7 Common Factors Affecting Employee Morale

factors affecting employee morale

Great companies know that employee morale is just as important as employee productivity. If you’re looking to ensure your teams remain motivated, you’ve come to the right place. One of the best ways to maintain high morale and foster a happy and welcoming work environment is to understand what factors affect employee morale.

When you understand what impacts employee morale, you proactively implement strategies to maintain high morale. Read on to learn more about employee morale and the seven most common factors affecting employee morale.

What Is Employee Morale?

You may be wondering, what is employee morale? This term refers to the overall attitude, satisfaction, and outlook of employees at a company. When employee morale is high, team members are generally more positive, more creative, and more willing to bring their best self to work every day. When employee morale is high, productivity and overall teamwork are at their peak.

7 Factors Affecting Employee Morale and Ways to Keep Morale High

Now that we know what employee morale is, let’s look at the long list of factors affecting employee morale. Below are seven of the most common factors affecting employee morale and ideas about how you can proactively address them to maintain high morale.

Communication Level

Communication is key in any relationship, and the workplace is no exception. The extent to which a company does or doesn’t share clear expectations and feedback with employees directly affects employee morale. When employees receive high-level communication, expectations are much clearer, and they are able to fully understand their responsibilities. Clear communication equips employees to get work done effectively and efficiently.

There is a wealth of options to implement clear and effective communication. Consider a weekly newsletter to recap the week’s achievements, regular morning meetings to touch base, and monthly company-wide gatherings to bring different departments together. In addition, tools like Slack can expedite communications and give employees better access to one another.

Workload

Every company has peak times, but when workloads become unreasonable for an extended period of time, burnout is generally right around the corner. Better company time management and evenly distributed workload can decrease the stress of accomplishing tasks and lead to a more positive work experience. Employees won’t feel the need to cut corners or become discouraged in not being able to complete their growing to-do list.

It’s important to be conscious of your employees’ workload. Having periodic check-ins to let employees know that you care how they feel will make them feel valued. It is also a valuable time to assess their feelings on their workload and how you can proactively provide support.

Teamwork Mindset

For many people, being a part of a team is one of the most rewarding parts of their job. When companies foster a teamwork-oriented environment, employees share the workload and get to interact with each other more. This atmosphere fosters collaboration and creativity while making the workday more enjoyable.

Consider planning team building activities outside of the regular work environment to foster collaboration, build trust among employees, and create a more inclusive company culture.

Overall Trust

Companies want to trust their employees, and employees want to trust their leadership. Having mutual trust builds confidence in the capability of the team to accomplish their tasks.

Company leaders should empower employees to do their best work and limit tactics like micromanaging that make employees feel like they aren’t trusted. Delegating tasks to employees and providing them the appropriate tools can show that you trust your employees work ability and judgement.

Incentive Programs

Hardworking employees like to be rewarded for a job well done. Incentives can motivate employees to work harder and stay consistent in their roles.

Offering rewards like bonuses, additional paid time off, gift cards, or work trips helps keep work fresh and exciting and motivates employees to continue their great work. Combined with the next morale booster, you have a recipe for enthusiastic and productive employees.

Recognition

People want to be recognized for their contributions and hard work. In any relationship, when people feel appreciated, they tend to become more engaged.

Company leaders should prioritize regular recognition and thank their employees frequently. Celebrating team and individual wins can help team members feel appreciated and confirm that they’re more than just a number to their company.

Turnover Rates

Turnover rates don’t just impact companies; it affects remaining employees as well. When a company can retain its employees better, work is more evenly distributed, and employees don’t have to fill in gaps as the team searches for new hires.

High retention rates allow employees to build stronger work bonds and achieve milestones. Likewise, high retention rates reduce stress and lead to less burnout throughout the company. Prioritizing employee morale can encourage high retention rates and create a secure, stable work environment for all employees.

Boost Your Employee Morale with BestCompaniesAZ

Now that you know what factors affect employee morale, it’s time to prioritize boosting employee morale. BestCompaniesAZ is here to help. We offer rich, engaging, and helpful resources to help make your company one of the best places to work in Arizona. You’ll find information about everything from festive ways to boost your employee morale year-round to flexible work arrangements for the future of work. Explore all of the resources BestCompaniesAZ has to offer today and learn more about some of Arizona’s top companies and their current open job opportunities.

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