Low morale and unmotivated behavior in employees have increased substantially, especially in the last two years. While we can put some blame on the Covid-19 pandemic, it is not entirely because of one reason. Many things can positively or negatively impact an employee’s morale. Today’s topic- Low Morale in Employees.
Such employees may not be able to work to their full potential and lack in their performance. Hence, it becomes important to single out the root of such demoralization and fix it. By finding ways to remove factors that demoralize employees, you can help your firm too. It will help your employees improve their performance and lead to better results.
How to Detect Low Morale in Employees?
For an employer to fix the problems leading to low morale, they must first identify them. There are multiple ways you can detect that an employee has low morale or lowered motivation towards their work.
- Keep track of the employees’ work progress and change in work quality over time. Most low morale employees are originally efficient workers, but their work quality deteriorates over time. If you notice that a hard-working employee has suddenly started giving a bad performance, they likely suffer from low morale. An article in PMC stated how low morale in employees is easy to detect through its results such as turnovers, inconsistency, deteriorating performance, etc.
- Conduct individual sessions with employees at the end of the month or project. By conducting such sessions with a counselor or even an HR manager can help detect unmotivated behavior. By doing this, you can also receive feedback about how the working environment of the employees is and improve upon it if necessary.
- Assign a superior employee or HR manager with the task of dealing with employee complaints. Having someone actively process the complaints and fix such problems helps aid the office environment and encourages employees to work better. Both physical environments, as well as employees, should be positive for an employee to be able to work efficiently.
- Conduct short paper surveys or feedback to know the mental and working status of the employees. Many employees might not be able to speak out about their problems and would be much more comfortable in writing them down. By conducting such surveys, you can easily detect problem employees in groups as well as structural problems in the environment and work on them.
- Assign mentors or direct seniors to newer or demoralized employees to keep track of their problems and progress. Having a superior will help them feel secure, and the senior can then report to you what issues are leading to such behavior in the employees. This step is not necessary for all employees, just a few selected ones that truly need it.
How Does Low Morale in Employees Affect Their Work?
What many people fail to understand is the extent of impact low morale has on an employee. While some might perceive low morale as a temporary mental health issue, it is so much more than just that. Low morale is a destructive mindset that leads the best of employees to lose motivation and perform badly.
The worst part about it is that it isn’t related to laziness or bad attitude in general, and the most competent of employees can become victims. Low morale in an employee makes them feel directionless and hopeless in their work, which leads them to not utilize their full potential. For a firm, this leads to poorer work quality which can bring down their reputation in the industry.
Here are some common issues that low morale in employees may cause:
- Poor-quality of work than usual performance.
- Inconsistent efforts leading to inconsistent work quality.
- Lethargy and laziness in doing tasks.
- Disinterest in work and losing their love for their job.
- Growing lack of communication with superiors and co-workers leading to even worse performance.
- Lack of passion towards tasks and halfheartedly attempting them.
- A counterproductive attitude that causes loss.
- Bad interpersonal relations and frequent conflicts.
- Higher rate of absence in employees.
- Increased turnover of employees.
While some of these issues are minor, others are concerning and harmful to any organization. Research work on ResearchGate explored how low morale and low motivation affect the productivity of employees. The researchers discovered how both these factors can actively deteriorate the productivity of any employee. They also mentioned how companies should actively battle this problem to ensure better work.
What are the Reasons for Low Morale in Employees?
In a firm, it is difficult to single out every little professional and personal thing about each employee. But you can figure out some root causes of the behavior of your employees in the workplace. Even though you miss out on some minor reasons, you will be able to roughly round up the most crucial problems that lead to lower morale in an employee.
In a study about low morale in employees, the author stated how low morale is not a cause, but a result of poor conditions. Simply put, it means that low morale is not a problem that is pre-existent and causes damage. It is a result of poor conditions, which leads to poor performance as a consequence.
These reasons can range anywhere from personal performance to team synergy and even circumstantial issues. Here is a list of perhaps the most common reasons for low morale in employees.
Lack of Confidence
One of the most frequent personal reasons employees perform badly is due to a lack of confidence in themselves and their work. It is not limited to their image of themselves, but also how others perceive their work. Being unsure of oneself is one of the worst things for a worker.
When an employee feels less confident about their output, they are bound to face difficulty in putting input. It deteriorates their work quality and makes them feel unworthy at times. However, employees that receive constant feedback have more confidence in themselves.
