The situation we are all facing with COVID-19 is unlike anything we have experienced before. From concerns about the health of our loved ones to the ever-increasing ripples of financial instability, there just seems to be so much uncertainty all over the world right now.
While the coronavirus pandemic continued to add new countries to its world tour of disease, most employees and employers have experienced big changes to their daily working lives. This virus has also changed how employees interact with each other around the world, so it is increasingly important that both employers and business owners take on the responsibility to ensure that the wellbeing of each staff member is always their highest priority.
Thankfully not all companies have closed their doors during this epidemic, at least not yet. There are still some essential businesses that have remained open to provide goods and services to anyone who needs them. So, no matter where you live in the world, if you are worried about the wellbeing and mental health of your employees, keep reading the five suggestions below to boost morale by keeping their levels of motivation high, with the addition of a positive mindset:
Keep the communication consistent
Don’t take the risk of aggravating your staff by trying to keep them in the dark about minor or major business decisions and activities. It’s essential that you always remain transparent about any known problems, while never avoiding difficult conversations, especially when staff morale already seems low. If you want to give your staff a morale boost, you should always keep them informed with all updates, protocols, feedback from customers, and anything else they might consider to be relevant.
Traditional meetings can be moved online with a Zoom call and larger-scale conferences can be hosted on a webinar for maximum reach. That way, you will still be able to communicate with your team without having everyone in the room.
All communications sent via email to staff should be clearly written and concise, making sure to focus on the important information that the staff needs to know, so they are all in the loop. Otherwise, you should tell them what happened as soon as it happened, because your employees will genuinely respect your honesty, enabling you all to work together as a team.
Maintain your employee’s work-life balance
No one can say for certain exactly how long this global pandemic will last, or even how it will all play out, so now is not an appropriate time to try and enforce rules about tardiness, absence, or even dress codes. Instead, you should always try to be as understanding and flexible as possible toward any staff member who is dealing with trauma, whether it is related to work or something personal.
Even when the world isn’t dealing with a nasty virus, employees who receive assistance from their superiors are statistically much more likely to remain working for that company in the long term, when compared to those staff who received no help. Listening to the problems of your staff members and then offering or providing help can go a long way to establish goodwill and retention down the road.
Be flexible and empathetic with company rules and guidelines
Employers should at least consider the option of allowing employees to have varied working hours that can be changed to suit whatever has been arranged, as long as businesses could have a more flexible set up. Employees with children all seem to agree that much more work gets done if they are able to work before their kids wake up and again after they go to bed.
When an employee has a work area with no distractions, productivity levels noticeably increased, which seems to be an oversight from my benefit employers. Employers could also decide on the option to consider introducing set core hours when every employee must be available to work, while also allowing for employees to work any additional hours at any other time that suits them.
Keep the office clean
While office hygiene has a profound effect on both the happiness and the efficiency of all employees, there’s nothing worse than a dirty office bathroom with this COVID-19 around. Whether you’re aware of it or not, office bathrooms can be a breeding ground for viruses including Coronavirus as well as many other germs. Bathroom hygiene is always an essential service that would help ensure good personal hygiene and higher staff morale.
Old office bathrooms can also have an effect on morale, while also reflecting poorly on the website for the company as well as on the management style in general if you can’t offer your employees or clients a clean and comfortable experience in such a high-traffic area. Toilets located in the office area are unavailable, I assume because of unpleasant spaces if cleaning isn’t consistent, waste is allowed to build up, and water from sinks or toilets is allowed to pool or collect without being properly addressed.
Listen to staff concerns
Managers or other leaders can almost guarantee that some employees will have a few grievances and distresses, especially during the era of Corona. However, by regularly surveying employees, these kinds of major grievances could eventually be minimised, which finally resulted in a much more comfortable sleeping and working environment. This open-door policy allowed for a conduit to be provided between the manager and the employee to discuss anything you’d like so that can be even more productive.
Perhaps the easiest and most economical method of keeping employees motivated is to actually listen to what they have to say at any time they need and genuinely encourage them to voice their opinions or share their ideas. In fact, just giving them the platform to voice their opinions can help them feel like they are a part of something special.
Boosting morale around the work office isn’t always cheerful slogans or expensive incentive programs. All it might take is to get your employees talking and happy so you can learn about what makes them tick, allowing them the freedom to explore their interests while expanding their minds.
Whichever method of morale encouragement for employees you opt for, just remember it is all about appreciating your work environment. Genuinely happy employees are always much more productive than those who are not, leaving you with more satisfied customers and fewer hassles for human resources.