Low Employee Morale In The Workplace

Low employee morale can adversely affect your ability to attract and retain the best employees and have a detrimental effect on productivity. Maybe you suspect that you may have a problem with low morale because employees are exhibiting signs of low morale or because a survey that you've done of your employees indicates it.If this is the case, you need to determine which aspects of your workplace are creating the dissatisfaction with the job and find ways to remedy them.

Even if you don't have a low morale problem, you may want to jump-start your workforce into higher levels of productivity. Being proactive in this area makes good business sense.So whether your employees are disgruntled or not, you should check out these strategies to see

If you want employees to care, you have to give them some responsibility and some decision-making latitude. Employees have to believe that the decisions they make and the work they perform has a direct impact on the product or service you provide. This may be easier to achieve and demonstrate in a small business than it would be in a larger one.

4.Encourage risk-taking. Let employees experiment and try to find new ways to help the business reach its goals. Don't create a culture where employees are afraid to try anything new because if they fail they will be punished. Allow a certain amount of failure, and reward people for trying.

5.Use reward systems. When your employees do well, reward them. Tailor your reward systems to specific accomplishments. If you have one employee who sells 25 percent more than everyone else, but everyone gets the same bonus, your star sales rep. isn't going to be particularly motivated to excel in the future.

6.Plan social and athletic activities. These types of activities allow people to interact with each other on a level that can build stronger professional bonds. If your business is small, perhaps just an annual dinner or picnic somewhere is enough. If you have several employees with a similar hobby or athletic interest, maybe your business can sponsor a team in a local

This can be particularly gratifying for an employee with a behind-the-scenes job.

 Other ways to help build employee self-esteem are:

1.Sponsor employees in weight control or fitness programs.

2.Pay for employees to attend public speaking or other professional development classes.

3.Pay for employees to learn about personal financial planning, either through classes or literature.

4.Ask employees to teach you and other employees a skill or procedure that they do well (this has the added bonus of doubling as cross-training of the staff).

5.Recognize successes, both personal and professional, such as an employee completing her graduate degree or an employee earning his black belt in martial arts.

 There are no hard and fast rules about when or what types of occasions merit special recognition. Some of the more common reasons for recognition and reward are:

1.length of service (usually landmark anniversaries; for example, five years of service)

2.retirement

3.safety (usually more common in manufacturing businesses, this includes recognition for achieving a certain number of days without an on-the-job