Several studies have shown that maintaining a positive workplace environment produces more productive and high-quality pieces of work. If your employees love coming to work every day, why wouldn’t they want to produce the best quality of work? It makes no sense why they wouldn’t want to contribute.
With the rise of remote work for its conveniences and removing commute time, some remote workers have quickly changed their minds and are reporting issues with productivity and a sense of belonging and miss the little things that come with working in the office.
After all, humans are very social beings and building those relationships with colleagues is a huge foundation for all successful organisations. People who feel a sense of connection to their work, teammates or organisation don’t just clock in and clock out; they look forward to days in the office, chances to improve, are resilient in the face of challenges, and exceed goals faster.
The importance of prioritising employee satisfaction should always be a priority, as they are the ones performing, especially in distributed teams. It has never been more important. With new and fun ways to keep your employees morale at an all-time high, here is an updated version of some strategies you can put in place.
Promote Work-life Balance
While this can be seen as a huge positive for a company, that their employees are working past hours and are committed to their job, this might only be for reasons they are stressed about certain things, which isn’t good for the overall picture.
Findings from the remote employee experience index found that workers across the globe feel that remote working is better than working in the office and that 39{5a8a07c61bddceae44227f4f761e593bcf3e23cc48d34991df2eb55b782c3362} of remote workers reported they work more hours every day compared to 31{5a8a07c61bddceae44227f4f761e593bcf3e23cc48d34991df2eb55b782c3362} of office-based workers.
While of course there will be days when you need to catch up on work or you have deadlines to meet, some places have set rules where no emails can be sent between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m., in the hope of preventing employees from burning out or eventually resenting the job.
This will encourage your employees to enjoy their time off and feel revitalised for a new day at work. If you can go as far as to extend deadlines or even grant someone a birthday off during the deadline so they can celebrate and wear their brand new corset dress, you are not promoting work-life balance but creating a grateful employee, and that will reflect that into their work.
Small Gestures
Whether it is recognition, educational resources or bringing gifts, small gestures can do big things for morale by showing your employees that you are thinking of them and that they are appreciated.
Hugely successful companies such as Canva were rated as one of the best places to work in Australia, as they have embraced hybrid working, establishing a policy that you only need to come into the office eight times a year. This means if you want some social time, you can come in whenever.
The company also subsides mindfulness and meditation apps while establishing a process called “Messages of Appreciation,” where employees can create cards on the platform and have them printed and delivered to a colleague’s doorstep.
You can start incorporating things like this into group emails; try adding a nice comment or a motivational quote at the beginning or end. Finding out what works best for your employees and is easier to deliver might be trial and error but the effort always counts.
Out of Office
Having things to look forward to as a company is always great for morale; it can motivate employees to work even harder to show their gratitude. This can be in the form of a fun Christmas party or attending charity events.
This will not only bring the company together but will also show that your employees are appreciated and that you want them to associate work with occasional perks.
You can try and do an annual thing, whether it’s the races, a huge Christmas party or company drinks every two weeks. Creating spaces where you can bond with your employees will boost morale throughout the year and can encourage some fun conversations about which Christmas party dress to get this year.
