Employee morale can have a significant impact on your bottom line, and it can either take your company to new heights or bog it down in the morass of interpersonal issues and strife. Luckily, your friends at Lane Award have come up with some fun ways to help you build morale in the office, keeping in mind, however, the following caveat: In order to achieve success in any efforts to spruce up morale, it is important that your company is committed to maintaining a healthy workplace overall. This means that you foster an environment where employees are truly valued, where feedback is intended to drive company goals as well as personal growth, and where dominance, domineering, and bullying behaviors aren’t tolerated.
Beyond ensuring that the baseline requisites of a positive work environment are in place, another integral component of successful morale-boosting is the atmosphere. Creating the right atmosphere can help ensure that your morale-focused efforts and activities feel like a uniquely exciting experience rather than just an extension of work. Be sure to pay special attention to setting a tone that is professional, yet light and lively all the same.
With that, here are some creative ways to boost morale at the workplace:
Host a Trivia Night
This is not only a fun activity that is inclusive of everyone, but it also allows the unique interests and talents and your employees to shine through and take center stage. You’ll be amazed at how much fun you and your team will have, as well as by how much you learn about the personal hobbies and interests of one another in the process.
Launch In-Office Contests
Hosting an in-office contest is a novel way to boost, reward, and recognize productivity. You can hold contests aimed at increasing a certain metric – or decreasing it for that matter – or you can have a pitch contest for new ideas or improvements at the company. The list of potential goals here is endless and can be directly tailored to meet your company’s needs, making it a double win for all.
Volunteer As a Team on a Local Charity Project
Volunteering as a team for a local charity project is a great way to gain positive exposure for your company as well as engage in an impactful team-building exercise that gives back to the community. Choose something that is meaningful to your employees as well as to your company, focusing on opportunities that are of particular importance to your community.
Launch a Lunch Hour Roundtable
A lunch hour roundtable of discussions can include current events at the company, guest speakers, or any combination of activities that solicit, encourage and provoke new ideas from your team. This is part of making sure employees recognize that they have a stake in the future of the company, while also incentivizing creative, out-of-the-box thinking. There are countless directions you can go in using this type of activity, making it a lot of fun for both management and employees alike.
Celebrate Achievements and Recognize Success
Regardless of your industry or vertical, one thing that should always remain a permanent part of your company’s culture is the celebration of achievements and the rewarding of success. Proper recognition practices can help your employees to focus on specific goals and aspirations that both the individual, the team, and the company can benefit from. There’s nothing like setting an example in the workplace for keeping things moving in an upward direction, and celebrating the occasion is a surefire way to ensure its perpetual reach.
Ready to raise the bar on employee recognition? Contact Lane Award today and let us assist your organization in establishing employee recognition programs that truly make a difference!