with fitness rewards. and wellness programs,
- Encourage employees to take the initiative on projects to boost their morale and make them feel empowered,
- Hold online quiz nights, scavenger hunts, and virtual coffee breaks to help employees socialize, boost the working relationship between colleagues, and promote teamwork.
Fostering a sense of purpose and meaningful work
- Create collaboration opportunities among employees to foster a common sense of purpose. Use proper collaboration tools to reach out to colleagues and mentors.
- Hold frequent surveys to make employees understand that their opinions matter and has an impact on the organizational goal. Use a conversational bot like Amber, which has an 80% response rate when compared to other surveys and gives real-time data on employee engagement, engaged employees are more motivated to perform well and align themselves to the company’s goals, and
- Encourage kindness and support at work by doling out Gift cards handwritten notes of concern and appreciation or concern, and acknowledging life moments like birthdays or anniversaries to make each worker feel that they are more than mere employees.
Artificial intelligence-enabled chatbots like inFeedo’s Amber help HR teams improve employee engagement, predict attrition, and gauge company culture in real time. Unlike engagement surveys, NLP-enabled engagement bots hold real conversations with employees, boost their morale, and build a culture of trust with employees.
Boosting employee morale after layoffs
Maintaining team morale after layoffs is critical to restoring a sense of purpose and security in the workforce. Here is how companies can boost the spirits of the employees with employees:
- Reassure the existing workers by being direct, empathetic, and honest.
- Invest in developing employee skills and incorporate team-building activities.
- Communicate about specific organizational changes and company updates.
Boosting employee morale in remote work environments
According to a survey conducted about Global eLearning Solutions, 77% of remote workers felt that they were more productive in a remote work setup, and 52% were less likely to quit.
Yet, despite the advantages of remote work opportunities, it may still have some detrimental effects on employee morale because of the following challenges:
- Trouble concentrating and lack of focus in an over-familiar ambiance,
- Lack of team spirit and fledgling morale because of lack of efficient feedback,
- Feeling lonely and disconnected from other company workers,
- Procrastination, leading to poor work output.
Team leaders can strengthen the work dynamic they aim for, building tighter-knit collaborative work units with the following strategies among remote workers,
Communication is the key
- Ask more questions and hop onto a call with your teammates whenever necessary
- Hold regular one-on-ones with teams using platforms such as Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, or Skype. Use a chat tool like Slack, Twist, or Teams to talk or chatbots like inFeedo’s Amber to communicate more.
- Set clear expectations to minimize hurdles and get optimum results
Hold team-building activities
- Hold virtual company events to feel connected with the team and work towards a common goal
- Introduce friendly challenges like a fitness challenge to bring fun rivalry to the scheme of things, and
- Hold fun virtual workshops to connect with other team members, pick up a skill or two, and track progress.
Empower employees to voice their feedback
Inspire candid feedback with AI-based tools like Amber,
- Hold anonymous surveys to increase response rates, and
- Make informed decisions based on surveys to avoid future conflicts
Activities to Boost Employee Morale
Unrealistic workloads and workplace demands are causing burnout at record levels today, leading to a loss of confidence and disengagement among employees. Here is how you can include employee morale activities and ensure a positive impact on workplace culture.
Sync up your team on group projects and take time out to give regular feedback to rally your team,
- Schedule regular pulse surveys to understand employee sentiment and measure engagement. Use inFeedo’s Amber to collect continuous, personalized feedback on autopilot.
- Leverage AI to get complete company health to predict disengagement and take timely AI-driven corrective measures.
- Use a GPT-enabled conversational AI chatbot to ask empathetic questions, understand intent, acknowledge with context, and resolve employee concerns. This improves scalability and efficiency and frees up HR bandwidth.
Empower your HR with the right tools and boost employee engagement
Burnout in the workplace is increasingly becoming an epidemic. The only way to nip it in the bud for an organization is to create employee-friendly policies and strategies.
The CHRO can incorporate actionable tips and tricks listed above to boost employee morale and build a favorable workplace environment. With better people-management skills, they are successful in attracting and retaining high-quality talent.
You can empower HRBPs and CHROs to address employee feedback and make them truly heard with Amber’s AI Action Suite. Book a demo today!
