If you’re tuned into your workplace, you can tell when employees exhibit the subtle and not-so-subtle markers of low morale: high turnover rates, fewer employee conversations, decreased collaborations and, above all, eye rolls.
The best approach to tackling low morale is to embrace positive change before it takes root in your office. Offset boredom and frustration with meaningful benefits, individual encouragement and opportunities to progress. Here are 5 proven ways to get the ball rolling:
Create more positive workplace energy
The design of a workplace has a substantial impact on employee morale. Motivational posters and fake plants can only do so much to improve a poor working environment. From the outset, consider the ideal business address for your company – serviced office space from BE Offices is a great place to start when looking for a comfortable environment designed for your employees.
With high-performance furniture, pro-working lounges and onsite gyms and showers – you’ll not be left wanting for comfort, luxury and fun perks at the workplace. Uplifting features where employees can relax and unwind serves to maintain motivation.
Emphasize the importance of fun
85% of employees are not engaged or are actively disengaged at work, resulting in $7 trillion in lost productivity, according to Gallup’s State of the Local Workplace. This gives you, as a business owner, all the more reason to show dedication to your employees.
Surprise your teams with half-days or long weekends off to ensure they’re getting the downtime they need after a week of hard work. Call an impromptu meeting on a Friday and emphasise all the successes and accomplishments employees have recently earned – reward them with a weekend away from the daily grind.
Schedule walking meetings at fun places like your local café or doughnut shop. Even consider hiking through your local nature reserve. Whilst having a suave, serviced office space is wonderful – getting out of the office is equally exciting. Build employee morale and strengthen team bonds in one fell swoop.
Keep communication open
Transparency is always an essential practice for any workplace, but it is especially beneficial when sustaining a positive, motivating environment. When management doesn’t openly address important company news, employees feel left in the dark.
Don’t let gossip get out of hand – omitted information is how negative falsehoods and rumours spread.
To combat this, host open discussions to invite questions and collaboration. This is easy to do with serviced office space from be offices – the networking sessions and speakers that be offices provide enable even the most remote employees to take part in their workplace environment. Such networking sessions should be regularly scheduled to show employees how they’re involved in company developments. Maintaining an open dialogue is vital.
Eradicate email
Email not only drags down employee productivity, it wears on well-being by increasing stress and levels of reactivity necessary to fulfil their job role. In fact, 12% of employees have called in sick because of job stress, according to the American Institute of Stress.
To mitigate this outcome, integrate a software like Trello, Asana and Slack to lessen or completely negate the impact of constant emailing. With serviced office space from be offices which include industry-leading IT connectivity, connecting your workplace in the alternate, morale-boosting ways is easy.
Encourage real lunch breaks
Research suggests that only one in five employees take lunch breaks. White-collar workers are least likely to step away from their desks for a break. Kimberly Elsbach, professor at the University of California, states “staying inside, in the same location, is really detrimental to creative thinking.” Get managers on board to take a coffee break, go for a walk or check out a new restaurant every day. Those people have the greatest leverage to model morale-boosting habits.
Introduce strict lunch breaks to your office and watch employee morale transform.
