A high quality manager knows that the single best way to get the best out of their employees is to focus on morale.
Morale is at the centre of everything related to success. When employees feel good and feel valued, they’re always going to work harder and dedicate more time and thought to the task at hand. Of course, if employees feel forgotten, unvalued, and as though they don’t matter, are they going to want to give their all for the business? Not at all! In this case they will do the bare minimum to get through the day and collect their wages at the end of the month.
Focusing on the people sat at your office desks is the single best way to ensure business success, and it doesn’t need to be more complicated than that. When morale is high, a business is more productive and therefore more profitable.
Check out this useful infographic on why morale matters so much to a business.
Source: www.justworks.com/blog/how-employee-motivation-make-break-company-infographics
Splitting the office up with office dividers and expecting everyone to do their work without any type of collaboration or say in the role is simply going to alienate employees and cause a glut of nothingness. On the other hand, allowing staff to collaborate around the boardroom chairs and asking for ideas is likely to have a very beneficial effect on morale.
Ironically, when you focus on increasing morale, you’re encouraging new ideas; and when you ask for new ideas, you’re increasing morale. It’s a wonderful double whammy that doesn’t allow you to lose!
Look at it this way, if you are asked for your opinion by a manager, how does it make you feel? It makes you feel like your opinion is valued and that your manager wants to hear your suggestions on how to change things in your environment, right? This could be your opinion on new office furniture, or something entirely different.
In addition, you’re going to feel full of new ideas, because that spark inside of you has been lit. You suddenly feel valued, like you matter more than a number, and that your input is going to make a difference. We all want to be part of something big, and by asking for employee input you’re allowing them to access that positive feel-good factor. This very simple fact alone increases morale.
On the flip side of the argument, when morale is high, employees will naturally come up with more ideas from the comfort of their ergonomic chairs. People who feel good are brimming with thoughts and suggestions, and the fact they feel valued means they’re able to talk about their ideas without fear of being shot down in flames. For instance, if you’re thinking of having an office renovation, asking your employees what they think about it will ensure that they feel involved, and that suggestions they put forward can be considered.
None of this is detrimental to a business, in fact it’s nothing but super-positive! How can you lose out when you have so many new ideas to look into? Of course, not every single one of them will come to fruition, and you need to make it clear when this happens that it is not a reflection on the standard of the suggestions, it’s simply not a suitable suggestion at this time. That doesn’t mean it won’t be revisited at some point in the future however.
Keeping your employees in the loop, allowing them to make suggestions, and helping them to realise that their ideas are valued, and that they will be taken seriously, is vital in terms of boosting morale and ensuring a business is successful and profitable.
Management do not own all the ideas in the world! A member of your office staff could be full of ideas that will turn your business around. If you don’t ask, you’ll never have access to a new idea bank that could alter everything for the better!