Take These 5 Steps To Boost Employee Morale

It’s Monday morning. You can feel it as you walk through the doors of your workplace. It’s as if someone’s dog has died. And it’s been like this for weeks, maybe even months. 

Identifying poor employee morale is the easy part. Fixing it is the challenge. So, where do you start? Based on our employee research, we’ve got some ideas that will help your improve workplace morale at your organization. 

Let’s get right to business with some key ways to raise spirits and get your culture working for you rather than against you.

1. Recognize and appreciate employees.

Who — and what — you celebrate tells your employees a lot about the kind of culture you have and the kind of culture you want. When frequent and genuine appreciation is modeled every day from the top down, you’ll create a culture that people want to be a part of and contribute to in every way.

2. Value a culture of open-mindedness.

If you want to raise employee morale, your culture must welcome input from all sources, regardless of internal conflicts. It’s the difference between employees that just follow orders and a culture that actively encourages debate and fresh perspectives. When you have many people and perspectives united toward one mission, that’s when employee morale soars to new levels. 

3. Enable and empower employees to work to their full potential.

People want to stretch themselves, so potential is a huge motivator for most. It’s also closely tied to employee engagement levels. Find opportunities to be flexible and give employees the freedom to change how they work. When they’re able to realize their full potential, you’ll also see a boost in employee morale. 

4. Ensure managers care about employee concerns.

People spend most of their waking hours at work, and of everyone they interact with, their manager has the biggest impact. It’s essential to employee morale that managers care about their employees as individuals and show genuine interest in their concerns. 

5. Don’t forget to have fun.

Fun encourages creativity, productivity, and teamwork. It promotes bonding and a positive culture where employees are better connected to your organization. Fun is a great stress reliever, and it gives people something to anticipate. And beyond boosting employee morale, fun at work may even help your organization attract and retain top talent.

Before you seek to change employee morale, seek to understand it. If you are still not sure what’s been causing employee morale to take a dive, ask the people who know your culture best: your employees. Use a trusted, third-party survey to determine what’s really going on within your organization. Knowing they have a good grasp on reality boosts the confidence and trust of employees.

Laura Brinton is content marketing director at Energage, a Philadelphia-based research and consulting firm that surveyed more than 2 million employees at more than 7,000 organizations in 2019. Energage is The Washington Post’s research partner for Top Workplaces.