• Introduction 
• What is Workplace Morale And Why is it Important?
• 5 Benefits of High Office Morale
• What Happens When Office Morale is Low?
• 3 Ways to Measure Office Morale 
• 7 Potential Causes of Low Workplace Morale
• The Number One Reason For Low Morale? Bad Management
• How Does Office Design Affect Morale? 
• 10 Ways to Improve Office Morale Right Now!
• Conclusion 

Business success relies upon a series of different elements which all need to be running together in smooth tandem in order to work. If one element is slightly ‘off’ the rest will work far slower and as a result, productivity will take a slight nose dive. In some cases, if the element is important enough, productivity can do more than nose dive, but completely face plant instead. 

We could talk all day long about the individual elements which make up a successful business picture, but doing that would eat into your work time and that would cut down on productivity from the get-go! Instead, let’s focus on one particular element which many employers tend to overlook - office morale. 

Do you pay much attention to whether your employees are happy or not? Do you even care?

A high-quality manager understands that morale is a vital part of a successful business picture and when morale is low, everything else is about to hit rock bottom at some point in the very near future. 

If you’re not sure how morale plays a part in the success of a business, or you’re simply keen to try and learn how to improve morale in the workplace, this guide is going to help you. We’re going to talk about everything morale-related and we’re going to give you some guidance on how to boost your levels and make your business a happier place to be. 

So, before we really get started, let’s address the key question - what on earth is morale anyway?

What is Workplace Morale And Why is it Important?

Morale is a broad term, but according to Wikipedia, morale means:

“The capacity of a group’s members to maintain belief in an institution or goal, particularly in the face of opposition or hardship”

You could break that down and say that morale is the happiness and satisfaction level of your staff as a collective group, but of course, every single person within that group can have differing morale levels, according to what is going on in their particular situation at any given time. However, morale is a collective term for the purposes of this guide, meaning the collective morale level of your office space. 

So, why does it matter whether or not your employees are happy? Surely you don’t pay your employees to be happy, you pay them to work? Well, having that attitude is exactly the reason why many businesses fail!

Morale is important because when morale is high, productivity is also high. Conversely, when morale is low, productivity is also low. In our next section, we’re going to talk about the benefits of high morale, which will give you the answer to why this productivity rise occurs. Put simply, an office with high morale is a far happier and more positive place to work and wouldn’t you rather work in an office like that, as opposed to an office where everyone was busy looking at the clock, willing it to edge further towards 5 pm and finishing time?

5 Benefits of High Office Morale

Let’s explore the reason why morale is important in more detail, by checking out the main benefits of having high morale in your workplace. 

The single biggest benefit you will read about and see is an increase in productivity, but it’s important to look deeper than that and work out why productivity occurs as a result of increased morale. Those are the real benefits because they have a knock-on effect. So, the five main benefits which all affect productivity are:

1. Fewer Office Conflicts - When an office is positive, upbeat and everyone feels good about their work, you’ll see far less in the way of conflicts. That isn’t to say you’ll never see one, but they tend to last for far less time and they’re ironed out easier. Conflicts are likely to be on the rise when morale is low because everyone is feeling negative and on edge. As a result, it’s far easier to misunderstand someone or take the slightest thing in the wrong way. When morale is high, office working relationships are healthier and more beneficial for everyone. 
2. Fewer Mistakes Made - The positive feel to the office is likely to result in fewer mistakes made, which boosts confidence and the quality of work overall. This means customers are not affected and everything is rosy! When morale is low, you’ll probably see more mistakes because people are paying less attention and they’re less engaged in their work. This disengagement can lead to major errors, which can drastically affect the service level your customers receive. When this happens, you’re likely to lose customers to your competitors. 
3. More Ideas And Suggestions - When you’re all sat around the boardroom tables, collaborating on an idea or you’re generally asking for suggestions, you’ll see far more ideas coming your way when morale is high. This is because employees are happier and have the confidence to speak up. When morale is low, they’ll feel they’re not supported and therefore have no interest in coming up with new ideas. 
4. Increased Retention of Staff And Attracting New Talent - A happy employee is far less likely to want to leave their office desk than an employee who is seriously lacking in job satisfaction. This means that when morale is high, you’ll find it easier to keep hold of your high-quality employees and you’ll also find it easier to attract new talent because word will get out about what a great company you are to work for!
5. Employees Are More Likely to go The Extra Mile - All of this means that your employees will want to work harder for you, and they will be more engaged and focused on what they’re doing. They’re likely to go the extra mile and really put their best effort forward. 

