Getting Rid of the Hum-Drums of Employee Morale...

OK – you’re the boss. On a typical day, you pull up to work, park in the same spot as usual, grab belongings and make your way into the building, nodding to staff, saying hello, good morning, and how ‘ya doin’ as you make your way to your office. Upon setting up and booting up the box, it begins. The phone is blinking messages, it rings, a staff member pops their head in to bring up a need and looking on your board you have 5 deadlines to meet that week. At this point, you prioritize the needs, look over prior day messages, and decide to grab a cup of coffee and walk the building, inspecting walls, floors, uniforms, common areas, ceilings, taking note of projects that should have started, need attention, and to be a presence among the staff. Throughout the day, you make three staff meetings designed to hone in on specific issues, departments or areas of operations. You are pulled in twenty directions as the day grinds and you notice there’s a lack of morale among the staff. What do you do? Every leader has a unique approach and method of motivating a team. However, if you have found yourself banging your head up against a wall and find your efforts don’t make an impact, try these ideas:

First, recognize that as the leader, your mood, energy and means of working each day will affect the staff. So, be sure you begin each day with a set of goals, a great attitude and a basket full of motivating words and encouragement that you can distribute to your workers as you meet and greet and show your enthusiasm to support their effort in getting a job done and done well.

Second, along the lines of everyday motivators, work alongside your staff. If you work in a hotel, take about an hour or more each day to help out each department. Check out housekeepers working in rooms and help by stripping linens and terry or ridding the trash. Look over their maid cart to see how you can help stock it. Ask a housekeeper or supervisor if they have something they feel could benefit from your participation and labor. Go to your restaurant and bus tables, dawn on an apron and clean dishes, clean the pass bar, stock the reach-in coolers or help with the change-over of dressings and salad toppings from the salad bar. Take a few minutes to meet and greet guests in the restaurant – great opportunity to identify, learn and make an impression.

Third, set up specific staff days where the focus is on them! This can be done for all staff at once or in minimal settings where you meet with various departments. I would hold a monthly staff recognition day whereas the restaurant fixed something fancy and tasty for the staff, we would give out awards and it would be an opportune time for me to share ideas that would improve operations, test the staff’s knowledge of the product for which they work around and build an overall team spirit.

Forth, ensure you have a training and development program in place. Whether you spend money to hire a third party to implement it or save the cost, do the research and implement it yourself, it’s not just a wise idea to train staff and their skills, but it raises motivation when you show how you care enough to invest the time and energy into building their skills.

Fifth, set individual and team goals for your staff. Once goals are achieved, there should be some form of a reward. This does not have to be monetary, but the recognition alone goes a long way. You could set contests that focus on productivity, increased sales, raise sales leads; smart ideas that reduce costs, ideas that reduce hazardous conditions or that improve the workplace environment. Start up an in-house employment newsletter and put a staff member in charge.

Sixth, make opportunities for internal promotions. Moreover, line level employees excel and perform at higher standards when they see opportunity to learn more, do more and make more money. When staff members are neglected, they become complacent and performance is shot out the window.

Motivation is a critical to your operation as making money is to keeping it afloat. There are tons of ideas that can raise your productivity, performance and overall success when the motivation at the business level is well maintained and consistently driven.

If you are interested, I offer both motivational speaking and can execute a variety of motivational events for your staff to help you achieve these goals. Write me today to find out more! And, when you find your own motivation getting low, join me daily for a cup of Go-Go Juice to rev up your engines. Have a fantastic day!