My first question to you if you are faced with employee low morale is to ask you if you are selling a product or solving a problem for your customers? * If you are selling a product then your battle with employee morale will be an ongoing one.
If you are selling a solution to a problem that your clients are facing then you have a chance.
Do your employees have clear directions for performing every task they must perform in order to do their job correctly and well? * Do they know how to answer the questions they are responsible for answering? * Do they have clear boundaries when it comes to their dress? To their appearance? * Do you have an employee manual that covers every aspect of each job that they are responsible for? * Are there identifiable yardsticks to measure their performance? * Are there rewards in place if they reach specified goals for the company? * For their department? *For their area? * Is there a company celebration scheduled and in place every six months to reward them or recognize them? * Do your employees greet your customers with a, "Can I Help You?" at the door or are they prepared with a script that actually engages the customer in a conversation in order to promote cross-selling, up-selling and down-selling opportunities? * Is there an organization chart employees can refer to when they have questions and/or problems? * Is there any special incentive systems in place to reward exceptional employees for their ingenuity or hard work or 'going the extra mile'? * Do your employees know your regular customers by their first name? * Is there more than one person that one employee reports to for the same job duty? * Are your employees aware of any forms of unacceptable behavior and any consequences for displaying that behavior at work? Do you have it posted for them? * Is that a clear post, or muddied by misinterpretation? * In other words is it a clear boundary? * Do your customers receive the same level of service consistently from each of your employees every single time they call or come into your store? * Are there checklists and room drawings for the employees who are responsible for receiving products and who need to know where things are at? * Is someone held accountable for whether or not those checklists are completed correctly and on time? * Do your employees produce identical results with the performance of each task that they are responsible for? * What constitutes immediate grounds for dismissal? * Do you employees know and understand what those are? * Do your hiring practices take into consideration that finding the right employee is as important - if not more important - then your product itself? * Do you have back-stabbers, jealousy and in-fighting amongst your employees? Identify your weak links and let them go.
Did you hire over-qualified employees and give them menial work to do without any advancement or human interaction with you? Do you need experts or employees? Identify this area that you 'over-hired and in and replace them or give them something challenging to do so they stay, or they will become weak links by proxy.
Do you give one person too much responsibility? Unrealistic Deadlines? No Training Opportunities? If you can't answer, "Yes," to most of these questions (marked with an *) then you need to understand that as a business owner, the fault of employee low morale rests squarely on your shoulders.
And, if you are answering, "No," to any those questions marked with an *, then I would strongly encourage you to sit down with a paper and pencil and turn into a, "Yes," answer as quickly as you can - By creating a procedure or process that your employees can follow so easily that they can do it practically without thinking.
Everyone on the Earth has a bad day once in awhile, but with systems in place then there leaves no room for guesswork by your employees.
When people know what their job is, that they can do it well and that if they pump up their effort that they will be rewarded then they then to have fewer problems on the job.
An absence of systems and procedures only fosters chaos and resentment.
If your employees contribute to growing your business by helping you solve problems for your customers then they are much happier at work.
If not then they take on the attitude of going to work because they have a job.
At some point soon, nobody wants to simply "go to work for a job.
" People work because of emotional attributions they give to their jobs and the roles they play in your (their) company.
So often we look to our employees and refuse to stand in front of a mirror when we are pointing fingers about employee morale.
But if you have really taken the time to create an environment that promotes employee morale and are still having problems then you have the option of letting those people go and getting workers who want to be there instead.
Now imagine what it will feel like to have the kinds of systems in place where your business runs like the well oiled machine it was meant to run like...
Just imagine!