It’s not hard to see how all of this boosts productivity and therefore gives you a much more successful business outlook. We also shouldn’t have to highlight the fact that high productivity means more profits!

Check out this infographic which highlights a few other ways you can try and boost productivity in your office. 

Source - https://www.insightsforprofessionals.com/management/leadership/how-to-boost-employee-productivity

There is nothing worse for an employee than not wanting to go to work because the office is full of conflicts, nobody can agree on anything around the modern boardroom tables and everything is just dripping in negativity. It’s a far better picture for the office to be upbeat, bright, positive, and hopeful. The good news is that there are many ways you can achieve that picture and we’re going to cover many of them in detail as we move through this guide. 

What Happens When Office Morale is Low?

Let’s head to the dark side for a second and explore what happens when there is bad morale in the workplace. 

Put simply, the outlook is pretty bleak. 

The picture is basically the opposite of what we’ve just explored. You’ll notice more conflicts, an increase in sickness levels, higher stress levels, lower productivity, fewer ideas coming your way around the boardroom furniture, an increase in mistakes which ultimately affects your customers, and you’ll lose highly qualified staff as a result of the general feeling in the office. As for attracting new staff? It will become harder and harder. 

Morale leads to a depressing feel in the space; you can have the brightest office decor around but if morale is low the entire office will just feel dark and drab. It’s an energy thing and can easily be felt by anyone who walks into your space. That means that when visitors come into your reception area or into your main office space, perhaps for a meeting, they’re instantly going to feel the negative energy and it could very quickly give them a poor first impression of your business. 

Over time, when this picture continues, businesses will start to see major cracks and these will be impossible to gloss over after a while. As customers decide to leave and head over to competitors and employees leave, the entire outlook for the business declines day after day.

For this reason, it’s vital that as a manager you place importance upon focusing on your employees and give them what they need in order to be healthy and happy whilst sitting at their office chairs. This means listening to them, valuing them, understanding that they are human beings and not statistics, and it means giving them a working environment which is not only pleasant but is also healthy and supportive. How about focusing on their health and wellbeing and offering things like a cut priced gym membership or confidence counselling services? These are all things you can do which make a huge difference - handily, we’re going to talk more about these things a little later on. 

3 Ways to Measure Office Morale 

You might be reading this and thinking “hmm, I need to do something about the morale in my office”, but in order to take action, you need to know your starting point. So, how can you measure workplace morale?

The problem is that you can’t actually see morale, it’s not something you can touch or see, it’s simply something you can feel. That means it’s hard to measure but there are a few indicators you can look at, which will give you an idea of whether morale in your office is high, low, or somewhere in the middle. 

1. Look at Productivity Levels - Firstly, look at the levels of productivity in your office over the recent past. Have they increased? Have they gone down? Are they satisfactory or could there be an improvement? Productivity is probably the single biggest indicator of whether morale is high or low in an office, but it’s obviously not all down to morale. Look at your sales and orders, keep an eye on the number of mistakes that are happening and pull it all together to give you a picture of whether or not there is work to be done. 
2. Look at Sickness Absence Levels - Have you noticed an increase in sickness absence levels, particularly pertaining to stress? If so, that’s a pretty strong indicator that something isn’t quite right in the office, especially if this is true of more than one employee. 
3. Notice The General Feel in The Office - When you walk into the office, how does it feel to you? Tune into your senses for a second and just explore that. Do people seem to be slumping over their designer office desks or are they sat relatively upright, working away? Do people seem to be talking to each other or is it a case of radio silence on the collaboration front? How about smiles, can you see many of them? Never underestimate the general vibe you get from an office in terms of where the morale level sits. 

