As a human resource manager, my line of duty is compelled to ensuring that the coordination, planning and directing of administrative roles of the organization are smoothly conducted. This is made possible through the overseeing of the employee’s recruitment, interviewing as well as hiring. More so, my department is endowed with the duty of communicating with most high ranking executives on strategic planning and mediation between the employees’ conditions such as morale and the organization’s management. This paper delves into a leadership training program addressing the pitfalls of low morale within the company and outlining the recommendations for permanently solving such problems.
According to my experience as a manager within my company’s human resource department, I noted that low employee morale is instigated by diverse factors emerging from both within and outside the workplace environment. Such factors have been proved by several pieces of research to be the primary causes of poor performance among the employees in terms of the achievement of organizational vision and goals. This is because morale is based on the state of mind and feelings of people. Moreover, it entails the perspective and the attitude towards the work environment, managers, employees, and the entire organization. A positive attitude is noted among the employees through discipline, confidence and the performance willingness.
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One of the causes of low morale among the employees is lack of fairness regarding the compensation scheme applied by managers towards their employees. This situation culminates when the efforts of a committed employee are not appreciated. For instance, when one employee is always being clouded with more attention and appreciation even if he or she doesn’t conduct duties effectively whereas other employees deliver important and quality work go unnoticed. This causes loss of morale among the employees as their perception of whole dedication to work decreases.
Also, employees’ morale towards work fades away when some staff members are left to go scot free with insufficient work and when duties are delegated unequally. This is perceived by the victim employees as workplace injustice due to the unfair treatment. For example, the excess workload to specific employees causes psychological distress which leads to exhaustion, depression, anxiety, irritability and disengagement from colleagues. Such issues among the employees have been indicated to be the root of morale loss towards work.
When the manager or the supervisor of the employees is short-fused and always temperamental over small faults of the workers, morale is lost among the employees. Such workplace conduct increases the stress levels of the workers because of the fear of disappointing the work authorization and being unease in the environment, which anger prevails. This inhibits the employees from delivering their best performances due to the decrease in morale.
Another cause of morale loss among the employees is the condition of the respective individuals, that is, both mentally and physically. Such conditions might be influenced by maladjustments in the workplace including the shifting of well-endowed duties. Mental discomfort may be caused by the social lives of the employees such as family conflicts. When an employee is moved from his or her favorite working location to a new place, it may pose negative implications due to inflexibility, thus causing morale loss.
The morale of the employees is also significantly impacted negatively when the lines of authority put in place by the organization are not adhered to. For instance, when a high ranking manager disrespects his/her immediate subordinate and directly relays orders to the staff members, it goes against the fundamental principle of leadership. When such incidences often happen in the line of duty, the morale of the subordinate staff is always undermined.
Lastly, according to a recent employee-manager relationship, it is depicted that the morale of the employees always tend to fade when no promotion chances are offered to the employees while being retained in the same organization for a long time as one loses the sense of belonging. This arises due to the employee’s perception of lack of self-built and achievements. More so, such instances happen when the employees assume that the primary cause of building teamwork and morale is for self-gain as well as organizational profits. Therefore, the working staff views its self as fools and a stepping stone; hence, leading to morale loss.
Signs of Low Morale
Morale loss is exhibited through the employees’ high rate of absenteeism. Most well-structured organizations have a well-defined platform for keeping the records of employee attendance. When an employee is recorded to have missed his or her duties frequently without valid reasons, it is a clear indication of lack of morale and dedication to the job. The morale of an employee critically plays a role in determining his dedication, commitment, and deliverance to work.
Secondly, morale loss within the employees can be observed through strikes and sabotages. Most employees’ strikes are propelled by causes related to morale about the working environments. For instance, some employees strike due to lack of salary increment. When employees deliver efficient services to the organization such as increase in profits and the organization does not reflect their efforts, the employees feel unappreciated leading to loss of morale; thus instigating the strikes and sabotages in order for their voices to be heard.
Morale loss is noted through the employees’ tardiness and high labor turnover. When the reputation of the employees instantly changes such as late reporting to the workplace and immense decline of duties, it indicates that the dedication of the workers is fading. Morale loss causes the employees to underperform such that they start avoiding most organizational duty and not regard the organizational priorities as urgent.
Measures for Improving the Morale of Employees
The morale of the employees can be effectively increased through the formation of relationships between those in authority and the employees based on trust. This is because long-term, strong relationships are built on trust. When less trusting relationship prevails between a manager and his employees, all his conducts regarding recognizing the employees are presumed as manipulation. For instance, the employees may assume that those in authority use the method of recognition to reap more effort for personal gains leading to disengagement. Therefore, trust plays a major role in winning positive morale of the working staff ( McManus & Mosca, 2015) .
Respect towards the working staff plays a significant function in enhancing their morale. According to the book “The One Minute Manager,’ the theory of responsibility at a personal level is brought up to assure managers of gaining maximum outcomes within the least time span; all these attributed to immense respect towards the employees. It indicates that the secret for enhancing the employee morale is through the building of a respectful relationship, outlining the worker’s expectations as well as avoiding micromanaging as respected employees are always responsible.
