A Happy Employee is a Hard Working Employee: Five Ways to Build Employee Morale

Employee morale is an essential component of small business success after 5 things to do before hiring an employee. However, many employers don’t consider employee attitude and happiness something that they can affect. The focus is on meeting deadlines, building a positive bottom line, and keeping the doors open and how employee recognition affects your company. The fact is, you as a small business owner can have a huge effect on the way your workers feel about their jobs and themselves. Here are a few ways that you can help build employee morale without bending your standards or not having to fire employees to save your business.

Volunteer together. While you shouldn’t make employees donate their time, getting together once a month or even once a year to help the needy is a good way to bond. There is nothing as grounding as helping to build a Habitat for Humanity house or dishing out soup at your local rescue mission. It will also help your employees see each other, and you as well, as giving people with many admirable qualities. If you cannot volunteer, you can also collect items for the needy at certain times of year, such as holding a coat drive in the fall or a toy drive just before Christmas.

Celebrate major holidays together. Celebrating major holidays bonds people together, whether the people are family or coworkers. This doesn’t have to break your budget, either. Even the smallest business can afford to have an after-hours cookie and cocoa social before Christmas or an egg hunt for employee children in the spring. Whatever the major holidays in your area, find low cost ways to celebrate them with your employees. They’ll feel appreciated and work just a little harder because of it.

Start an ‘Employee of the Month’ program. Whether you have three employees or fifty, an employee of the month program is a great way to recognize good work and implement good habits. Whether you choose to give employees a small bonus, a certificate, or simply announce their award at a meeting, it’s important to tell your workers when their performance is truly shining.

Start traditions. What’s a family without traditions? Many small business owners want their employees to feel that they are part of the business family, but they are reluctant to put in the minimal amount of energy that it takes to build ‘family’ traditions. Whether it’s casual Fridays or a pot of gourmet coffee on Sunday mornings, your business needs to have traditions, even small ones, that give your employees something to look forward to.

Implement family-friendly policies. Modern people have to balance working with multiple other duties, so making this a little easier has a huge potential to build employee morale. Allow people to take an afternoon off occasionally to go to their child’s soccer game, or let them take a paid day of leave on their birthday. Just a few little extras will go a long way because many employers simply don’t care. These little things pay off; they will not only build morale, but reduce expensive turnover as well.

One of the fun parts of owning or working at a small business is the family-like atmosphere. If you take steps to sustain this feeling of family, you can sustain it even as your business grows. Having good employee morale will not only improve their attitude; it will improve job performance and help retain employees. Every small business can benefit by following these five simple steps to a happy, grateful work force.