So, whilst morale levels can be hard to measure in real terms, there are several indicators you can look at which will give you an idea of how much attention you need to pay to the morale in your office, or whether you’re ticking along nicely. 

7 Potential Causes of Low Workplace Morale

If you want to learn how to improve office morale, you first need to look at the reasons why it may be low in the first place. Only when you identify the reason behind something can you really focus on improving the situation and righting the actual cause. 

So, let’s look at the 7 main causes of workplace morale, so you can try and identify which might be the issue in your office.  

1. Poor Management - Without a doubt, poor management is the number one reason for low morale in an office space. In our next section, we’re going to delve into this a little more deeply, so we won’t dwell on it here. For now, simply know that having a poor manager, someone who doesn’t value or listen to employees and who always has their door closed in an unapproachable manner, is one of the single biggest reasons why a team of employees become disengaged and low in morale. 
2. Poor Communication - This can be about poor communication between employees or from management to employees, but either way, this is a big reason for morale to be low. When instructions aren’t conveyed in the right way, misunderstandings can easily occur, and that can also mean that mistakes happen. The more mistakes that happen, the lower morale will be because it dents confidence and causes everyone to feel defeated. 
3. Unfair Workloads And Unrealistic Deadlines - If workloads are unfair and some employees are under more pressure than others, that’s easily going to cause a morale problem. Equally, if you’re not giving your employees enough time to complete a task before demanding a result, you’re going to erode their confidence once more and cause stress to build up. These are huge reasons behind low morale within an office. 
4. The Presence of Conflict - Nobody wants to work in an office that has regular arguments and misunderstandings. It’s not fun to be sat at your designer office chair and feel like people are talking about you or worrying that if you say something another person is automatically going misunderstand your meaning. When conflict is present, productivity will be affected and of course, it’s going to affect morale too. Poor communication also has a huge hand in causing conflict too.
5. Regularly Changing Goals - Are you always changing the position of the goalposts? Do your employees feel confused as to what their job role actually is and what they’re trying to achieve? Do you jump from task to task and not really give employees the time to understand why they’re doing something? Changing goals on a regular basis causes confusion and stress, which can easily lead to low morale. 
6. A Lack of Clear Career Progression - Many of your employees may see themselves moving on from their current role at some point in the future but they’re going to become pretty dismayed if they can’t see a clear progression route from where they’re sitting right now. A lack of career progression opportunities is a big reason for low morale because, for those who want to continue developing themselves, it’s hard to be upbeat when you can’t see how you’re going to move on. 
7. An Uncomfortable Working Environment - If the office design is dismal if office furniture is broken and uncomfortable and if employees are going home with aches and pains most nights, how are they supposed to be happy and satisfied in their role? Creating a comfortable and supportive working environment is vital. This also means looking at ergonomic furniture as the first port of call, to help support the body whilst sitting for long periods of time. Check out this video which talks a little more about the benefits of ergonomic office furniture. 

The Number One Reason For Low Morale? Bad Management

We have identified poor management as the number one reason for low morale, but why is that exactly?

A bad manager simply doesn’t know how to treat people and doesn’t really know how to guide or inspire. When this happens, it’s very easy for employees to become dismayed and annoyed. Employees might also feel like they’re not being listened to and they’re not valued, with closed communication and a sense of secrecy around the office. 

