With businesses constantly adapting to change, employers and employees are still getting comfortable with their new working environment.
Working remotely is still new and unfamiliar for many employees, so ensuring that employee morale is maintained and that company culture remains intact is essential.
Whether your employees are in their third month of dressing for Zoom calls from the waist up, or in the first week and having teething issues with their Wi-Fi connection, the priority should be employee wellbeing.
Prioritising wellbeing will not only boost morale, it will increase productivity and help your business thrive.
What is team morale?
Beyond being that extra encouragement employees have to avoid becoming stagnant, in essence, team morale is the satisfaction and outlook of employees regarding the company they work for.
So, what can you do to boost team morale when WFH?
Maintain regular meetings
Once the bane of many employer’s and employee’s existence, the old saying ‘how many meetings could have been an email?’ is no longer relevant.
Meetings have always been common practice for businesses, but when working from home, they can often be overlooked in favour of faster methods of communication.
Utilising video calls over Zoom or Microsoft Teams to facilitate these meetings will mean that employees can still benefit from the body language and expressions that they would miss out on if emails were utilised instead.
These meetings can be used to discuss daily tasks, brainstorming and also for catch-ups – meaning your team can benefit from socialising as part of their working day as well.
Maintaining a sense of normality can go a long way!
Encourage communication
It can be easy when working from home to slip off the radar.
Even when having daily video conferences, making sure employees are still communicating is essential in promoting inclusion.
This doesn’t mean you have to have a 24/7 Zoom call going, though!
Using online chat tools such as Slack and Google Hangouts can bridge the gap nicely, meaning that there is a convenient method of communication that can be utilised across your team.
Ease the uncertainty
It’s an uncertain time for us all, but employees will be feeling the strain of uncertainty about their jobs due to unknown circumstances.
Keeping up frequent internal communication is a way to ease some of the uncertainties, including updates on the status of the business.
This way, rather than feeling fearful or anxious, employees can focus on their work in the knowledge that they will be informed of changes if and when they arise.
Business values play a strong part here – understanding your employees’ values and circumstances is integral in boosting their morale and aligning them with the business itself.
Give recognition
Nothing boosts morale like having your hard work appreciated.
When you are unable to receive an in-person thank you, recognition keeps morale high.
Here at Wellbox, we help companies send curated gift boxes straight to the door of their employees – from healthy snackboxes to mental wellbeing boxes (customisable to be gluten free, halal, dairy free and vegan if needed)!
We partner with homeless shelters and food banks to donate 1 meal on behalf of every box delivered, too, and we’ll let your staff know which cause their box has supported with each delivery.
Rather than missing out on the pre-pandemic perks, you can manage the perks your team receives with a few clicks by using our portal (avoiding excessive admin in the process).
Showing your gratitude to your employees can take the edge off working from home, and also show your team that you prioritise their wellbeing and acknowledge their contributions.
Provide opportunities
The uncertainty of working situations is unlikely to change soon, and employees may start to feel as though they are plateauing in their development.
To keep morale high, providing opportunities for personal development and learning shows employees that you value their development and are willing to invest in it.
E-learning is a convenient and great way to facilitate this, and with the range of options available, employees can fit their learning around and into their working schedule.
This way, your team is not only expanding their skillset, they are also increasing their productivity, and boosting their morale in the long run.
In a nutshell, boosting employee morale often comes down to putting your employees front and centre.
Remote working is unlikely to disappear anytime soon, and making sure that your company values and your employees’ values continue to align consistently ensures morale won’t suffer from a steep drop.
