How can you improve employee morale by addressing root causes?

You audit your stock, you audit your finances and you should regularly audit your people - and this involves going beyond an employee survey. If you do this regularly, then you will capture issues swiftly, rather than sitting back and waiting for issues to happen. The biggest challenge is senior leadership buy-in. Some don't like the truth to be unearthed as it may shed light on some poor practices in their area. So, this is where the CEO needs to be strong and instil the message that continuous improvement trumps blame culture.

Taking constant feedback from employees, having open dialogues about repetitive issues or having cross functional teams evaluate work processes would help identify gaps/issues and root causes.

Grandma always said, "one bad egg can spoil the bunch." This is true for the workplace as well. If you have one team member who has a negative outlook or is down on the company or other employees it can have a tremendously negative impact on workplace morale. You need to be observant at all times and take note of these sort of behaviors and attempt to correct them sooner rather than later. That correction may be as simple as a little one on one time with the employee to discuss the potential issues, or it may be as difficult as cutting ties with the employee.

Every one deserves to be listened to. Be it a client or an employee all appreciate when they are given the attention they deserve and a ear to listen. We usually tell in customer “allow the customer to talk and listen to them”. Similarly allow employees to speak and listen to them. This will in most instances give an insight into the situation and bring out the problem areas.

There can be many reasons for low morale and they will differ from employee to employee. We advocate a more personalised approach and use a tool called mojo to identify what each person needs to be happy and productive at work, and how well these needs are being satisfied. Not only does this allow the business to spot similarities and patterns across the whole organisation, but every employee and their managers get the insight they need to make an immediate impact. Boosting an employees motivation will have a profound effect on the work environment and culture as well as a direct impact on productivity, wellbeing and resilience.

You can identify the root causes through a combination of interviews, observations, and conversations. All three have the potential to give you insight that any one by itself would be lacking.

This can differ in any organization which is why it is so important to get feedback from those on the front line. You need to understand the challenges and see what you have in your gift to address and build a recovery plan from that. If you cant address then be honest, your honesty will be appreciated and will assist further down the line when delivering other messages.

I think being approachable and sincere allows employees to feel comfortable and safe to communicate their feelings, concerns, and ideas. Having an open-door policy is an essential component in a leadership role. Leaders need to get to know their team members and find out what motivates them individually. Not everyone is motivated by money; although it’s a big help, having empathy and being thoughtful can go a long way in people's perception. Perception is reality as once someone told me; their reality is what’s going to impact their behavior as productivity can be measured based on the employee’s engagement. It’s also very important for leaders to be intentional in their actions and encourage a positive and safe work environment.

Employee morale is one of the basics in corporate life, One happy employee provides more than a employee who is always in pressure, morale grows when a employee gets proper recognition for the wirk they are hired for. Employee engagement is needed for maintaining proper employee morale.

One thing I have found helpful is, people within every business have allies who they talk to. Our position as HR sometimes already creates a wall, pass some of the information through trusted employees to communicate to the rest of the team. People follow who they trust. Once you can get the right information through these employees, it builds morale. I have seen it happen a lot of times.

Improving employee morale requires addressing root causes through effective communication and collaboration. Establish transparent communication channels, involve employees in defining issues, and encourage collaborative problem-solving. Align organizational objectives with employee values, recognize performance, and reinforce a positive culture. Connect individual roles to the broader organizational strategy, fostering a sense of purpose and commitment. By creating an open and collaborative work environment, organizations can boost morale and enhance overall success.

Share the results of your analysis with employees, explaining planned actions to address root causes. Involve them in decision-making, seeking input and feedback. This inclusive approach demonstrates value for their opinions, fosters trust, and instills a sense of ownership and accountability. Such collaboration contributes significantly to improving morale and building a positive workplace culture.

Set clear goals, timelines, and expectations for improvement initiatives, communicating them transparently. Provide the necessary resources and support for success, and actively monitor progress, measuring the impact on employee morale. This commitment to responsiveness and transparency reinforces your dedication to positive change, building trust and fostering an environment where employees feel supported and valued.

One of the steps to improve employee morale after defining and conducting the root causes approach, is the tool of recognition and reward. Applying such tool in any organisation helps in raising the competition level among employees. It creates an environment of positive competition where each one will exert his utmost effort to be acknowledged, recognized and rewarded. It never goes for the reward value, but how this reward is meaningful, given in time and value added to the employees.

I’ve seen many rewards programs have negative morale impact because they are subjective. When rewards are presented they should be fully explained in terms of criteria. Team members should be genuinely happy for their peers versus feeling they deserved it more than the recipient because the rationale wasn’t clear.

Totally agree that it is vital to keep monitoring and improving employee morale. The question is what frequency to adopt. The annual review is obviously not sufficient to catch issues that might arise during the year. Weekly or monthly check ins could be too frequent as not enough progress has been made. We have found a quarterly check in with an action plan to track progress in between check ins to be the sweet spot for most organisations. It is frequent enough to catch potential issues before they have a major impact, but leaves sufficient time for meaningful progress to be achieved in between each check in.

This is an ongoing challenge. As society changes, so do needs and values. The key is investing in employees and efforts to ensure all levels of the workforce are connected. This means leadership should have full visibility into the employee experience, gain and maintain understanding of the impact to customers/clients, and be more fiscally responsible when considering strategic planning’s impact to all involved. Based on experience, employees are constantly providing valuable feedback to help companies improve both the employee and customer/client experience. Many companies either struggle in recognizing just how valuable said feedback is or in appropriately prioritizing efforts to incorporate it into critical changes.