Employee morale has a major impact on productivity and performance. As an employer, it’s beneficial to champion well-being to build a happy, healthy team and increase output. If you run a business and boosting morale is high on the agenda for the year ahead, here are some tips to support and nourish well-being at work.
Encourage communication
Encouraging communication is crucial to create an open culture where everyone feels able to talk, share ideas and raise concerns or worries. Try to organize regular group meetings and one-to-one catch-ups and make sure you listen to your employees. Effective communication has two key components: speaking and listening. Address issues, let people have the time and space to talk and try to build confidence in those who tend to hold back or keep things bottled up. It’s helpful to let your employees know that you or the senior management team are there for them.
Reward loyalty and recognize achievements
Most people respond positively to rewards, encouragement and praise. As a leader, it’s important to go the extra mile to ensure that your employees feel valued. Thank your employees for their hard work and recognize achievements. Celebrate milestones and accomplishments, act as a cheerleader for your team and reward loyalty and commitment. There are all kinds of ways you can reward your team from gift vouchers for employees and financial bonuses to awards, extra days off or staff parties. Treating your employees can help to increase productivity and motivation and boost staff retention rates. If your team doesn’t feel valued, they may decide to start looking for other jobs or their performance levels may dip.
Identify common causes of stress
Work is one of the most common causes of stress among US adults. According to data from The American Institute of Stress, over 82% of employees experience stress and a quarter cite work as their biggest stressor. Talk to your employees and use surveys and questionnaires to gather information about stress levels and causes of burnout or anxiety. Try to identify common problems and triggers and take steps to tackle them. Many employees feel stressed because they have too much to do, for example, or they have no time to relax and decompress. Solutions like managing workloads and implementing guidelines linked to work-life balance can help. You could set cut-off times for sending work emails or block out periods during the day for employees to have a break or go for a walk, for example. It’s also beneficial to explore well-being programs and benefits as part of the employee package.
Promoting healthy lifestyles can also help. Encourage regular exercise by offering more flexibility in employee schedules and providing discounts to leisure facilities, such as gyms, or online workouts and menu plans.
Nourishing well-being at work can have incredible benefits for employers and employees. If you run a company and you want to establish team morale as a priority, encourage communication, reward loyalty and recognize achievements and work together with your team to prevent, manage and reduce stress.
