Working in today’s world is not easy – the hours are getting longer, the responsibilities more intense and the push to cut costs are brutal. Many business owners find that they have more to do to stay afloat with less resources to hire staff, so all employees end up doing more with less – less time, less money and less help.
Overworked and tired employees develop low corporate morale as they stop looking forward to coming to work every morning, and feel tired and stressed out. This leads to high employee turnover, decreased productivity and an unhappy workplace.
On the other hand, engaged employees are better for business – a source states that businesses where the staff members are truly engaged “have 6% higher net profit margins,” according to Towers Perrin research and “five times higher shareholder returns over five years,” according to Kenexa research. It is up to the business owner to find ways to boost employee engagement, which will create a better corporate culture and better overall morale.
What is Employee Engagement?
An employee who is truly engaged is invested into the success of the company in which they work. They don’t just come in to receive a paycheck, but care about the company’s goals and interests. This type of team member uses discretionary effort, meaning they do things to help the company without having to be asked or required to do so. This can involve staying late or coming in on a weekend, mentoring a new staffer, or addressing a safety concern.
How do You Promote Employee Engagement?
In order to “turn that frown upside down,” use the following tips to improve corporate morale to increase employee engagement:
Reward Your Staff’s Efforts
When small business owners hear the term “reward,” they tend to think of financial rewards; however, rewards don’t have to cost anything! Simply showing your staff that you recognize their hard work and are grateful for their efforts is often more than enough to get them to take ownership of their responsibilities and become more engaged.
Oftentimes, simply saying, “I see you are working hard, and I appreciate it,” will do the trick. However, it can also be advantageous to recognize certain team members publicly during a staff meeting or to create an employee of the month award so that the whole office is aware of someone’s achievement.
Other ways to reward staff without spending a dime are to let them go home earlier after a long week, give them a day off after a busy season that required continuous overtime or to host a potluck to celebrate a big company win!
Support a Cause
It’s important to remember that companies are made up of people, and that many of them are motivated by social causes. A great way to boost engagement is to survey your employees about causes important to them – be that the environment, local boys and girls clubs or third world countries. After calculating the responses, pick a social cause that you can support as a company.
You can either dedicate a percentage of your profits to the cause, or help bring awareness to it through marketing and social media campaigns. To take it a step further and truly unite your team members to strive for a common goal, dedicate a day to go out and make a difference together. Volunteer at a local homeless shelter or build houses for Houses of Humanity to help those that are less fortunate.
The best way to boost morale and create employee engagement is to take the time to get to know your staff, form relationships with them, and make them feel appreciated!