Low Employee Morale Can Impact Organizational Goals
- Poor communication with management and team
- Frequent absenteeism
- Excessive complaining over small matters
- Increased employee conflicts or fighting amongst staff
- Poor work quality
- Increased customer complaints
When you identify the signs of low morale in your company, you can then begin to fix them. Recognizing low employee morale can be easily done with the help of regular employee satisfaction surveys. Employee satisfaction surveys can identify problem areas quickly and effectively.
Some common problem areas for employees include: lack of internal communication; no room for growth; overworked; under paid; and under appreciated.
Here are a few strategies you can use to increase employee morale
Communication. Good communication and clear expectations are essential components that can increase employee morale. Show employees that you appreciate their needs by informing them of issues that affect the business. Conduct monthly or quarterly meetings to ensure that you are communicating effectively with your entire staff, as well as conduct regular management meetings. Employees will feel more involved and perform better when they know exactly what is expected of them.
Listen. Take time to talk with your employees. If managers are not in sync with what is going on in the workplace, they can often overlook employee morale. Conducting regular employee satisfaction surveys can help managers identify morale issues. Acknowledging how your employees feel can help improve morale, which in turn, will increase productivity and profitability.
Avoid Burnout. Don’t overload employees with too much work. Job overload can lead to dissatisfaction forcing work quality and productivity to decrease. Carefully evaluate expectations of employees to ensure they are not getting burned-out. Seek valuable training and development opportunities to help employees transition their role or grow into another role within the business.
Celebrate Achievements. Make your employees feel that their work is appreciated and that their work has a higher purpose. When your employees put in the extra effort to complete an assignment, take time to show your appreciation. Recognizing achievements shows employees that the business cares about the efforts of their employees, helping to boost motivation and morale.
