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As senior managers it can be all consuming to ensure the books are balancing, the sales pipeline is looking healthy, and the board is satisfied – but when did you last check your staff morale?
There are so many factors that can impact staff morale, but there’s only one result – a negative impact on your culture! In this negative culture, teams will generally keep their heads down but you won’t see any enthusiasm, innovation or energy, and your office becomes a miserable place to work.
So, if everyone is working flat out and you are busy trying to achieve top level targets, how do you even recognise the signs that a negative culture is creeping into your business?
Some of the warning signs for low staff morale:
- No Smiling! Does that sound too simplistic? It shouldn’t – if you have team members who are usually happy souls, then the lack of smiles are a massive indicator and shouldn’t be ignored.
- Off Sick! If it’s not a nice place to work then people are going to want to turn up less and less.
- Increased Conflict! Unhappy teams do not gel, and conflict can be quick to surface.
- Lack of Enthusiasm! When people feel down it drains their physical energy; they won’t have any innovative flair or willingness to go the extra mile.
- Increased Staff Turnover! If your people aren’t happy they will look elsewhere!
You’re probably relying on your managers to inform you of low staff morale, but more often than not your managers’ morale is low, too. In some cases another manager is causing the problem in the first place, and if this is the case it is really important that your staff know who they can go to. You must provide a culture of trust where all staff feel that they can report issues honestly without fear of repercussion, and that their concerns will be addressed.
What we can do to improve staff morale:
Listen! If a generally upbeat, hardworking member of your team has flagged up a problem, don’t hope it will just go away. Take time out to listen to their concerns and let them know you’re taking it seriously.
Investigate! Busy senior managers can be reactive in order to achieve quick fixes, but if it’s your culture at jeopardy you have to find out the facts and investigate solutions so that you don’t make the situation worse.
Communicate! Let your teams know you are aware a problem exists, is being investigated, and that you will keep them informed of your progress to resolve. But again beware, if you don’t follow through and try to sweep the issue under the carpet, it will manifest itself as a much larger problem further down the line.
Hopefully we’ve prompted you to check on your own staff’s morale, so download our free Employee Feedback Form by clicking on the button below!
Better still, request an online demo of Actus™ performance management and see how embedding year round performance can drive highly engaged teams.
Actus™ performance appraisal software is specifically designed to embed year round performance in your organisation. Award winning, highly configurable and securely hosted in the UK cloud. For more information, please visit actus.co.uk.
