The regular nine-to-five office hours are looking far from normal at the moment. Your business has probably made the transition to remote working processes to survive. Among the chaos, the one saving grace could be your employees. After all, the balance between work and life is much higher, and they aren’t under as much pressure, so their stress levels are lower.
Still, if you think morale is going to remain high or plateau, you’re in for a rude awakening. Workers are very perceptive. When there is trouble, they feel more intensely than anybody else because their livelihoods are at stake. Sadly, this can impact output and productivity.
Your biggest battle will be to keep up morale during these uncertain times. Here are four tips to help.
Be Transparent
Part of the problem for employees is the fact they are kept in the dark. Strangely enough, bosses do it to try and limit the damage. However, you are only going to make things worse because it leaves workers subject to their imaginations, and they’re pretty creative. Plus, it’s not as if a health crisis is a secret that you can sweep under the carpet. Everyone’s dirty washing is out in the open, so you may be open and honest about the business’s developments.
Highlight Management Sacrifices
The people at the bottom are often the ones that come out worse during a crisis. And, it won’t take much for your staff to label the management as non-team players. All it takes is one person to feel hard done to, and the rest of the workforce will jump on the bandwagon. Therefore, it’s critical that you highlight the sacrifices that the hierarchy is making to avoid these stereotypes. When the boss takes a pay cut, it’s easier for employees to do the same as it proves you’re in the trenches together.
Make Work As Hasslefree As Possible
Any little incident could cause them to lash out because everybody is one edge. As a result, you have to manage the things that are in your control. They mean more than anything right now. Start with remote working solutions. Aside from a reliable internet connection, employees are going to require access to servers to complete tasks. This website highlights the dangers of downtime and what it means for the business as a whole. Also, try to let the little things go. It’s fine in the office, but it may be seen as going overboard, considering there are bigger fish to fry.
Stay Socially Active
Many of your employees may not see a person other than the one they live with for another couple of weeks. As you are finding out, it’s not exactly a vacation. An excellent way to add variety to their lives, and to boost morale in the process, is to use virtual meetings. In the past, meetings may have lowered morale as they are viewed as time-wasting strategies. Today, seeing and speaking to friends from work could make a person’s day and keep them strong.
What are you doing to stop morale from plummeting?
