Eight Ways To Improve Employee Morale
Maximizing and Improving Employee Morale is a critical element of any organization's long-term talent management strategy. The reasons are many. The simplest reason... If your employee morale is not where it should/could be, your employee retention will suffer and overall productivity will be much lower than it could be.
What destroys employee morale is ultimately what I call "negative energy". Negativity or negative energy is caused by several core issues. Following are eight core employee morale challenges that when improved can lead to very good outcomes for your organization and team...
- Job Fit - The biggest "contributor" to employee morale problems is simply the wrong person is in the wrong job. It is absolutely critical that employee team members have the core ability to do the job well through a proper match of their skillsets and most importantly a proper match of the Behaviors, Values, and Personal Attributes to the needs of the job well. Without a proper Job Fit you have a Job Mismatch Problem leading to what I call "Job-Me Conflict". Job-Me Conflict always, always, always leads to employee morale problems.
- Job Clarity - Another significant contributor to employee morale issues is that employee team members do not know what is expected of them. It is absolutely critical that employee team members know what they need to be doing daily to achieve success. Job role and duty ambiguity leads to confusion. Confusion leads to people making their job up and/or anxiety about the job role. There is a direct one-to-one relationship between employee morale and knowing what is necessary to do the job well. Take the time to clarify job tasks and do so periodically.
- Personal Accountability - Employee Accountability or Personal Accountability is one of the most powerful ways to improve employee morale. In today's litigous society, we are conditioned to blame everything and everyone else but ourselves. The reality is that if it is to be - it is up to me. The buck stops here with me... When an employee team member begins to ask the right questions, the right answers come and with those answers comes empowerment and improved employee morale. A powerful Personal Accountability Training Program is QBQ. This program is an easy program to deliver internally and is one that we recommend to all of our clients as an initial "shot in the arm" to improve employee morale quickly.
- Passion For the Work - Without passion for the work, life becomes dull, boring, and a "grind" in the workplace. The best way to create passion is to first understand the Behaviors, Values, and Personal Attributes of the employee team member. When you do so, you will understand how to communicate more effectively with each team member at a level that is unparalleled. What needs to be communicated is the impact that the employee team member and organization ultimately has on others. Passion does not come from talking about products and/or services and descriptions of benefits. Instead... Passion comes as a result of understanding the positive emotional benefit of what your products and/or services do for the Customer. When you turn your Mission, Vision, and Guiding Values into a cause, you create passion.
- Workplace Politics - Where the "who matters more than the what", employee morale drops. Let's be real... All workplaces have politics. Where there are human beings, there will be politics. If your organization, department, or team has more workplace politics than is healthy, your employee morale will be poor as your high performers bail out for "greener pastures".
- Self Awareness - Employee team members who are unaware of their core behavioral styles and values will have what I call "repeat games" to identify what they are. These "repeat games" are job hops, work assignment changes, and career changes to identify what is the best fit for them. A good metaphor is trying to "fit a puzzle piece" only the puzzle piece is a big one - finding the "fit" in our lives through our work. By increasing self awareness of one's behavioral styles and values, one can begin to seek the environment that calls for these unique combinations as well as better accept one's strengths and "growth opportunities". Daniel Goleman's fantastic books in Emotional Intelligence (EQ) can serve as outstanding reference material should you want additional information.
- Interpersonal Awareness - Employee team members must first become self aware before they can become interpersonally aware. We are all "wired" and see the world differently. Through self awareness, we can become better able to understand how to "flex" our behaviors - the way we talk and behave - with others to help ourselves and others get what we all want.
- Someone Who Cares About Them At Work - We all need to know that we matter. Having a good friend at work is important. A personalized praise program that is specific to the Behaviors and Values of the employee team member is an important way to improve this critical element.
Other posts that will be of interest to you...
- Is Having An "Asshole" For a Boss Really Such a Bad Thing?
- The Mismatch Problem
- Improving Employee Performance Through Coaching Score Cards
- Personal Accountability Training - The One Training Program You Need In A Down Economy
- Do Your Employees Know Your Mission Statement?
Now go Maximize Possibility!
Chris Young helps organizations Maximize Possibility through talent management, cultural transformation, and strategic intervention. Bring Chris in today!
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