How to Fix It– Although lack of confidence is mostly an internal and personal issue, there are few things you can do as an employer or co-worker. The best way is to be communicative and provide ample feedback on their work to them.
You need not sugarcoat your views, just make sure that with criticism, you also tell them that they are capable of overcoming the obstacles. You can help them understand that their mistakes are not their downfalls but merely learning experiences to improve through. These small gestures will help them feel sure of themselves and perform better at work.
Lack of Communication
Another significant issue with employees, especially those working in a team, is faulty communication. It is understandable to be uncomfortable with new people, but reducing communication between coworkers and superiors leads to low-quality work.
For example, a new employee receives an assignment from their boss at work. They have a few doubts about how they should do their assignment, but they do not go to their boss to clear such doubts. Ultimately, their assignment is not high-quality since they had doubts and still went ahead with working.
Then the boss won’t be pleased with their work. It will lead to a lack of confidence in the employee too. Such lack of communication should not be present in workplaces to ensure a clear flow of instructions. It is the same for communication between employees.
How to Fix It– You can actively encourage communication in the workplace by creating a more comfortable relationship with employees. It does not mean you need to be informal, just that you can encourage employees to seek help and advice from superiors whenever in doubt.
The same goes for co-workers who should encourage active and positive communication. You can also arrange teamwork-building activities or ice-breakers to help employees get more comfortable with each other.
Lack of a Leader Figure
Whether it’s a small firm or a huge company, leaders are an essential part of the system responsible for management. Such leader figures help employees feel secure and provide a sense of stability. Since there is one voice to organize and take initiatives from the employees, the workers feel reassured.
But a lack of such a leader figure can lead the employees to feel lost and directionless at times. It can be when there is no particular leader for the employees to turn to when in need of help. It could also be that the current leader is not effectively communicating with the employees enough.
How to Fix It– The first and most essential step would be to assign a leader or at least a team member whose work would be to communicate with employees and help make decisions and provide help.
If there already is a leader, you can help them increase communication with the team members. By small steps like encouraging them to turn to the leader when they are stuck, you can help employees perform better. You could take their feedback regarding the leadership and improve upon the points to make them feel more at ease.
Lack of Teamwork
Teamwork and communication are two aspects often confused with one another or deemed similar. While communication is an essential step in building and maintaining teamwork, it is not all there is to teamwork. Teamwork also refers to the synergy of the employees and a mutual understanding between employees.
For example, imagine you have a team of 5 employees working on creating a detailed report on consumer behavior in a month. If the employees divide the work into five sections and work on their independent sections only, the result won’t be ideal.
But if they trust and help each other with their work and constantly exchange information, the report will turn out better. Such teamwork and mutual understanding are essential between employees and co-workers to ensure optimum output.
How to Fix It-One of the most used methods to create teamwork between employees is conducting trips or activities outside of work. Activities such as camping or even a small day trip create more communication and interaction between employees, leading to better teamwork.
Such activities need not be on a large scale; they need to help bring together the employees and get used to one another. Many firms conduct yearly or monthly trips to strengthen teamwork and encourage employees to work better.
Lack of Recognition
By recognition, it does not mean personal recognition; it refers to the recognition of their work. AS mentioned above, an employee requires some amount of recognition and feedback about their work. Whether it’s a small compliment or constructive criticism, receiving such words helps them become more enthusiastic about working.
If employees feel that they are putting in hard work yet are not receiving a response from the employers, they may lose their enthusiasm. It will lead them to doubt themselves, and their work quality will lower. They require both positive remarks and mistakes corrected by superiors to understand and appreciate work better.
How to Fix It– Make sure you constantly give feedback and an evaluation of their works to your employees. While you point out their errors, lead them on how to improve upon them too. And when you like the performance of an employee on a project, let them know that you appreciate it.
Even the smallest of remarks like a “Good job!” or “You did well!” can make the employees enthusiastic. These gestures make them feel like their work will get recognized, and they will receive either praise or correction, leading to better performance.
Lack of Incentives
Incentives are small bonuses or extra credits given at the end of projects, months, years, etc. these are in addition to their regular salaries and are usually handed out to appreciate and promote the effort they put in. If you provide only their salary to employees who go out of their way to work hard for projects, they will get demoralized.
Incentives are a motivational factor for most employees since they feel that their effort gets recognized and appreciated. They do not require such incentives constantly, but receiving them every once in a while is enough to boost their morale. They also lift their overall enthusiasm to work and put in extra effort, thus providing their best performance.
