Keeping the workplace humming with productivity is essential to a company’s bottom line. Happy employees are productive employees, hands down. All too often, however, boredom, predictability, or resentment can drag down the whole place.

The last thing an employer wants is to lose a valued team member. It is a fact that when a company becomes weighed down in a morale crisis, productivity goes down, overall energy becomes lulled, and people jump ship. Don’t allow low morale to develop in your workplace by implementing these foolproof on-the-job mood boosters.

Start Improving Employee Morale

1. Value Each Employee

Recognizing an employee’s contributions is like a shot of adrenaline in the arm for them. They will stand a bit taller and smile a lot more if managers simply compliment their performance now and then. Regularly expressing appreciation for a job well done is a simple but crucial actionable step that improves overall morale in the workplace. Be specific and authentic, or this effort will fail and reek of insincerity. Cite a specific presentation that went off without a hitch, a great month’s sales productivity, or an idea the employee came up with that will be implemented soon. Celebrate success and recognize accomplishment.

2. Ask for Input

Create a culture that allows employees to feel they have a voice, a sense of ownership in their role at the company. How about occasionally opening up an anonymous forum for their honest input. You can gain a lot of insight into the mood of the staff by giving them an opportunity to make suggestions without repercussions. By eliciting their unvarnished feedback it allows management to select a few issues that irk the staff and tweak them. The practice of asking for employee input can also apply to planning outings or the annual Christmas party. Ask for their suggestions and have the crew vote for their favorite venue. This allows the team to feel that their opinions are valued in shaping a fun company outing.

3. Schedule Some Fun

When employees enjoy a mutual activity outside the workplace a bonding takes place. These special outings or events create a sense of kinship that supersedes identifying as just workmates, and has the net effect of boosting company morale. Companies reap the intangible benefits of loyalty and crew camaraderie when they earmark funds for incentive travel programs, family picnics, and day trips. For example, announcing an incentive travel program has an immediate positive impact on employee morale, stirring a buzz of excitement and productivity companywide. A family day, with catered barbeque, cotton candy machines, snow cone machines, face painting, and games is always a hit. Planning a day trip, either work-related or not, can create an opportunity for a shared experience outside the walls of the office.

5. Make Meetings Interesting

Nothing is as snooze worthy as a staid weekly meeting. Employees plod into the conference room in lackluster form, expecting an hour (or more) of pure boredom. Managers miss an opportunity to improve morale by not capitalizing on the collection of their entire team in one place. Keep the team guessing instead of a steady diet of predictable agendas projected on a screen. Integrate a game at the outset, something to fire up the brainpower, such as a riddle or mathematical challenge. Have each employee participate and put their answer in a box, naming the winner(s) at the end of the meeting, and hand them a $25 Starbucks gift card. Also, try recognizing one awesome accomplishment of each employee in the prior week. Go around the conference table and engage each one, and watch the crew’s mood immediately improve.

MTI Events provides companies with a slew of morale-boosting tools, from corporate event organization to incentive travel planning. Contact MTI Events and lift the mood of your staff.