Keep an eye on team spirit

Staff work at a higher capacity and are more engaged when they feel appreciated and valued. Photo / Getty Images

A survey done recently by Robert Half found that chief financial officers thought the greatest lesson they learned during the recession was the importance of office morale. But what is morale, and how is it built?

Patti Gwynne, director and principal coach of NZ Coaching and Mentoring Centre, says low morale means feeling not engaged.

"It's about staff feeling unappreciated and having little purpose or meaning in what they're doing."

She says organisations ignore moral at their peril - it does affect the bottom line. "Research shows that if employees are feeling engaged and appreciated, productivity rises."

Kevin McMahon, partner at Stepshift, an organisation that works with companies looking for change, says leaders set the tone for morale.

"If leaders want to look at staff morale, they need to realise how they are impacting it. If they're unsure how high morale is, it's not a bad idea to check with the people who report directly to them. That way they may gain insight."

He says having high morale is about feeling valued. "It's not a particularly tangible thing.

"It's a feeling, a culture within a group of people. It's about them feeling enthusiastic about coming to work in the mornings and remaining at a particular workplace."

McMahon says a company can achieve high results with low morale "but it's unlikely to be sustainable".

He explains that the reason staff morale strongly feeds into the business' results is that it underpins the discretionary element in employment.

"With low morale, you may be able to get staff to do what they're expected to do - but you'll have a hard time getting them to go the extra mile for you. The discretionary element comes with staff involvement and commitment to your company.

"Certainly you can have people working hard in a non-ideal environment but they're not giving all. It's essential for leaders to be able to get the best from staff. Once this intangible thing, morale, is built into the workplace culture, it is ultimately continued by staff."

McMahon says leaders facilitate workforce behaviour. If they care as much about the people who are working for them as they do the financial results, the company will benefit. "It's about seeing people as an asset."

He agreed with executives who answered the survey that morale was more important than usual when business was tough.

"Look at it this way - your competitors' companies may have low morale due to redundancies and the slowdown; this could be an opportunity for competitive advantage if you have a team that's fully engaged and looking forward to new challenges.

"Take the time to listen to staff and be honest. Communication is about being open. If there are challenges in the market, be as open and honest as possible. Discrepancy between what you say is going to happen and what does happen leads to low morale."

He says that when times are tough, morale is not so much affected by the challenges it entails but by how the leaders take responsibility and manage those challenges.

"It's about being transparent - not overly negative or overly positive, but being overly honest. If you've just had a wave of redundancies, don't tell staff there won't be any more if you're thinking you may have to lay more people off in three months.

"There's an element of trust and respect that gives a strong foundation to good office morale."

He says to get staff involved. "Tell staff where you are with the financials and what support you need to achieve recovery."

Gwynne says: "Never be complacent. Just because your staff is not leaving is no reason to believe that company morale is sorted. This applies especially at the moment, when people are nervous about moving and taking risks."

She says the first indicator of low morale is low productivity. "This could show that your employees are feeling overworked and unappreciated."

She says that even if morale is very low "it's never too late to reflect and find ways to build it up". She says exit interviews are particularly useful as they are a good way of getting honest feedback. "Leaving a job is not always about low staff morale - it's good to find out what the real reasons are."

She says if you are experiencing high staff turnover it's a good idea to find out why staff are leaving.

"Recognising the problem is number one. Talk to key staff members. Find out how they're feeling. In the last couple of years there has been a high rate of redundancies and there's been help for those who are leaving, but not a lot for those remaining. This can cause low morale. Some people may just be hanging on as they see their workmates leave.

"There's not been a lot of work done to build their morale. Businesses need to acknowledge just how hard the uncertainty is and the fact that there's grief in losing colleagues.

"There seems to be not a lot of work being done in appreciating those who are left behind and in trying to form a team again."

She says appreciation is about investing in people and appreciating what they do. "Take an interest in their goals - even the personal goals that are outside the workplace, such as running a marathon. Also, help staff by communicating with them and forming a development plan. What training do they require, what goals would they like to set?

"Another idea is to choose a charity and get staff involved with it - perhaps give some time off for staff to work on this. Be seen to be giving back and get staff to become more engaged. It's win-win."

Gwynne says there are four key stages to team building: forming, storming, norming and performing. Low morale comes when teams are formed with no conscious choice. Members need to establish who they are, what their values are and how disagreement can be dealt with.

The storming stage is an acknowledgement of values and transparency; in the norming stage, norms for the team get established - what are the skills, strengths or threats.

"Let all views be valued. Staff members have the right to be heard. If there's friction, talk about it. If everyone feels heard, everyone feels they have value." She says when she ran her own company she realised how much easier it was to lead people when there was transparency.

"Successful leaders are comfortable with transparency. This is about sharing how the company is doing profit-wise, what client feedback is being received and more."

She says there are easy ways to make people feel valued. "Acknowledgement and praise, showing an interest gets the best out of an individual. When productivity is up, say thanks. Celebrate achievement. Take the time to even acknowledge staff birthdays or the birth of a baby."

General manager of Robert Half New Zealand, Megan Alexander, says one of the things to look out for e is concerned is staff conflict and burnout.

"Discord among employees may seem less significant than other big-picture business concerns, but morale, productivity and job satisfaction levels suffer when staff members consistently have trouble working together.

"Also, pay particular attention to the needs and workloads of your most productive employees. Are they receiving the support they need from others on the team? Or are they doing most of the heavy lifting and bearing the brunt of the pressure? If so, redistribute some assignments and consider bringing in interim contractors for one-time projects or to help out during especially busy times," she says.

She also suggests that employers not hoard information, monitor the mood of the office and be aware of employee aspirations. "You can't fix a morale problem if you don't know about it. Maintain an open-door policy and make it clear that employees are always welcome to raise concerns and ask questions.

"Be proactive by frequently strolling through the workplace and checking in with individual employees."