If you have employees, you need to ensure they are happy in their work. This is not just a moral and responsible thing to do that will make you – and them – feel good; it’s actually something that will help grow your business. You need your team to work hard and be productive, and the better their morale, the better they will work. Plus, the happier they are in their roles, the less likely it is they will leave, which spares you the cost (in terms of both money and time) of finding new workers.
This is an important point to understand, but it’s not necessarily something that’s easy to implement. You can easily go too far in either direction, which could lead to you taking on everyone else’s work to make things more comfortable for them. Or, you may end up pushing too far to get better results. In either case, the business won’t be sustainable. With that in mind, here are some excellent ways to boost employee morale so that your business can grow and you can be the success you want to be.
Outsource
Outsourcing isn’t something all business owners will immediately think about, primarily because it costs money and also because it means they lose some control of the business processes they are outsourcing. However, if you think about it more carefully, the reality is that outsourcing could save you money in the end because you are able to focus on other areas of the business and therefore become more productive and efficient, and you won’t have to pay any overtime or hire additional staff to do the work.
When it comes to control, if you choose the right partners to outsource to, you’ll still always have the final say, and they will work with you to ensure you get the results you want. Michael Savage of New Canaan runs a virtual accounting firm that is a great example of this kind of collaborative working. There are various pages for Michael Savage New Canaan, so there’s a lot to read about this aspect of business.
Also, consider what it is you hired your team to do and think about what you personally are best suited to doing within the business. What processes are ‘left over’ that no one can do to a high standard or that no one has time to do? These are the things you need to outsource as soon as possible. Whether it’s accounting, marketing, customer service, HR, web design, or anything else, if you can free up your employees’ time and allow them to do the job you hired them to do without so much additional stress, you’ll find their morale improves significantly.
Have Open Communication
Morale will be low within any business that has poor communication between staff and their manager or company owner. If the team is unable to ask questions because they never get answers or they fear some kind of retribution for not instantly knowing how to do what they have been asked to do, the results of that work could be low quality. Or perhaps it won’t get done at all. At the very least, your team won’t put any extra effort in because they can’t be sure they’re getting it right in the first place.
However, if you are open and approachable and you encourage communication, these issues will be solved, and morale will be boosted. Your employees will be able to come to you with questions about the tasks you have set if need be, ensuring they get all the information they need to do their job well. On top of this, if they have any issues about any aspect of their job, they will feel confident that they can talk to you about them.
In the end, this means that they feel more comfortable in their role and within your business as a whole. They will be able to do their work without any worries and therefore focus more entirely on it.
Praise Your Employees
Some business owners don’t feel it is necessary to praise their employees because they are just doing their job, and they are paid to do that job to the best of their ability. In other words, why praise someone for doing what they are meant to do anyway?
The reason you should praise people for doing their jobs well (and it is crucial that they do the job well, and not just complete it) is that it will boost their morale and encourage them to keep working hard in the future.
If someone always put their very best effort into the work they did, but they never received any recognition for that work, they might very well decide it’s just not worth putting all that effort in anymore. After all, if they do a great job, they wouldn’t get any more praise than if they did a mediocre one. They will stop trying so hard, and the results will be less satisfactory. By praising your employees for a job well done and acknowledging their hard work, you will improve morale and help them to keep working hard for you.
There are various ways to praise someone, and it might be that a positive comment is enough. Some business owners want to take this further, however, and they will offer incentives like prizes and rewards (additional vacation days are a good idea, for example) to keep people happy.
Get Your Team Involved
Another way to boost morale is to get your team involved in decision-making for the business. By gathering everyone together (virtually, if need be), you can let them know of any changes or potential future opportunities for the company, and you can listen to their ideas. They might have some great strategies you can consider, or they might have issues they need to bring up that, once you know about them, you can fix and boost morale that way.
You don’t have to take on and use every idea that your employees come up with – it would be impossible if you tried. However, simply by listening and having everyone involved in the business, you will ensure a good team spirit and excellent morale, and, as a bonus, you might also discover some great new ideas.
