Improve Morale and Productivity: Start Now!
By Joel Myers
We recently completed an employee opinion survey for a company where the results went from 55% favorable to 70% favorable in a little over one year. Now, that is a nice improvement! I think we would all agree that the morale of their employees is better. But, what is morale? Does high morale automatically mean high productivity? How do you improve morale anyway?
Morale is defined in the Oxford American Dictionary as: “the state of a person’s or group’s spirits and confidence.”
It seems reasonable that low morale would be characterized by low spirits and lack of confidence. That sounds like a “what’s the use” kind of attitude. Conversely, high morale would be characterized by high spirits and great confidence. We would call that a “can do attitude.”
While we can probably find empirical evidence that shows a positive correlation between high morale and high productivity, it's not necessary to seek statistical verification. We have all seen circumstances where individuals, teams, groups, departments, and/or companies have accomplished remarkable successes when the odds were against them. They just didn’t know they were supposed to fail. They proceeded with great confidence and energy as though it was their destiny to succeed.
If the odds of success are enhanced with high morale, what can be done to enhance it? Here are a few ideas:
- Communicate with your employees to the point of over communicating.
- Have a periodic all-company staff meeting. Have each major department report on activities. Have special committees report. Acknowledge anniversaries, birthdays, and special personal events in employees' lives.
- Distribute periodic employee bulletins. Keep it informal and timely. Use this to emphasize important initiatives, promotions, successes.
- Promote your people to others, inside and outside the company. Your people are among the finest, aren’t they? Sell them to each other and to people on the outside.
- Require senior managers to be the model for proper attitudes, values, and conduct.
- Behave the way you want people to behave. Employees will imitate the behavior of senior management on the assumption that it is okay. Decide what behavior you want, then impart that on your senior managers.
- Work towards “yes." Always shoot for a positive conclusion to any task, concern, or disagreement. This builds a spirit of cooperation.
- Provide for individual growth and opportunities.
- Help your people achieve their goals. Ask what you can do to help them achieve their work goals and their personal goals.
- Help your people identify and use their strengths. People are most productive and most comfortable doing that which they do best.
- Give your people work freedom. Give them challenges, latitude, and responsibility. Don’t be over protective or over controlling. Give them room to produce.
- Provide training and learning opportunities.
- Have brainstorming sessions for the entire company. Your employees are often in the best position to identify your unique competencies and recognize ways to exploit them. Don’t waste this valuable resource.
- Make training a standard practice for everyone, not a remedial action for needy employees. Everyone needs training from time to time, even the best employees. Don’t let employees feel that there is something wrong with them if they are enrolled in a training program.
- Look at an employee’s mistake as a teaching opportunity. The best time to correct a performance problem is immediately after the event. The best way is to provide constructive feedback and personal instruction.
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The Centre Group
3725 Champion Hills Drive
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Memphis,TN 38125-2597
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800.762.0173