Archive for February, 2009
Boosting Morale in a Down Economy
25February 2009
Human energy is the fuel of business. So what if everyone around you is dragging? Current economic pressures can make anyone depressed, and the effect is reverberating throughout the hallways of corporate America.
In recent HR related studies, the biggest category cost cutting category is in the area of team building and morale. Yet it’s never been more imperative for managers to retain the best and brightest employees to tough out the economy.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow talked about the hierarchy of needs, which suggested that humans are motivated as their needs are fulfilled in areas like safety, security, belonging, and esteem. You can easily improve the workplace environment by thinking about what each person in the company needs. And fulfilling those needs doesn’t need to cost a lot of money.
Tips for morale boosting in a sluggish economy:
• Heartfelt praise and recognition is priceless, especially when given in front of others.
• Get input from staff by reframing challenges into opportunities and encouraging employee suggestions so they become an invested part of the solution.
• Build in “fun time” and start by soliciting your own people to find out what activities or ideas they have that are cost effective, but worth the effort.
• Communicate, communicate, and communicate some more with everyone to ensure that roles, goals, and expectations are clear. Do it often and not always at expected times.
• Reward employees at low or no cost. Consider small gift cards to a local coffee shop, two movie tickets, grocery store certificates at the holidays, pizza party during lunch, ice cream social in the afternoon, a themed potluck, casual dress day
• An active employee recognition program is easy to set up and can cost the company nothing. For example, acknowledge a job well-done in monthly staff meetings. Or create a Super Star board where employees can post a description of the outstanding work of their co-workers.
• Mind your “P’s and Q’s” by saying please and thank you often. Stop by your co-workers’ desks to say thank you for something they have done recently, whether it was a great job on a project or pitching in to meet a deadline.
• An employee mentoring program can provide effective motivation and increase leadership skills. Pair employees with managers. They can meet regularly to share ideas or collaborate on a project.
• A walk in the park, even if for a half hour, can mean a lot. Everyone enjoys time away from the office. Offer employees the chance to leave early on a Friday afternoon if a major success has been achieved.
Morale boosting and employee motivation do not cost a lot of money. Consistency, clarity, and creativity will go a long way. In my next blog, I’ll talk about some pitfalls in employee motivation. In the meantime, stick with these positives, and you can’t go wrong!
How to “Humanize Your Workplace™”
4February 2009
I am often asked about my mantra, “Humanize your Workplace.” I’ve talked about with many managers and in articles before wanted to elaborate on it. And what better place than in a blog?
First, we’re all “human beings,” right? Yes and no.
Sometimes humans in the workplace get so focused on doing the work that we forget about “being” human. We lose sight of the basic, in-born instincts that are behind our own daily business interactions - and that of others.
Humanizing the workplace is something that everyone - executives, managers, and employees - can undertake to create together a better work environment. (It always translates into a more profitable business as well.)
A humanized workplace:
• Puts greater emphasis on keen sensitivity to the human spirit
• Fosters collaboration towards common goals
• Avoids robot-like, icy behaviors that can cause alienation
• Uses “real” words that are driven from the heart, not “corporate babblespeak” (which are borne out of safety insecurity or worse, mimicking!)
• Encourages time for good, old-fashioned etiquette - “please,” “thank you,” (just like your mother told you to!)
• Acknowledges consistently the positive contributions of co-workers (tell ‘em what they did right!)
• Dares to put an occasional “:)” or “!” in an e-mail or text
• Poses requests as questions, not demands
• Places value on the power of humor, what I call “the great diffuser” of tension
• Puts emphasis on infusing joy and laughter into the workplace — making work more fun, inspiring people to collaborate and stick around, and fostering more creativity! (Surprised?)
It’s easy to be unaware of what it’s like to be in the other person’s shoes. Whether they are moonboots, Tevas, or pumps - we’ve got to step in and take a look around!
A good litmus test is to examine whether you are humanizing your own workplace, meaning your own world of work. Try this little test. Ask yourself how big of a dichotomy there is between the “weekend you” and the “office you.” Surely there should be some delta there.
But if you are a complete riot on Saturday nights - and a stone-faced crash dummy Monday through Friday - then you’re robbing yourself and others of your warmth and true personality. (Now, please don’t insist on wearing a Halloween mask or bringing your pet canary to work everyday!)
No one decreed work to be a place of pain and torture, even in this economy. Humanizing your workplace is guaranteed to bring more joy to the office and to increase productivity. You will feel healthier and live a much richer life.
So next time you have the chance, ask your boss about her weekend. Stop by Ned’s office in accounting after the Monday e-mail. Celebrate humanity. Humanize your workplace.