How to Fix It– You could provide small bonuses or incentives at the end of a large project. When you assign a significant project, and the employees finish it successfully, it becomes essential to give them credit for their effort. Apart from appreciation, a small bonus will relate to them and make them more willing to participate in such projects.
You can even conduct small events or projects to hand out bonuses and encourage employees to give their best performance. After receiving such bonuses, they will feel a lot more confident and enthusiastic in their work.
Bad Workplace Environment
The workplace is supposed to be where the employees can concentrate on work and improve their performance. However, sometimes workplaces can become uncomfortable and undesirable to employees, which reduces their work quality. One of the reasons for this may be the physical environment like temperature, amount of people, etc.
There can also be some problematic employees, which creates a toxic environment for other employees. Negative-minded and discouraging employees bring down the performance of other employees too.
Especially in female workers, a significant number of them do not feel secure due to problematic employees. Such workplace harassment or simply emotional abuse leads workers to perform worse than their potential. It also deteriorates their mental health and discourages them.
How to Fix It– It is essential to make the physical environment desirable by providing ample ventilation and ACs or fans if required. It is also great to have a balanced amount of employees in one room or meeting room to avoid invading their personal working space. As for dealing with problematic employees, seniors need to pay great attention.
Apart from each employee’s professional behavior, seniors should also observe their attitude towards other employees. Another necessary action is to encourage employees to share their working experience with their HRs or seniors. Such communication can help them detect any problematic employees and deal with them immediately.
Excessive Workload and Extended Hours
The workload assigned to an employee and the time they put in work is sensitive aspects. More work doesn’t necessarily mean better performance. And in some cases, it may cause worse performance. With more work than they can handle, employees may use shortcuts or do their tasks halfheartedly.
It would ultimately lead to all the work being mediocre and not well-enough. Each employee has a different capacity and limit of working, and if they exceed it, the work quality turns out average. It won’t be the worst, but it won’t be their best either. It will also lead them to lose confidence in themselves.
The absence of resting times and short breaks only adds to it. Having short breaks and beverages or snacks between working hours helps employees relax momentarily before resuming their work.
How to Fix It– Assign short (15-30 minute) break periods for all employees at intervals of 4-6 hours. If your firm has a lounge or cafeteria, it is an added benefit. Make sure to let employees step away from work, stretch, and hydrate themselves well.
Having a coffee machine or even a kettle in a lounge area makes it convenient for employees and increases their work performance substantially. Also, try not to extend the work hours of employees who are against the idea and try to go for employees who are willing to do the extra work.
Additional Reasons and Solutions
While the reasons mentioned above are the most frequent ones, they are not the only ones that cause low morale. Other reasons include the lack of growth opportunities for employees and unequal workload amongst workers. It depends on the nature of their work and their environment. It is why as an employer, it is essential to identify such problems.
Apart from the specific solutions, you can also follow additional steps to ensure motivation and positive attitudes in your employees.
- One of the best ways is to create a comfortable relationship between you and your employees. It means that you encourage your employees to share their concerns and problems with you if they need to.
- You can also encourage them to get involved and come up with creative word ideas. By letting them be a part of the creative process, you can increase their interest in their work.
- You can also keep reminding them how essential their role and work area are for the firm. By reminding them of the importance of work, it will help them develop a sense of purpose.
- You can actively encourage a healthy workplace environment by raising your voice against the unfair behavior of employees. It includes putting up banners against undisciplined behavior and taking action against problem employees. It can help make the employee feel more secure and comfortable in the office.
- You can consider employees’ suggestions to improve upon facilities. By considering their opinion, you pass on a message that their voice and opinions matter. It encourages them to put more effort into their projects.
Conclusion
We can conclude that low morale in employees is a silent killer of productivity in employees. It can cause the worst performance from the best of employees. It also has multiple causes that slowly lead up to such an attitude in employees.
It is why companies should take extra care to detect such behavior in employees. Apart from detection, they should also ensure to target the causes for such behavior in employees.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Why is low morale in employees bad for the firm?
Low morale in employees affects their work quality and willingness to work. It makes them inconsistent and leads to low-quality work. It can deteriorate the overall performance of the firm too.
- Is low morale caused due to incompetence in employees?
No, low morale means a temporary state of demoralization in employees caused by multiple factors. It can happen even with the most competent employees. Incompetence is present in bad employees who have a bad attitude towards work in itself.
- What can you do to improve employee morale?
You can follow the steps mentioned above, like increasing communication, distributing workload fairly, providing incentives, etc.