There are many different things which can cause a manger to be labelled as ‘bad’, but the main ones are: 

• Not communicating effectively 
• Being secretive and not telling employees things they need to know
• Being unapproachable, with their office door always closed
• Spending more time at their executive desk than with their team in the office itself
• Setting unrealistic deadlines and being unfair with workloads
• Not listening to employees
• Not asking for suggestions or ideas, or pushing any ideas to one side
• Not focusing on employees as people and instead seeing them as a number
• Not being focused on the health and wellbeing of employees
• A poor leader, someone who doesn’t know how to inspire or guide employees
• Pushing the concerns of employees to one side

Check out this infographic which talks about the effects of bad management, and a few ways you might be able to fix it. 

Source - https://officevibe.com/blog/facts-about-bad-bosses-infographic

Poor management, for whatever reason, is the single biggest reason why employees leave and move to another company. It’s not hard to understand why. Look back at your career - have you ever had to deal with a bad manager? If so, how did it make you feel? Most employees know that they can find a better situation elsewhere and in that case, why stay where you are?

How Does Office Design Affect Morale? 

Another potential issue when it comes to morale is the design of the office. We’ve already mentioned about how ergonomic furniture can be useful in helping employees to feel healthier and more comfortable during their working day, but it comes down to more than that as a whole.

 According to the UK Productivity Crisis Report by Total Jobs, 1 in 3 employees decided to invest in their workplace in order to create a better environment, therefore aiming to boost morale and productivity. That’s great news, but when you consider that the same survey also highlighted the fact that many employees also don’t see why changing office design can boost morale, you can understand the problem. 17% of those surveyed reported that workplace features, such as games rooms, break areas etc, are just fads. Another 15% expressed concerns about the cost of adding in these fixtures, but when you consider the gains in productivity and profits, surely that argument is a non-starter?

The bottom line is that it is far easier to be upbeat and positive when you have an upbeat and positive environment in which to work. This doesn’t mean you have to rip out your entire office and start again, but it does mean looking at certain elements of your space and working out whether you need to address any issues. 

The main things to look at are:

• The decor of your office - Is it bright and uplifting, or dark and depressing?
• Whether your current office furniture is comfortable or whether it’s causing pain and discomfort
• The space within the office and whether there is enough of it to move around freely 
• How much natural light is entering the office space
• Ventilation and how much fresh air is making its way into the office
• Temperature - Too hot or too cold makes for grumpy employees!
• The availability of break spaces 
• Whether the design is cluttered or streamlined - A cluttered work environment can be quite overwhelming mentally 

At the start of that, we list we mentioned the decor of your office, but you might not be aware of something called colour psychology. This means that certain colours have the ability to affect mood. Check out this video which talks about this subject in a bit more detail. Although this video highlights home decor more than workplace decor, the same rules apply. 

10 Ways to Improve Office Morale Right Now!

Now we know all about morale and what affects it, let’s start with the practical advice. Below you will find 10 ways you can improve the morale of your office, and many of the methods mention will have an instant effect. 

Move Your Office Around to Invite in Fresh Energy

Sometimes it can be as simple as moving your office around and having a decluttering session. Allowing fresh energy to enter into your office space could be all it takes to help shake things up and allow people to feel energised and a little fresher in themselves. Get rid of all the clutter and streamline your filing systems; it’s pretty easy to do and shouldn’t take too long, whilst the result are quite far-reaching. 

If you pull everyone together to have a cleaning day, you might also help to boost that sense of team spirit!

Focus on Equality, Diversity And Inclusiveness

Every single office should tick the big three boxes just mentioned and that means looking at your business and learning some lessons. If there is work to be done here, do it. It also means having a policy which ensures all of this happens and that everyone is treated equally and that nobody is discriminated against in terms of gender, age, sexuality, race, religion, disability status, or anything else. 

A workplace which is equal, diverse and inclusive boosts morale because everyone feels treated the same and nobody feels cast aside or look upon as ‘different’. 

Check out this infographic which talks about the benefits of diversity in the workplace. 

