Seattle Small Business Blog

Keeping your employees motivated with high morale is the most important function of a supervisor. This article provides a list of actions that can be taken to keep employees producing for the success of the organization.

The first three suggestions are related to the physical characteristics of the work place:

1. Make sure that the work place is clean and well-lighted.

2. Give employees the proper equipment (furniture, computers, machinery) to perform their jobs efficiently and comfortably.

3. Design the work flow such that there are few bottle-necks and downtime.

The following are suggestions for keeping employees’ morale high:

1. Reward employees with the highest rank and status justified by their aptitude, performance, and contribution to the success of the organization.

2. Provide salary and wages based on the employees’ performance and value to your organization.

3. Provide a meaningful annual review which includes recognition for work accomplishments and an honest assessment of areas where the employee could improve.

4. Give employees effective feedback on their work, including giving reasons for work assignments, the assignments contribution to the organization, and how the assignment contributes to the success of the organization.

5. Delegate as much authority to employees as they can handle effectively.
6. Provide positive incentives rather than negative incentives.

Consider the following actions related to communicating effectively with your employees:

1. Listen to employees–really listen.

2. Allow employees to air their grievances–even if they reflect on your perceptions of your own performance.

3. Give credit for actions, ideas, and suggestions for improvement to operations. (Never take credit for actions or ideas of your employees.)

4. Organize your operations so that everyone can make a contribution by offering suggestions for improvement. Consider all suggestions seriously. If you find that the suggestion can’t be implemented, give a full reason for not adopting it.

5. Show a genuine interest in each employee without becoming a bore.

Now that you’ve been presented with a series of actions that you can take to improve the morale and motivation of your employees, here’s one more important point to remember:

Each supervisor comes into the job with a set of attitudes and behaviors that have developed over a period of years. In most cases a new supervisor needs to take stock of his or her attitudes and behaviors that might not be effective as a supervisor.

Most new supervisor don’t take the time (or even realize that they need) to assess their skills related to being an effective supervisor.

Let the list above serve as a checklist of areas where you need to make improvements to be successful as a supervisor.

How many people do you know that say they hate their job or their boss? Well, it’s called “work” and not “fun” for a reason. However, a work environment doesn’t have to be dull and oppressive. Employees don’t have to feel like they are chained to their desks all day. With some creative management techniques, you can enhance employee motivation and maybe even increase your employee retention.

One of the biggest morale boosters you can provide your employees is to give them a voice in some of the company’s operations. That doesn’t mean they should set the stock price or decide on a hostile takeover. Those are decisions correctly left to upper management and the board of directors. However, there are little things that affect the employees directly.

Managers should not try to fake this method. Listening to your employees’ input but implementing what you had already decided will only grow resentment. After all, employees can quickly figure out that none of their suggestions were chosen, even though those suggestions were the majority! Let your employees decide their own fates every once in a while and you will make them happier.

One office function that employees dread is the office party. For many companies this occurs during December’s holiday season. If your employees don’t like being at work with you, they certainly won’t want to spend their free time with you at a party. Employees also feel obligated to attend such parties; for fear that they will not be seen as a team player.

There is an easy solution to the office party problem. Let the employees vote on whether or not to have one! If the company is having a bad year, yet management throws an expensive holiday party, what kind of message does that send to the employees?

Have the employees vote on whether to have a big party, or to simply take the party money and divide it evenly among themselves. If the money would be spent anyway, shouldn’t it go directly to the employees that helped the company earn it?

If you think hard about similar functions that you “make” your employees do, you can probably imagine other ways to empower them. Perhaps a randomly chosen employee gets a paid Friday afternoon off once per month. Little things like allowing radios in offices or flexible work hours can make big differences in employee morale.

Show your employees that you really are listening to them, and give them a few extra benefits. You might just find yourself with a more loyal work force that stays longer with the company.