Nurturing the employees’ creativity further helps in improving employee morale. If a trustful relationship is built between the management and the employees, the response of the entire working staff will be more creative ( Dyer, 2015) . For instance, every employee will be motivated and full of vigor to display new ideas due to the encouraging environment. Unhappy employees will also be forced to compel into the active duty deliverance of the majority happy employees to fit in.
Building effective teams may also work as the source of morale among the working staff. Working teams in the organization, which are full of trustworthiness, commitment, firm harmony, accountable and less of ego inspires morale among the participating staff employees. Furthermore, teamwork enables the employees to communicate effectively due to respect, honesty, consistency, and vulnerability.
Rewarding of Employees
Rewarding of the employees ensures that there is recognition of the qualitative achievements and good behaviors during the working span. More so, it is perceived as a stimulus put in place due to the desired performance to encourage its reoccurrence. Rewarding and recognition techniques are meant to affect behavior, enhance results, and relinquish both tangible and intangible awards that each employee can earn and enjoy.
In order to award the well-deserved people, a proper recognition system must be considered and well outlaid to the employees ( Hansen, Smith & Hansen, 2002) . All are meant to boost the working morale of the employees. As the head of the human resource department in my organization, I came up with an effective system of recognizing the working employees which I recommend for its effectiveness as displayed below.
The recommendation is based on an awarding pattern, which has never been practiced in the organization. This included the presentation of unique awards and providing promotions for the most effective employees. Awards such as the highly valuable cooperate medals are presented to the employees during the holidays in secluded places. Moreover, the company caters for the bills of all the employees so as to exhibit its gratitude and appreciation of the hard-working staff members ( Shields et al., 2015) .
Establishing the Foundation
The main aims of this step include outlining the role of the process, the facets of the process, and the ways of measuring the desired level of success. It is in this process that the organization fully compiles the intended structure from financial requirements to the places where the awarding of qualified personnel takes place.
Selecting a Champion
This process becomes vital immediately after the foundation has been established in which the organization’s senior management selects the champion who is endorsed with the duty to make sure that the reward recognition process obtains requisite support at the topmost ranks of the organization. The individual whom the role of being a champion is delegated to is a reflection of the recognition-based behavior, which the company desires. The main goal of such a process is to obtain a willing and effective person with leadership skills.
Development of the Parameters of the process
This is the step in which the high-level parameters set aside for recognition are outlined by senior management most effective in arranging retreat setting. The goal here is to find out about the necessities of management in the means of rewarding as well as recognizing the expectations and the needs of the employees.
Designing the Process
This stage is meant to shade light on the specifics of the process through the formation of a design team after the senior management completes the development of the macro-level parameters. The main agenda is to indicate how the process should be and determine other inclusions in the reward and inclusion process ( Bryant & Allen, 2013) .
Introduction of the Process
This process detects the organization to carry out the first phase of the program before the real rollout of the organization. The aim is to provide much time for people to have good perception, evaluate, and test the design process ( Daniels, Tapscott, & Caston, 2011) .
Evaluating and Planning for Process Improvement
The need for developing an evaluation process comes in hand because of the fact that conditions and people change. Such a process will enable the organization to have a good measurement of Return on Reward.
Provision of an Ongoing Support
This is the final step meant to ensure that the process remains meaningful and fresh in the employees’ minds which requires to be fun and inviting. The primary goal is to establish an approach which will remind people of the need to implement the process.
Expected Outcome of the Reward Recognition Process
There are many outcomes expected from the depicted reward recognition process, benefiting both the employees and the organization. The organization will be advantaged in terms of retaining the top employee performers and keeping the psyched and energized to conduct their specific duties due to the feeling of the employees being valued by their employer. Also, the organization’s productivity is expected to increase, and this is because the well-engaged employees, full of morale, work efficiently and proactively. Additionally, when this recognition program is incorporated, more employees will be happy and satisfied with both their working conditions and their deliverance. For instance, happiness is attained when the employees’ hard work is recognized and appreciated. Furthermore, the stated program will play a major role in building team culture among the working staff. This will arise due to the fact that the reward recognition design will endorse peer-to-peer recommendations as the employees would be able to know the positive attributes of each other and nominate one another for the reward.
References
Bryant, P. C., & Allen, D. G. (2013). Compensation, benefits and employee turnover: HR strategies for retaining top talent. Compensation & Benefits Review , 45 (3), 171-175.
Daniels, A. C., Tapscott, D., & Caston, A. (2011). Bringing out the best in people . Findaway World LLC.
Dyer Jr, W. G. (2015). Team building. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management , 1-2.
Hansen, F., Smith, M., & Hansen, R. B. (2002). Rewards and recognition in employee motivation. Compensation & Benefits Review , 34 (5), 64-72.
McManus, J., & Mosca, J. (2015). Strategies to build trust and improve employee engagement. International Journal of Management & Information Systems (Online) , 19 (1), 37.
Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P. & Plimmer, G. (2015). Managing Employee Performance & Reward: Concepts, Practices, Strategies . Cambridge University Press.
