Catherine Cunningham, Director of The Present Tree, offers five simple tips that will help boost employee morale, making your office a happier place to work.

Employee Morale

Whilst you need to ensure that employees are being productive and efficient, research shows that a team that feels happy and valued is more beneficial for the company.

Disengaged staff are more likely to leave and Research from CIPD showed that in 2016, 23% of the workforce were actively job hunting. So, how can you retain your staff and make their working life better? Well, in this post we offer five simple tips that can certainly help boost employee morale.

Give praise

Has your employee done a good job? Tell them! Simply saying “Well done” can work wonders on staff morale, as it shows that their hard work has been recognised.

You could even round up your team at the end of each week and give shout-outs to employees who have done a great piece of work. Once they know that their efforts are contributing positively to the business, they will be inspired to work harder.

If you don’t give praise, then it could lead to your staff questioning whether you really care.

It shouldn’t be difficult striking a balance of motivating and rewarding. Ultimately, if you’re impressed with something your employee has done, then let them know. 

Show you care
Let’s face it – who doesn’t like getting a present on their birthday or at Christmas?

A small gift is a great way to show your token of appreciation and lets employees know that you care about them as people.

Steer clear of the unoriginal, meaningless box of chocolates or bottle of wine. Try out a gift that is personal to your staff member. You could look at something unique like The Present Tree, which will last for years.

It may sound like a cliché, but it’s not the price of the present that matters, it’s the genuine thought that counts. A small gift will not only make employees feel valued, but it should boost their morale and encourage them to keep up the hard work.

Have fun!

Yes, employees turn up to work to get the job done, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t all have some fun in the meantime. A survey by Relate showed that sadly, 42% of people don’t have any friends at work, which can contribute to a reduction in morale.

Help employees to be more than just colleagues by organising drinks after work on a Friday, monthly team meals, or encouraging them to take lunch together. After all, employees that get on with each other are much more likely to enjoy their job!

If the potential cost of all this socialising is worrying you, then it shouldn’t. Whilst a free drink or dinner on the business will sound great to employees and it’s a treat that you’ll only need to do occasionally. Besides, if your employees are good friends they won’t mind buying their own drinks so that they can hang out after work!

Invest in employees

Have regular catch-ups with your team so that you can discover what they enjoy about their job, what they don’t, and where they see their future.

Once you’ve identified this, you can look at relevant training opportunities that will help boost their skillset. Showing your employees that you care about them as an individual and investing in their training will be beneficial for everyone. You’ll have a motivated team learning new skills that will contribute to the success of your business.

Employees that are ambitious and don’t get the opportunities they’re seeking will only look elsewhere and they’re not the kind of workers you want to lose.

Promote from within

As we’ve established, you want to have a team of ambitious employees that grow with the business. There’s no quicker way to kill their morale than by showing them there’s no opportunity for career development. Why would they stay when they can advance elsewhere?

One way to banish this and boost morale is through internal promotions. If you’re already offering training and employees are going above and beyond their current roles, then it makes sense to progress them up the career ladder.

Research by CIPD has shown that 33% of employees surveyed didn’t feel their career aspirations would be fulfilled in their current job, and 27% revealed that they felt their company lacked the opportunities they required to learn and grow.

So, if you want to boost your office morale, reward your employees for their achievements by offering advancement in their careers.

There are many ways in which you can help boost staff morale, whether it’s directly related to their jobs or is more of a social element. A happy workforce is a productive one, so it’s certainly worth investing some time to ensure that everyone in your team have a spring to their step every day.