As a leader, it’s your job to ensure that your team members are constantly bringing their A-game to work. This is because your organisation’s success is directly tied to the morale, engagement, productivity and performance of your team. A business that is lacking in this regard is sure to fail.
In fact, a growing body of research has found that organisations that nurture their staff’s motivation and morale are likely to experience declines in staff absenteeism and turnover rates as well as increases in productivity and sales. So, it is crucial for leaders to understand the value of employee motivation and morale and seek ways to continually improve these drivers of success.
To help you with this, we have compiled a list of techniques that you can use to recharge your team’s morale, motivation and productivity.
Encourage Creativity
Seek creative input from your team when it comes to improving organisational processes and introducing new initiatives. This helps all voices in the business be heard and facilitates in generating novel ideas and concepts that could be beneficial to your business.
“A company in which anyone is afraid to speak up, to differ, to be daring and original, is closing the coffin door on itself.” — Leo Burnett
Express Gratitude for Effort and Good work
Everybody wants to be acknowledged for their hard work and contributions, so make sure you are expressing gratitude and showing thanks to your employees especially during stressful periods. This helps to demonstrate to your staff that they are valued and respected as key assets within your business. And this, in turn, translates to enhanced engagement, higher quality of work, a more cohesive team and greater staff loyalty and retention.
Expressing your appreciation, can be done in a number of ways, including:
- Praising a job well done
- Simply saying ‘thank you’
- Offering raises or promotions
- Treating the team to a nice staff lunch
- Offering flexible work schedules
- Adopting time-off policies
According to a study conducted by Reward Gateway, “70% of workers say that motivation and morale would improve if managers simply said thank you more and noticed good work.”
Create Attainable Challenges
People blossom when challenged. So, it’s important that you create short and long-term goals that team members can work towards. Make sure these goals are meaningful and within reach. This will help employees stay on their toes, use their potential and talent, and learn new things in the process.
Always remember the importance of your employees feeling that they are being provided with opportunities to develop and grow within the business.
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” — Jack Welch
Bring in Additional Help to Reduce Workload
Hiring extra hands to help you and your team especially during busy peak seasons is a good idea if you want to prevent staff fatigue and burnout. It frees up your team to focus on more critical tasks that will advance the business instead of being tied down by what can seem like an insurmountable workload.
Hiring additional help in the form of freelancers, casual, part-time or temp employees is a great way to reduce the burden of: long hours spent at the office, piling tasks and responsibilities, feelings of stress and a disorganised workplace. In this way, hiring additional workers serves to improve staff motivation, efficiency and productivity.
Celebrate Milestones
Company milestones present the perfect opportunity to recognise the individuals who have contributed to your business’ success and to highlight your business’ accomplishments. This works to motivate your team, making them feel part of something big.
Some examples of milestones worth celebrating are:
- the completion of a major project
- the meeting of sales targets
- major business anniversaries
- new branch opening or location
Set Aside Time for Laughs and Humour
Humour is good for us. It is an important form of human expression. It is also seen as a workplace essential to inspire collaboration, increase motivation and even limit burnout. Remember that tactful humour is key. As such, avoid sarcasm, derision and ridicule.
“A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.“ — Dwight D. Eisenhower
The significance of employee motivation and morale in the workplace cannot be underestimated. It should be a management priority to cultivate a workplace culture that is focused on employee morale and wellbeing. Doing so will raise employee engagement and satisfaction, enabling teams to perform at peak levels and drive better results for the business.
