Essential tips for boosting staff morale to ensure increased productivity and loyalty

Your workforce can quite literally make or break your business, no matter what industry you work in. A team that works well together, are generally happy in their roles, and who boost each other are more likely to have high productivity levels and loyalty to your brand. However, dissatisfaction in the workplace can arise all too often, creating a negative workplace environment that no one looks forward to entering and greatly reducing productivity. Fortunately, you can do plenty of things as a business owner to help boost staff morale and ensure increased productivity and loyalty to your business.

Resolve issues quickly and confidentially

In the workplace, you may be required to work with people who you wouldn’t ordinarily choose to spend time with. As such, there might understandably be many personality clashes and differences of opinions as your workforce try to work together as a team. Whilst such disagreements are usually quickly resolved by effective communication; sometimes an issue can snowball until it becomes a huge stumbling block that is preventing your team from fully cooperating and lowering staff morale – no one wants to work in a place where there is a palpable bad feeling. Therefore, it is important that you identify any issues between colleagues early on and do your best to resolve workplace conflict quickly and confidentially. This might include, for example, letting both parties have their say and investigating the issue for yourself before designing a plan for moving forward to help make each party happier in their roles.

Upgrade your office space

People often spend more time in the office than they do in their own homes; as such, there is perhaps nothing more demoralizing than spending your days in a dingy office with flickering fluorescent ceiling lights and a stained carpet. Dedicate time to upgrading your office so that it is a bright and airy space that you and your staff will feel energized and inspired to work in. Simply repainting the walls with a fresh coat of paint can give a cleaner appearance, as well as changing desk layouts to maximize natural light from windows. Rather than having plain walls, you could look at adding inspirational posters or calming artwork to really create a space that your staff will feel comfortable spending time in. Alternatively, you might decide to bring in office refurbishment experts; for instance, Source One Consulting can work with you to design bespoke office interiors that entirely fit your individual needs. An expertly designed office space will help to inspire your staff and boost productivity levels, resulting in a working environment that they love and feel happy to be in.

Invest in team-building

Your workforce is most likely to consist of multiple personality types, which can all make positive contributions to the running of your business. However, the individuals you employ may not naturally gel together; it is important that you invest in team-building activities in order to get everyone pulling together as a team. This is especially important if you have just created a new team within your business or have had several new staff members join. Team building excursions, such as an assault course or a team-building course at a training center, are great for getting out of the normal office environment and seeing your colleagues in a fresh light. Or, you could begin the working day with a short team-building activity, such as a board game. Finally, don’t discount the importance of social activities, such as going out for post-work drinks or a meal, as an important bonding activity for you and your team.

Give constructive criticism

You are more than likely at some point to have to provide your employees with feedback on their performance – it might be their annual appraisal or following a certain project – and some of what you have to say might not be entirely positive. It is important that you put negative criticism across in a constructive way that will ultimately empower your staff members to improve. Criticism that is overwhelmingly negative only serves to demoralize and further reduce productivity – the recipient may feel upset and defeated and be little inclined to put extra effort in for an establishment that does not appreciate their efforts. However, by delivering feedback in a way that compliments your employee on their achievements while also providing tangible, useful suggestions on how they can further improve their performance are likely to have them leaving your meeting feeling uplifted rather than shot down.