Do your employees show up to work ready to leave for the day?

Is the negative energy in your workplace noticeable?

Do you ever find that your employees have stopped being proactive at work?

It doesn’t matter how great your services are, if the morale in your workspace is poor, it can ultimately kill your business. Poor morale can put a halt in your steps to success.

However, it’s not just business owners and managers that need to work on their attitude. If your employees don’t have the right attitude, it can greatly affect your business. More often than not, an employee who doesn’t have the right attitude can lead to low morale. Their attitude and morale are commonly a reflection of business leadership.

You can hire an employee with high morale, but if the business does not provide them with proper support, their attitude will change over time and their morale will increase. As a business owner or manager, you need to focus on how your company can improve employees’ morale and keep it high. On this page, we’re going to discuss the importance of morale and how it affects your company’s success.

What is Morale?

Before we get into the importance of morale in your business, we should explain what it is. Every employee’s dedication and drive to do work is based on their morale towards the business. This is their frame of mind and how they feel toward the business and the work they are accomplishing. Morale is very important to consider because it highly reflects how an employee perceives their work.

Whether an employee has high or low morale towards the business depends on a variety of different factors. An employee who has high morale towards their position with the company shows a sense of confidence in the work they do. They show that they are willing to perform and don’t mind going that extra mile to complete a task for the company.

While it’s easy to believe that morale is fully based on an individual mindset, that’s not always the case. An employee can start their job with high morale because they are eager to grow in their new position. However, if the business isn’t meeting the expectations of the employee, their morale can change. Things that can cause a good employee to have low morale include:

  • Uncertain business conditions
  • Low compensation with no opportunities to earn fair or higher wages
  • Job security issues
  • No room to grow in the company or move upwards with their position
  • Excessive outsourcing
  • Lack of work-to-life balance

How Business Owners and Managers are Responsible For Low Morale in the Workplace

Low morale can cost a company a lot of money. Turnover rates are higher in companies where employees have a bad attitude and low morale. No matter what industry your business is in, it costs time and money to replace employees. Recruiting can be very expensive.

To keep operations successful, it is the business owners, as well as the leadership as a whole that can affect the morale of their employees. If you notice employees showing signs of low morale, replacing them isn’t an easy fix to the problem. You could find replacement employees with high morale, but if they are working in the same conditions as your current employees their attitude and morale will end up decreasing.

One of the biggest mistakes that business owners make that lowers the morale of their employees is using a top-down control method. This is where managers do all the directing from the top and employees do as they are told without any input.

When managers have this attitude, they are killing the business. During meetings with employees, it’s crucial for business owners and managers to encourage open dialogue. This is a constructive way to find out about obstacles and challenges your business is facing and work together to find realistic ways to overcome them. When managers do not listen to what the employees have to say about issues within the company, this can cause them to distrust the manager and feel disrespected.

Low Morale Slows Down Operations

If your employees have low morale towards their position with the company, it will affect how successful the operations are. An employee with low morale won’t be motivated to be productive and they will get to a point where they mentally no longer care. This can cause them to work slower, cut corners, and stop focusing on what customers need.

When an employee doesn’t feel respected by their leadership, it will reflect in their attitude. This attitude will then begin to reflect how customers see the business, which can cause them to take their money elsewhere. Customers want to spend their money at places where the staff is happy to go above and beyond for them.

Low Morale Leads To Higher Turnover Rates

Customers tend to view businesses negatively when there is a high turnover rate. High turnover rates often lead people to believe that the company is poorly managed, has unreliable hours, and has unfair wages. This can destroy the optics of a company, because customers will not want to continually learn new processes, due to constant employee turnover.

If an employee has a negative feeling towards their job, they won’t be motivated to stay. As soon as a new opportunity presents itself, they will be happy to leave, which leaves your business short-handed. Issues with an unhappy employees should quickly be addressed because many times it is as simple as that they don’t feel like they are being listened to. Therefore, they likely won’t let you know what drove them to leave, resulting in leadership not being able to resolve the problem. This is why it’s very important to always listen when an employee speaks up about an issue in the office and make an effort to address it.

Employees with low morale are more likely to call in sick or take mental health days away from the workplace. When a person is not satisfied with their job, they will begin to crave more time away. This can also happen if the workplace doesn’t allow work/life balance. If a business doesn’t allow employees to take paid time off throughout the year, it is likely to cost them in the long run.

If the issue is having a proper work/life balance, an easy resolution is to simply provide paid time off. Keep in mind, the average business spends 9% of its annual payroll on unscheduled absences.

Leaders Are Responsible For Morale

Believe it or not, leadership can improve or destroy the morale of the employees towards the company. As a business owner or manager, you are likely hiring employees on your team for a reason. Each employee brings something valuable to the company and has a vision that contributes to your operations. Leaders must focus on what their employees bring to the table and ensure they understand why they are part of the team.

When an employee feels valued in their position, they are more motivated to bring their best game to the field. Leaders can help employees by creating a work culture where people feel encouraged to speak up, give input, and ask questions. This can ensure everyone is on the same page and people’s questions and concerns are being addressed. It can also show you if any additional training is needed to improve operations.

An employee will also have a better attitude and morale if they are rewarded for the work they do. When there is a plan in place for promotions and employees are aware of how they can achieve them, there is something to be motivated about. If there is no room for the employee to move upward in a business, they won’t be motivated to stay.

There are three things that every business owner needs to focus on when trying to improve morale in the workplace:

  • Building Relationships
  • Compensation
  • Recognition

Final Words

If your employees have the right attitude, they can turn your business into a very successful operation. How you treat the employees and the working environment you create is the biggest factor in their attitude and morale towards the business.

Schedule a call today to find out how to boost moral in your business!