The Business of Employees: Improving Employee Morale

“A ‘just a job’ employee does just enough to keep their job while complaining about what’s not fair or right at work. A team player works positively together with everyone to get the job done the best way possible.” — Ty Howard

Can you identify your “just a job” employees and your team players? I would guess they are not too difficult to identify. When we allow “just a job” employees to infect the workplace, morale suffers. When employee morale is low, businesses suffer. High turnover associated with a negative work environment can be costly. Studies have shown losing key employees can cost between 70 and 200% of the individual’s compensation. It pays to invest in your company culture.

What does investing in your employee culture look like? What impactful strategies can be used to keep team players on board, and transform the “just a job” employees into valuable team players?

1. Ask. Find out what your employees are thinking. As an employee, it can be very frustrating to feel like your feelings and opinions don’t matter. It can lead to bitterness and easily turn your team players into less productive members of your team. Informal regular touch points with employees can provide great insight. However, don’t stop there. Put out formal surveys and allow employees to remain anonymous.
2. Do. Don’t stop with just asking your employees. Once you find out what your employees are thinking, act on it. Share the feedback with them. Let them know what your strategies are for addressing feedback. Be genuine — employees can read insincerity a mile away.
3. Recognize. Take time to recognize employees. Send monthly birthday recognitions, or years of service recognition. Do you have a formal program that encourages lateral recognition? Manager to employee, employee to employee, and customer to employee recognition?
4. Give purpose. Share your vision and goals with employees. Every employee is vital to accomplishing the overall vision and goals, so let them be a part of it. Being a part of the larger picture can make for a more fulfilling employee experience.
5. Support passion. Find out what your employees are passionate about. Let that passion drive business initiatives and projects. Don’t take for granted the talent that might be right in front of you.
6. Give benefits. Get creative with the benefits you offer. You may not be able to offer more pay or a killer health plan, but a few simple gestures can create perks that really make an impact on employees. A few simple gestures can be jeans day, free food or lunch days, opportunities to volunteer, discounts, team building activities, flexible schedules and more.
7. Arm them. Give them what they need in order to do their jobs. Nobody likes looking dumb in front of a customer. Train them consistently, train them often and take accountability for setting them up for success.
8. Say thank you. It’s simple, a small gesture and a huge impact.

Most of us track our membership retention. But do you know your employee retention? Are disgruntled employees sending the wrong message to your customers? It seems so simple, but having a solid employee culture plan can make or break your business.

Sandy Wiedmeyer is the fitness manager at Pleasant Prairie RecPlex.