Employees are a company’s most important asset. Keeping them happy and motivated is one of the top concerns any business should prioritise.

You may have a killer product, a billion-dollar brand, or world-class customer service. But if your employees are uninspired with their work, you won’t be able to achieve your business objectives.

Here’s the thing: giving your employees more money will make them happy, but only for a time. The gesture won’t necessarily motivate them and give them a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

If your team’s morale has seen better days, here are a few ways in which you boost it.

Make them feel important

Fact: your employees know their jobs better than you do. They’re the ones who do all the hard work in creating your product or delivering your service.

Hence, it’s important for you to make them feel important. How? Here are a couple of ideas:

• If you’re thinking of introducing a process or technology, consult with your employees about the feasibility of your ideas. Ask them if the idea is good or bad, and how it can be improved.
  
  
• If you have a good relationship with your employees, try to discern if they’re experiencing problems. Ask them how they’re doing and genuinely offer to help.

Making your people feel important will give them a sense of belongingness in your organisation. When they realise this, your people will work harder to justify your trust in them.

Appreciate your employees

One of the most common mistakes that employers make is not giving appreciation when it’s due. Worse still, some are quick to criticise but aren’t as willing to acknowledge their people’s achievements.

If you’re an employer, make it a point to recognise your employees’ good work. You don’t even need to spend a lot; simply start with:

• Regularly handing out awards for good performance.
• Greeting employees on their important days (e.g. birthdays, anniversaries).

Another way to show appreciation is by recommending employees for training courses so they could develop their skills or earn new ones, which would benefit your organisation. Similarly, you can send them to your company’s offshore locations where they can learn more about the business.

Whichever route you take, providing employees learning opportunities will help boost their morale when they return.

Remember their special days

It’s a smart practice to greet individual members of your team on their birthdays, anniversaries, and other red-letter days. But keeping track of all these details won’t be easy, especially if you have a large team.

To make this easier, you need to appoint someone to maintain a file containing your employees’ special dates. The system should work in such a way that you receive automatic reminders on the relevant dates.

Because who wouldn’t love to get a heartfelt greeting on one’s birthday or wedding anniversary from the boss? This conveys that you care.

Putting all this together takes some work, but it’s necessary for boosting morale, among other benefits.

Connect informally as well

You may know how well an employee performs at your workplace, but do you know them personally? Do you know if they have other skills like playing the piano or wakeboarding? What’s their family like?

Why does this matter? Because connecting with your people builds rapport, boosts morale, and fosters a positive work environment.

Here are a few ideas to get to know your employees better:

• Organise a quarterly, semi-annual, or annual get-together for your team at a nearby resort.
• Hold a family day at your place once a year to meet your employees’ families as well.
• Have lunch with your team and listen to their concerns.
• Set up informal chat channels (e.g. sports, movies) where you and your team can discuss interests outside work.

In addition to morale, these will contribute towards a more engaged and loyal workforce that’s receptive to feedback.

Hold regular one-on-one sessions

In many companies, leaders usually meet their employees once a year during performance reviews. The practice actually does more harm than good as it tries to do too many things in one sitting.

Performance reviews are often used for:

• Giving feedback on a year’s worth of work.
• Offering advice on how to improve.
• Asking questions on how to perform better.
• Setting objectives for the employee’s career.

Instead of cramming many overwhelming details into a 30-minute conversation, space them more evenly by holding regular one-on-one sessions.

When you hold these sessions, make it a dialogue and ask questions like:

• Are you happy with the work assigned to you?
• Do you encounter any difficulties while performing your work?
• Do you receive enough support from me and your teammates?
• Are you interested in learning other processes?
• Do you have any suggestion on improving the current way we work?

Your goal here is to make employees feel that they’re well-cared-for and not called into meetings only for criticism or appraisals.

Just remember that these techniques won’t lead to high morale overnight. Give your employees time to appreciate your efforts.

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