How to Motivate Your Team to Achieve Their Highest Potential

Effective team members are crucial to any company’s success.

They can shape the vision of the brand, affect the degree of client contentment and, in the long run, the amount of profit the business turns over. What determines the ultimate success or failure of the company is team morale

What Causes Low Team Morale?

The major reasons why morale may plummet boil down to the following

  • No growth. This refers to both personal and company dimensions. When employees start to feel that there is no upward movement in the business, they grow disappointed and unmotivated, considering leaving for a more challenging position. 
  • Absence of clarity. Employees need to know what their bosses expect from them. Uncertainty will ultimately lead to unnecessary stress and correspondingly to low morale.
  • Inadequate leadership. This is by far one of the most frequent factors affecting employee morale adversely. The behavior of the leaders, both line managers and senior ones, affect employee morale.

Reasons to Invest in Team Morale

High morale causes a surge in productivity; but if morale sinks, progress decreases. This causes stagnation of the company’s upward momentum. So it is a signal for the managers to revise their approaches and ask themselves how to boost team morale and motivation.

What Affects Team Morale?

To a large extent, employee morale is conditioned by the staff’s attitude to their work environment and their general level of satisfaction being a member of the team.

How to Measure Employee Morale

Top managers should consistently monitor the morale level of the staff. Here are the most popular ways to do it:

  • Holding surveys. These should be anonymous, contain very specific questions and encourage employees to provide suggestions on how to boost employee morale and motivation.
  • Conducting interviews. They are a unique chance for managers to praise an employee as well as to pinpoint possible problems in his/her performance.
  • Gauging productivity. Monthly productivity tracking gives the management a touchstone to check employee performance against. A palpable drop in the production figures may be a sign of the employee’s low morale. 
  • Tracking turnover and absence rates. A high turnover rate indicates that employees are likely to leave the company (thus signifying their low morale); a high absence rate suggests that employees do not enjoy their job and are trying to take extra time off or pretend to be sick. The ideal company should try to keep both rates at the lowest by improving employee morale

15 Easy Ways to Boost Employee Morale

Consistently keeping employee morale high takes a deliberate effort and commitment. It is a daunting task since it is nearly impossible to please everybody. The following are 15 ways to raise employee morale.

Let employees know that you care about them

The employees need to feel appreciated to truly deliver. It may be done in many ways: from placing inspirational stickers all over the workplace to giving birthday cards. An Employee of the Month award would be a great idea too.

employee morale

Build a strong team

This is done by arranging employee morale activities. Being an employee is more than just doing a job. It is being a part of a gang that shares both responsibilities and celebrations. The latter may be both to commemorate personal occasions (birthdays and work anniversaries) and to acknowledge achievements of the company and important milestones on its way to success. 

Team-building activities

A great bonding exercise of building employee morale is corporate sports activities aimed not at finding out who’s the best, but at attempting to bring together those who otherwise wouldn’t socialize with each other.

Provide sufficient time off

Employees need a break to recharge their batteries if you want them to shine. So keep overtime to a minimum or make it optional, and encourage employees to take their vacations whenever they can.

Make the office a second home

Have your office made over with a brand logo and brand colors on the walls. Add some green potted plants and tasteful artwork. This is sure to make it look cozy but professional. An inspiring environment will positively affect employees’ motivation and morale.

Provide a comfortable eating space

Make your break room into an area where people not only eat, but also discuss ideas and plans. It would be still better if you hire a chef to cook for your employees who could customize food to their tastes. 

Food=friendship

Host a bake-off or hold a pizza party once in a while. These creative ways to boost employee morale will provide you not only with lots of fun but with a meal for everyone and a chance to foster anticipation for them during the whole week. What can be better for creating a team spirit than that?

employee morale

Encourage feedback

This is one of the most effective ways to boost morale at work. Everyone needs an opportunity to vent their frustration, share their ideas and make suggestions. It could be done either at office meetings or by holding anonymous surveys.

Offer growth

This is a necessary part of low employee morale solutions. When the staff can improve themselves via training programs, they get a sense of progress and anticipation of promotion. Plus you will get more qualified and skilled employees, so it is a win-win situation. 

Mind the atmosphere

If you are over-aggressive in setting goals and spurring your team into action, it is unlikely to make your company into a comfortable place to work. Avoid intimidation and run a calm company with a healthy stress-free atmosphere. 

Keep office supplies replenished

Lack of stationery, cleaning products or toilet rolls can be quite frustrating for employees and hamper their productivity as a result.

Address those who adversely affect others

There are always people who perform poorly, have a lousy work ethic, or even bully their colleagues. Be sure to recognize such cases over a short time and don’t let them spoil the morale in the office.

Know your staff

Customize your management style according to the employees’ personalities. Some of them just need kind words of encouragement while others require a telling off as often as not. 

Form teams wisely

Make sure that the people who work together on projects fit together well. They do not have to be good friends, but they should be able to work closely with each other and share ideas well.

company morale

Have adequate management

Managers have the greatest impact on office morale, and if something goes wrong it is their responsibility to do something about it. So the leader must be confident and dependable, ready to solve any arising problem but not reluctant to admit their mistakes. 

Conclusion

This list of ideas to improve employee morale is in no way complete. As a manager you can come up with more: from a “bring your dog to work” day to leaving board games in the staff lounge. Just remember that employees don’t quit a job, they quit managers. And a good manager knows that it is all about balance and team spirit.