The Blueprint for a Happy Workplace: Enhancing Morale and Satisfaction

There are plenty of articles out there teaching businesses how to increase productivity, cut costs, or hire the best team. While these are great, there is more to running a successful workplace. You can hire the best people, but maintaining the best is just as much on you as it is on your employees. Creating a positive work environment leads to happier employees and contributes to lower turnover rates and higher employee engagement. So how can companies effectively boost morale and satisfaction in the workplace? Let’s explore some key strategies. 

Eleven strategies to boost morale

We don’t need to tell you the importance of having a happy team — if you’re reading this, we know you care! So let’s jump straight into ways to create that positive workplace beyond the famous “employee pizza party.”

Create a team environment by creating teams

Building a well-functioning team is more than just placing random employees together. Consider people's strengths and weaknesses, pick people who complement each other and who have a history of getting along well to reach goals. Within these teams, regularly schedule some morale-building or team-building exercises. These can be as simple as off-site lunches or ice-breaker activities before meetings. 

Transparency 

Employees know when there are problems behind the scenes. Keep them up to date on company changes, new protocols, and customer feedback. Don’t avoid the hard conversations in the hopes that it will keep them happy. Having faith in your leadership and in the company can help inspire employees to push through the hard times and feel higher satisfaction when things are good.

Help them with their work-life balance

Articles talking about work-life balance are usually aimed at workers, but you as a business owner or leader can help with that too. Studies show that people with a good balance actually perform better at work and get more done. Encourage employees to tackle their off-hours seriously and try not to send employees emails when they're at home — or at least don’t expect a response until clock-in time. Your company can also offer hosting space for hobbies employees suggest, like a book club! 

Promote from within

When needing to fill a higher position, look to your own people first. Your employees are hard workers and morale can dip fast if they feel like their work is never appreciated. Not only that, but hiring from within means you don’t need to spend as much time training a new person on how your company works, and they don’t need to try to build relationships with other workers since they'll already have worked with them for some time. Overall, this will build a tighter team and a happier workplace.

Appreciation

Speaking of hiring from within, appreciation of work, even when you can’t promote should be commonplace. A simple thank-you when projects are delivered, or a shout-out at team meetings lets employees know you see how hard they've been working. Consider having an employee of the month, something that has fallen out of style in recent times. 

Stay interviews

What are stay interviews you may ask? Well, instead of only getting feedback when you hire and when they leave, consider “interviewing” them while they are established employees. Ask questions like “What keeps you here?” and “What would you improve if you could?” While you might tell employees they can always come to you with problems, many are nervous to start that conversation with their boss. Instead, go to them!

Encourage vacations

Employees statistically don’t use their hard-earned vacation days, or use them for sick leave instead. While we know you appreciate your employees coming in every day, that level of commitment can quickly turn into burnout. You can change this by encouraging the use of vacation days or perhaps adding more. You can also create two different forms of days off, one for illness-related reasons and one for vacations, so employees don’t waste time meant to be having fun by nursing a cold.   

Invest in education

Offering incentives, services, or income towards improving one's education works in many ways. First, your employees feel invested in the company that helped them grow, retention rates in companies that offer education assistance are 25% higher than those that don’t. You’ll also have highly qualified employees producing better work for your business. It’s a win-win. 

Invest in your employee’s ideas

We know this can be a risk. But just like investing money in stocks, you will see a much higher return in the end when you sow these seeds now. If your employees have an idea for improving structures, clubs to start, retreats to go on, or protocols to add, listen to them. This boosts trust and increases morale, and you might find it improves your business overall. 

Train your managers

Did you know one of the main reasons that workers quit is poor management? You can fix this problem by making sure your managers are equipped with the skills they need to lead. There is more to keeping employees focused than simply giving deadlines. Emotional intelligence, communication, giving and receiving feedback, and different leadership techniques are all things you can train your management in so they can, well, manage!

Diversify your workforce

When you gather people from different generations or different locations together, you'll likely find that work actually gets done better and faster. This is because choosing a team that contains people from all walks of life means you get ideas and solutions a single-generation workspace might not have thought of. A Gen Z employee may be an expert at picking up new online skills, while a receptionist with a background in hospital work can teach other employees how to avoid getting frazzled when the workload seems too chaotic. 

These won't all apply to every workplace, but they do help boost morale in the workplace. If anything, you can use tip number nine to see what your employees think can help! Establishing trust, showing you care, and encouraging a work-life balance are the keys to success in creating a happier workplace. Once you lay that foundation, just see how your company grows.