Source - https://www.talentlyft.com/en/blog/article/244/top-10-benefits-of-diversity-in-the-workplace-infographic-included

Set up Focus Groups For New Ideas

Having focus groups which meet regularly to report new ideas back to management is a great idea. This means that employees have an outlet for suggestions and they don’t feel as though they’re not going to be listened to. 

Focus groups are a better idea than having regular group meetings because they only include a specific number of people, which means everyone else can get on with the work they need to do at their desks, uninterrupted. However, having get-togethers on a semi-regular basis for general ideas is also a good idea to help your employees feels listened to and valued. Within this, you should of course take each idea seriously and consider it on its merits, rather than just pushing it to one side. 

Have a Team Working Environment

It’s far more rewarding and fun to work within a team than it is to constantly work alone, so look to set up more opportunities for team working, if you don’t already have them in place. 

You could have separate zones in your office too, such as quiet zones with booths and acoustic panels for close work and large round tables and tub chairs for collaborative areas. 

Set up an Employee Wellbeing Package

If you want your employees to feel like you value them, you have to let them see that you also value their health and wellbeing. Having a benefits package in place is a great idea and that could include smoking cessation support and advice, healthy eating advice, access to healthy snacks in the canteen, cut priced gym membership, confidential counselling, private healthcare plans, etc. 

By doing this you’re giving your employees the opportunity to take you upon these benefits and they will all increase their general health and wellbeing. The simple action of offering these shows that you care and everyone wants to work for an employer who cares. 

Bring in More Natural Light and Fresh Air, Whilst Encouraging Employees to Head Outside

Mother Nature is a great healer, and you can take advantage of her powers by opening the windows in your office, ensuring nature light isn’t blocked and also encouraging your employees to head outside during their breaks for a few minutes of fresh air. 

All of this boosts mood and productivity and it can help to increase focus after break times are finished. Of course, this also shows that you’re providing a far more effective and positive working environment, which boosts morale. Throw in a few office plants and you take it even further! 

Encourage Active Working

Being active in the office might sound difficult but it's actually easier than you think. Encourage your employees to take the stairs rather than the lift, have walking or standing meetings rather than regular sit down meetings around the boardroom chairs, look at stand height tables or height adjustable desks, and generally encourage your employees to move around a bit more during their working day. 

This boosts health and it also boosts mood, which helps to bring a more positive and upbeat feel into the office. 

Have Regular Social Outings as a Team

Healthy working relationships really work hand in hand with morale and can help to create a positive and happy working environment. So, perhaps once a month why not go out for dinner after work as a team, or go out for a lunch on a Friday afternoon. You could also make sure you celebrate birthdays in the office with a cake, and generally do what you can to pull employees together into a happy team. Having regular activities to improve morale in the workplace is a must do. 

Remember to Say ‘Thank You’ 

The basics are often the most effective things of all, so make sure you say ‘thank you’ when an employee does a good job and give credit where credit is due. Most of the time, we just want a little recognition for a good job done and for the effort put forth. The effects of this can be huge!

Have an Open Door Policy 

Our final suggestion is for management to have an open door policy and encourage employees to come to their office to discuss any problems if necessary. When managers simply sit at their executive office chairs and keep their door closed, employees might be put off knocking on the door to discuss something, therefore keeping it inside and potentially causing a problem further down the line. 

When there is an encouragement to knock on the door and employees feel they’re going to be listened to, everything is far more positive and encouraging.  

These boosting morale in the workplace ideas are all pretty easy to achieve, you simply need to decide which one you’re going to start with!

Conclusion

Never underestimate the power of morale within an office environment. By focusing on ensuring that your office is a healthy and happy place to work, your employees will be able to get on with their jobs in a far more effective manner and feel much better whilst doing it. When this happens, job satisfaction is far higher, meaning more ideas coming your way, better quality of work and better attendance levels.

Of course, from a human point of view, we all want to work in an office which is uplifting and welcoming. Your employees work hard for you every single day, so make sure you give them the office environment they deserve, improve office morale, and they will reward you with higher productivity as a result.