5 Ways To Improve Employee Morale
Chris Young shared 8 ways to improve employee morale, and offered some great insights into employee engagement and overall job satisfaction.
A few of the ones Chris covered are key to me, and I’ve got one other one that is critical to my personal morale and job satisfaction. I’ve listed my favorite 4 from Chris, along with my commentary on it, and shared 1 more to get you started towards improving employee morale.
Job Fit - Get the right person doing the right job. If the fit is bad, morale is bad. Makes good sense, and though it’s tough to help someone see the fit is bad, it’s in everyone’s best interests to do so.
Job Clarity - Set and reset expectations for your team. I’m working on this one right now for my team, especially as I have over half my team being brand new.
Personal accountability - Encourage personal ownership of the job they do. Know that the choices you make at work matter and that you are responsible for the decisions you make. You also need to know your manager will support your decisions, even if they’re wrong.
Passion for work - Be willing to re-assess this each year. Ask your team to connect the dots between what they do and how the company achieves its goals. Re-connect the dots frequently so folks understand the work they do matters.
One more from Phil
Being supported when I make decisions, even when they are wrong. On my team, I encourage folks to “take the shot” and make the decision, then live with whatever decision they make, as long as they can explain it to me. I encourage them to “take the shot” knowing that I will take the fall if something goes wrong. My manager does the same thing for me. As long as she understands why I did what I did, she will support my decision.
What do you think? What ways can you share to improve employee morale?
Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/linkadnan/
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POSTED IN: Phil Gerbyshak, employee engagement
8 opinions for 5 Ways To Improve Employee Morale
CK
Sep 17, 2008 at 2:42 am
Phil - Can I come to work for you?!?
Where I work …
Job Fit - Get the person management wants (or recommended by the buddy system) and train them how to do the job they are hired to do. And if that doesn’t work out, hire a contractor to do the job and the employee to boss the contractor around.
Job Clarity - There is none. If managment doesn’t like you they give you only half the information and watch you fail. This is dispite you asking for additional clarity!
Personal accountability - Only to the clique or the upper boss are you accountable. It’s a good thing the boss is a clique member as well!
Passion for work - WHY?!? You’ll get the same pay raise as everyone else! When you start out with more go-get-ers than slackers and they recieve the same amount of raises you’ll end up with more slackers!
“Take the shot” - is putting the gun to your head! No risk taking here! And if you fail - failure is not tolerated!
Corinne
Sep 18, 2008 at 3:21 am
Ditto. What you can do now: You have a team - manage it the way you want. Do not let other people define who you are - you are good - be yourself. Read Davids “Retire now” blog and make the changes so that you can move on to where you want to be.
Chris Young
Sep 18, 2008 at 5:17 am
Thank you Phil, for sharing our passion and post!
Your suggested addition of “Being supported when I make decisions, even when they are wrong” is very good… I like that… a lot!
Thank you!
CK… It is important to do what we love… And love what you do… Life is too short to go to a “prison” called work… If you do not love what you do, your personal brand will suffer for it and your life story will take note.
Regarding Personal Accountability - remember… It is personal - it is an “inside job”. It is between you and you. Accountability to Others is a separate subject and one that I believe you are referring to.
Two thoughts come to mind… Ask yourself, “What can I do to make the best of what I have here?” or “What can I do to find work that calls me.”
Bill
Sep 19, 2008 at 6:00 pm
I could think about quit a few more important factors for an employee to wake up each day and enjoy coming to work. But, I will only mention one, the one I consider the most important. This is to “treat people as you yourself would like to be treated.” I was surprised when reading the articles on this subject that this specific quote was not mentioned.
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Sep 21, 2008 at 3:06 am
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Phil Gerbyshak
Sep 21, 2008 at 1:38 pm
CK - You move to Wisconsin, we can talk about a job :)
I feel your pain. Wish I could help.
Corinne - Be yourself. Great advice! Thanks for sharing it.
Chris - Glad to share your post. Definitely a great one!
You also make some good points for CK. I hope they can help him!
Bill - You make a good point, though I’d do you one better: treat people as THYE would want to be treated. Ask them what they want and need…and then deliver it!
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Sep 24, 2008 at 3:44 am
[…] commenter CK shared a response to 5 Ways to Improve Employee Morale that gave me pause. As a manager, I hope I don’t fall into the pit of despair CK’s management […]
Holly
Oct 1, 2008 at 11:41 am
Thanks for your advice. I work as a recruiter in Boston for Hollister (www.hollisterstaff.com) and always looking for ways to improve my work and I think improving employee morale is a great place to start. Thanks!
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