Nothing is more important to your company than the morale of your employees. After all, your employees are the front-line of your company and are what the world sees when they interact with your business. A well-trained and happy group of employees is not only productive but enhances the image of your business.

So how do you keep employee morale high and have employees that are actually excited to come into work? According to Entrepreneur Magazine, there are seven effective ways of improving the working conditions for your employees on the job site.

1. Keep employees feeling like their work is more than just a job. Nobody likes to feel like their day job is simply a grind done to get a paycheck. While good pay is an important motivating factor of employees, worker productivity goes up when they feel that their jobs are more than just punch-cards. When employees feel that their work is being acknowledged, they take more pride in their work. Strive to foster a culture of career-building, not just “jobs.”

2. Take time to creatively celebrate accomplishments. Although it’s natural for businesses to keep looking towards the future, it is important that bosses celebrate accomplishments in the present moment and take time to reflect on the goals that have been accomplished. Here’s a fun way a company recognized employee contributions: All departments at Acuity, a financial-services company based in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, are asked each year to recognize their own work by providing a list of significant accomplishments of their team. The lists are reviewed by Acuity officers, who select the 100 most outstanding achievements for inclusion in a “Top 100 Accomplishments” list. The latest list was designed as a book, Acuity World Records, with the help of Guinness World Records, and given to all 831 employees.

3. Grant time off to employees to pursue projects they are passionate about. Up until 2013, Google had a “20-percent” policy in place which basically stated that employees were allowed to spend 20% of their time on their own individual passion projects, providing that it was Google-related. In fact, that’s how Gmail got started, which eventually became the largest web-based email portal in the world. In fact, many Silicon Valley start-ups utilize the “20-percent” rule today to encourage creativity in the workplace. Even if your company isn’t a tech startup, it can still benefit by allowing employees time off to pursue their own interests. They will be happier for it, which increases morale in the long-run.

4. Mix up the company’s usual way of doing things. According to Entrepreneur Magazine, “Departing from the customary routine of meetings and cubicle life can go a long way toward building morale. The accounting firm Ehrhardt Keefe Steiner & Hottman, based in Denver, uses the concept of neighborhoods to shake things up. All 387 employees are organized into neighborhoods, based on the floors or sections of floors in each office. These groups have regular get-togethers and shape the contours of meetings. For example, during an all-employee meeting day, as the firm staged a neighborhood basketball tournament, each group came up with team names, homemade jerseys, mascots, and cheerleaders.”

5. Don’t forget to have fun. According to Monster.com, “If people are having fun, they’re going to work harder, stay longer, maintain their composure in a crisis and take better care of the organization.” In fact, there’s been many books written about the subject, including “The Levity Effect,” which outlines the benefits of fun in the workplace. It turns out that workplaces that allow creativity are often the most profitable.

6. Train employees to develop positive attitudes. A positive outlook can be learned – by investing in training your employees to develop positive attitudes, you can foster a culture of positivity in your workplace that will carry over to other aspects of the job as well – including higher productivity and profits.

7. Offer time away from the office to do some good. From the Entrepreneur article – “Another way to build employee morale and camaraderie is through community service. Studer Group, a Gulf Breeze, Fla.-based management consulting firm, gives its 114 employees four paid hours a month to volunteer for a charitable initiative or organization of their choice. Departments also take on volunteer projects as a group.”

By utilizing these seven tips, your organization can boost employee morale which will ultimately lead to a more productive and happier workplace.

For information on how Onsite Safety can improve the productivity of your business by allowing you reach your workplace safety goals, visit our official website today.

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