For any business owner, keeping the morale of your employees up is absolutely crucial. While the focus of your attention can and often should be on customers and clients, this should not come at the expense of your staff, as without them your business would sink rapidly.
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Keeping your staff happy will keep them motivated. If they were to feel underappreciated or undervalued, this could reflect in their performance and have a serious impact on your business. What are the best ways to keep morale up and motivate your employees? Keep reading to find out.
Throw A Christmas Party
Christmas may traditionally be a time of merriment, but for many people it can highly stressful and anxiety-inducing. Christmas can see a number of industries get significantly busier, with staff working long, hard hours on top of the general Christmas stress that the season can bring.
One of the best ways to relive the pressure and get your employees in the spirit of the season is to throw a Christmas party. A meal and a drink is the most common way of going about this, but there are far more interesting options that come with team-building benefits as well.
Take a look at Team Tactics, they offer a huge variety of workplace Christmas party experiences for groups of all sizes, including treasure hunts, ice carving, boat trips, and quiz nights.
Create A Communication Culture
One of the most effective ways of keeping staff happy in the workplace is to allow for free and open communication amongst all members of staff. Staff should feel comfortable approaching colleagues or senior management when they have a problem or issue, and they should be confident that their concerns will be listened to in an understanding way before the appropriate action is taken.
If communication was to break down in the workplace it can lead to staff feeling unheard and unhappy. Not to mention, it can have a severely detrimental impact on how your business operates and, ultimately, how much money you make.
Establish An Inclusive Environment
Inclusivity and diversity are extremely important. You should strive to ensure that your workplace is a welcoming and hospitable place for everyone, regardless of their personal background or characteristics.
Staff will feel far happier and more comfortable if they feel like their work accepts them for who they are, and this will be seen reflected in their performance. Ensure you demonstrate through both your words and actions that your workplace is one that celebrates, promotes, and practices inclusivity and diversity.
Focus on Work/Life Balance
No employee wants to feel overworked. This can lead to problems such as lower productivity or even burnout. To avoid this, you must ensure that you are promoting a fair work/life balance among your staff. Try and understand that your employees have lives and commitments outside of work and reflect this by being as flexible as you can when it comes to time off and holidays.
Offer a hybrid working scheme where employee time is split between home and office working is a fantastic way to promote positive work/life balance. Allowing staff to work from home has been linked to an increase in productivity and reduced risks of burnout.
Conclusion
Businesses and company owners must strive to ensure their staff are both happy and motivated in the workplace. Keeping up staff morale will filter throughout your entire business, from the top all the way down to the consumer. Focusing on providing a positive work/life balance, create a culture of communication, establish an inclusive environment, and throw a Christmas party to relieve some of the festive tensions.
