Boosting Employee Morale

Boosting Employee Morale

Employee morale is enhanced through constant employee engagement. Organizations that engage their employees create a competitive edge over those that engage their employees the least. Firstly, there is increased productivity since the employees feel like they are part of the organization, hence willing to exploit their potential to help the organization achieve its objectives. Besides, the organization benefits from reduced turnover since engaged employees will likely stay committed to one organization. In this regard, strategies an organization may undertake to boost employee morale and engagement include recruiting the best talent pool suited for the organizational culture, subjecting candidates to tests that create an impression of a work environment that requires engaged employees, and providing training and development programs to further employees’ skill levels.

Recruiting

From the outset, the messages conveyed by the organization while recruiting should specifically target employees who want to be engaged. The job application advertisements should be designed in a way that attracts the target employees (Vance, 2006). To that end, an organization seeking to recruit engaged employees should declare features likely to attract engaged employees in the job advertisements. Such features may include challenging assignments, a highly skilled work environment, and minimal workplace supervision (Vance, 2006). Alternatively, the organization can hire its existing internal talent pool. Hiring existing employees bolsters engagement since the organization considers job fitness and offers current employees career development opportunities.

A study by Gallup shows that 70% of variance in employee engagement depends on managerial decisions (Gallup, 2020). Since employee engagement is the manager’s primary responsibility, they should do more to ensure an atmosphere of employee engagement is upheld at all organizational levels. To that end, recruiting current employees to new roles will play a significant role in ensuring long-term employee engagement.

Employee Selection

According to Vance (2006), the human resource team should also select employees best suited for the specific job and organization’s culture. Here, candidate assessment will help identify the most suited candidates for specific jobs. For instance, the interviewers should ask job candidates what they know about their jobs and require them to provide samples of their previous tasks. Conducting personalized tests for job suitability is more effective than conducting traditional personality and integrity tests. An employer who challenges their candidates during the selection phase creates a positive first impression, encouraging candidates to be growth-oriented in the long run.

Training and Development

Training and development also play a significant role in creating engaged employees. For new recruits, training begins from orientation. It is during orientation that the employer explains the work schedules, pay, and workplace policies. The orientation phase is also an excellent platform to align new employees with the organization’s mission. For continuing employees, training improves their skill level and encourages them to accept new and challenging tasks (Khan et al., 2016). Also, job training improves the employees’ value to the organization, creating a perfect opportunity for salary increments. Current employees are unlikely to leave the organization once their salary improves.

Employees are likely to stay in organizations where employers appreciate the importance of professional development. A recent study by Gallup shows that 68% of workers recognize the importance of upskilling when considering new job openings (Gallup Inc., 2021). In the same breath, 48% of employees would consider changing jobs if the new job opening offered them an opportunity for development (Gallup Inc., 2021). These figures emphasize why employers need to consider introducing skill development initiatives in their organizations to boost employee morale.

Resources Needed

One of the key activities to boost employee morale and engagement is to conduct training and development. The exercise will require online videos, books, mentoring, workshops, podcasts, and online courses. Training will also require hiring external trainers to conduct the training sessions. Whereas some training resources are free, the company will rely on budgetary allocations from the head office to facilitate paid training.

Conclusion

Increased employee morale is central to creating a committed and productive talent pool. Whereas monetary compensation is critical to boosting employee morale, it is not the only strategy that can enhance commitment in the organization. Boosting employee morale begins at the recruitment stage, where an organization hires the best talent pool well-suited for the organization’s job demands and organizational culture. Next, during the selection process, the selection team should subject candidates to rigorous tests that create an impression of an atmosphere that requires engaged employees. Also, training and development programs bolster employees’ skill levels, subsequently encouraging them to accept challenging tasks.

Controlling Employee Morale Strategies

As the management implements the plan to enhance employee morale, control measures will be required to measure the success of the implemented plan. Measuring levels of employee engagement will determine the plan’s success and control its application. Structured and standardized control tools are applied as a control to employee motivational strategies.

Observing Emotional Engagement

One of the tools used to measure and control employee morale-boosting strategies is to measure employees’ emotional engagement. High emotional engagement with one’s work often leads to affective commitment (Imandin et al., 2014). For instance, increased training initiatives should bolster one’s feelings about their work. Once an employee builds confidence, other emotive qualities, such as meaningfulness and safety, will also be enhanced (Imandin et al., 2014). Such emotive qualities stimulate employees to engage in behavior directed toward achieving organizational outcomes. Emotional fulfillment is an indicator of high employee morale.

Observing Behavioral Engagement

The organization may measure behavioral engagement as a predictor of employee morale. Employees with high employee morale are willing to put forth discretionary effort to help the organization achieve its desired outcomes (Bowles & Cooper, 2009). As stated earlier in the project, one of the ways to enhance employee morale is to select employees who expressly show that they align with the organization’s values. One of the ways to check whether the organization hired the right workforce is to measure whether the employees are willing to improve their work in terms of brain power, energy, and time (Bowles & Cooper, 2009). If employees do more than what is considered adequate, the organization’s strategy of only selecting employees who align with its values worked.

Measuring Leadership Engagement

Another way to control employee morale-boosting strategies is to check engagement levels among the leadership team. One of the indicators of an engaged leadership team is when employees communicate with leaders or top managers (Imandin et al., 2014). The motive of communication may range from making inquiries to asking for help. Besides, employee-focused initiatives such as work/life balance and profit-sharing initiatives sponsored by leaders reflect relationships between leaders and employees.

Conclusion

In summary, structural standardized tools exist to measure the success and control the application of employee morale-boosting initiatives. One of the models that measures employees’ engagement level is their level of emotional engagement at the workplace. Also, measuring behavioral engagement is helpful as it shows whether employees’ behaviors reflect the organization’s values. Finally, the relationship between leaders and employees is a good indicator of employees’ morale. Using these control measures will determine whether morale-boosting strategies are working or not.

References

Bowles, D., & Cooper, C. (2009). Employee morale: Driving performance in challenging times. Springer.

Gallup Inc. (2021). The American upskilling study. Gallup.com. https://www.gallup.com/analytics/354374/the-american-upskilling-study.aspx

Gallup. (2020). How to improve employee engagement in the workplace. Gallup.com. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/285674/improve-employee-engagement-workplace.aspx

Imandin, L., Bisschoff, C., & Botha, C. (2014). A model to measure employee engagement. Problems and Perspectives in Management, (12, Iss. 4 (contin. 2)), 520-532.

Khan, A. A., Abbasi, S. O. B. H., Waseem, R. M., Ayaz, M., & Ijaz, M. (2016). Impact of training and development of employees on employee performance through job satisfaction: A study of telecom sector of Pakistan. Business Management and Strategy, 7(1), 29-46.

Vance, R. J. (2006). Employee engagement and commitment. SHRM Foundation, 1, 1-53.

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You will be submitting your final project this week. However, this assignment has two sections:
First, you have analyzed, measured, formulated a plan, and executed it. Now you must indicate how you will control. The control section is about what strategies you will use to determine if your plan solved the problem you identified. If not, why not and what changes would you recommend?
Second, put all of the sections together and submit them as ONE document. All of the references that you’ve used throughout the course should be on one page, per APA Format.