A local business recently asked David’s opinion on how to improve staff morale..here are David’s thoughts..

“I have always found the question ‘how can we improve morale in our workforce?’ (and the various derivatives such as attitude, engagement, commitment et al) a little puzzling. To me morale/engagement/ ‘whatever’ levels are the measure of something else and not an end or a project in their own right.

I remember my boss in food retail years ago asking me how we could improve mystery shopping results…equally odd question when you think about it. My answer was that ‘you don’t…what a silly question to ask me!’ (It is fair to say that my honesty was both a blessing and a curse in my early career)…mystery shopping was merely the measure….customer service was what we needed to improve.  It’s the same with morale.

John the MD of a local business (the name has been changed to protect the guilty) told me that they had a ‘morale problem’ that was affecting productivity so they had got a group of staff together and asked them ‘what can we do to improve your morale?’ They implemented some of the things that the staff came up with (a new kettle, a fully stocked stationary cupboard, a shelter for the smokers) and yet the morale problem had got worse. John was perplexed…John’s situation is not uncommon…  just like mystery shopping is a measure of customer service (along with other important measures such sales, brand recognition, compliments v complaints correspondence etc) morale is a measure of ‘employee service’ (along with employee retention, absence etc). What I mean by this is the level to which employees are cherished, loved, nurtured and well managed. It is about the human side of leadership. I would rather work for a good boss with a dodgy kettle than the other way round. For John to ask how he could improve his staff’s morale (or more specifically how Rambutan could do it) is a little ironic in this light. It detaches him from the problem when in fact he’s the problem or, put less harshly, he’s part of the problem and all of the solution.”

On further investigation David found John didn’t need to do a whole load of new things or spend a stack of cash to improve his staff’s morale. John just needed realise that he was asking the wrong question. The right question in his case was ‘what can I do to improve the way I treat people at a personal/human level?’ Remarkably simple solutions then started to appear. Here is John’s list. He only has 85 employees but how many of the items on his list are relevant to you?

1/ Take 10 mins each morning and evening to say hello/goodbye to anyone who is around �
2/ During this time resist all temptation to ‘talk shop’
3/ Avoid email to people who sit less than 100 meters away (just about everyone in John’s case)
4/ Eat in the rest room with the other staff not at his desk. Offer to make tea coffee for anyone who is in there at the time
5/ Find one person per week to say a really special thanks to. Make sure it’s not always the same person
6/ Make his voicemail message less formal
7/ Once a month go walkabout and show an interest in what people are up to and ask them for their ideas
8/ Once a week call as many people as are available around to ‘soap box’. Thank people for what they achieved last week, give them a 5 minute business update and leave 15 mins for any questions or points that others want to raise
9/ Once or twice a year be seen socially with his staff (staff Christmas party, summer fun day out etc)
10/ Give people odd/spontaneous time off in lieu without them formally earning it (costs nothing but has a massive impact)
11/ Make any emails he does send be less formal (use ‘Hi’ & ‘Cheers’ rather than ‘Dear’ & ‘Regards’ for example)
12/ Make it his personal mission to find out ten non work-related things about every member of his staff
13/ Smile and make eye contact…. all the time!         �
14/ Send staff a personally written birthday card…better still hand deliver it to their desk/home
15/ Let his staff have silly/fun/dress up days for charity…let them decide which charity and join in the fun
16/ Introduce visitors/customers/suppliers to his staff. Let his staff show them around. Let his staff overhear him tell visitors how proud he is to have such great staff
17/ Never answer his mobile or check his messages in the company of staff
18/ Get rid of his special parking space…his legs are no shorter that anyone else’s