MAINTAINING HIGH STAFF MORALE IN TIMES OF AUSTERITY

 

The Beatings will continue until morale improves? 

 

The positive attitude of staff in the workplace should never be underestimated -- the state of mind in which they approach their work tasks should be as positive and enthusiastic as possible to ensure that optimal outputs and outcomes are delivered. Unfortunately many employers do not see it that way. Having good morale, defined as the spirit of a group and its level of confidence is not taken as seriously as it should be and actions which damage morale are not properly thought through especially their potential consequences for the organisation as a whole.

 

Equality of treatment of people in different and similar circumstances is a challenge which needs to be met or else the outputs and outcomes of the organisation in question,will, in some way, suffer, sometimes in a tangible way like falling revenues and sometimes in a more intangible way in terms of loss of staff happiness, belief and focus.

 

There are also reputational risks from low morale in that staff will not defend and promote their organisation as much as they possibly would have if they had a higher morale. Insensitive and thoughtless actions by management and other work colleagues can destroy or significantly impair workplace morale This aspect of work needs to be taken much more seriously because it can be tackled if there is a will to do so. Team building,bonding,mutual respect and high levels of ethical behaviour can, when mixed together, provide the secret recipe for creating and maintaining high morale amongst work colleagues.

 

When we are bringing forward new ideas do we assess how they might affect the morale of our co-workers and even our own morale? Do we care? Is there a point where certain actions have engendered a belief that the workforce no longer cares much about what will happen as its morale has fallen to new low depths?  Do we constantly assess morale and do we try and improve it in a concrete way if we find it to be unacceptably low? Probably not but we should.

 

Morale is a difficult concept to pin down but the organisational consequences of low morale can be devastating -- We do need to constantly assess its level and gauge the effects on morale of the major business decisions we take --

 

Indeed we should try to ensure that most of our key decisions do not lessen morale and that even those that might reduce morale are mitigated in some way. This should be addressed by us all because in times of austerity trying to maintain high workforce morale becomes doubly challenging but doubly important. High morale is not necessarily linked with high pay -- there are other motivational approaches to maintaining higher morale which should be explored and they include: improved training, broader work experience, research sabbaticals, financial support for alternative work skills, improved succession planning and on the job skills updating --

 

One thing is for sure the workforce's morale will not improve if it continues to take "beatings" -- these beatings are defined as insensitive and ill conceived strategies that harm morale for everyone -- Do we really do enough to avoid those?