Employee morale is a term used in psychology to describe how an employee feels about their work. It can also extend to their feelings for the workplace. Past generations of managers disregarded the importance of their employees’ mental health. Employee morale is strikingly impactful to a business’s bottom line.
1. Common Reasons for Poor Morale in the Workplace
Before you can improve morale, you must understand it. Why would people experience poor mental health at the workplace? Work is supposed to be something that makes you proud. Unfortunately, it seems, in the modern world, too many of us are made to feel something else when we are at work.
Burn-Out:
Have you ever felt burnt out before? Thirty years ago, this wasn’t even talked about in the medical community. Today, your general practitioner could slap you with a diagnosis of burnout. Medically speaking, it’s a combination of symptoms that occur when people are overwhelmed by chronic stress. Elevated cortisol levels destroy the body’s ability to heal. If this persists, an individual feels fatigued, among the other negative behavioral effects.
Unfulfilling or Unrewarding Jobs:
It seems that when an individual sees their job as fulfilling, it provides them somewhat of a shield from the symptoms of burnout. We do not fully understand why some people view their jobs as filling while others do not. It has been suggested that the answer could vary between people.
Lack of Leadership in the Work Place:
If there is poor leadership, communication becomes affected, and as a result, misdirection and confusion can happen with employees’ jobs. If an employee misunderstands a request made by leaders in the business and gets negative feedback in response, this can lead to low morale. Most employees want to ensure they go above and beyond, but if they always get negative feedback due to no fault of their own, morale will soon drop. Why will they put 100% in if they constantly feel demoralized and criticized? If there is also tension between managers and team members, this can also make an employee not want to work there or feel low at work.
2. Importance of a Positive Work Environment
There is one thing of which we are certain. Your work environment plays a large role in determining your morale. As social beings, humans are incapable of withstanding environmental influences indefinitely.
Employees Produce More:
If you boost your employees’ morale, they will be happier. Positive psychologists study the effects of happiness. So far, research indicates that happier employees are more productive. They report less time spent distracted while they are working. Plus, it seems that they are much less likely to leave a job. This reduces a company’s overhead by minimizing its training expenses.
3. Tips on Boosting Morale and Job Satisfaction in the Workplace
Would you like to make a commitment to boost the morale of your employees? If so, the following advice should help you get started. Remember, morale is a very subjective experience. It would be best to communicate with your employees. That way, you get superior results.
Make the Employees Congregate and Socialize in Team Building Activities:
Did you know that the military display is oddly high levels of morale among the low-ranking members? One hypothesis is that the nature of their work environment forces them to bond with each other. As stated previously, humans are very social beings. When we are with our friends, we produce serotonin, the happiness chemical. By organizing employee hangouts, you can also foster camaraderie among the rank-and-file.
Work on your Own Skill Set
You can make all the changes in the world for your employees and in the business, but if you are not looking at yourself, you could find that things remain the same. So if you want to be certain that morale improves, it may be time to look at where you can make changes for yourself. For example, if you notice a pattern of employees not producing work exactly as you wanted, could it be to do with how you communicated the request to them? Maybe you weren’t clear enough to them? If you aren’t very good at making decisions, maybe your employees don’t trust your judgment and ignore what you say. It could even be that you have noticed that your employees don’t engage in conversation with you other than about work. If you realize the problem may lie in your leadership skills, you will want to work on improving this. You can develop your skills by earning an MBA at St. Bonaventure University. This will teach you advanced skills, as well as how to communicate better with your team. You will gain a different way of thinking and improve your decision-making skills, too. Take a look at the SBU Online website for more details. When you focus on improving your skills and work on building genuine relationships with your staff, you are building back up the trust and morale within your workforce.
Go Green to Save on Gas Costs and Improve Employee Morale:
More and more people are growing concerned about the possible effects of climate change in the future. Most business owners, until now, have not altered operations to any significant degree. Today, there are more incentives other than simply assuaging your employees’ anxieties. Studies have shown that employees that work in a green environment typically have higher job satisfaction. Modernizing your office with smart technology can benefit your employee’s level of productivity, peace of mind, and this smart technology is also beneficial in saving money on gas prices and utilities each month. Going green in your business is a triple threat in that it can benefit the environment, finances, and your employee’s job satisfaction.
Why Should You Care About the Way Your Employees Feel?
The basic argument should be straightforward. The way your employees feel does impact the way they perform at work. Whether you genuinely care about improving your employees’ mood is not relevant. By boosting their morale, you kill two birds with one stone.