Employee morale and productivity – Correlations using mental wellness platforms

There have been countless studies covering exactly this question and similar topics about staff motivation and morale. The result can often be summarized as: “Happy, content, and healthy employees = Better productivity”. But the correlation between employee morale and productivity extends far beyond the confines of the workplace. Here you will get the answers to why employee morale sometimes drops, and more importantly, what you as an employer can do about it.

What is morale?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, morale is “the mental and emotional condition (as of enthusiasm, confidence, or loyalty) of an individual or group with regard to the function or tasks at hand”.

When we talk about employee morale, we’re referring to how the staff feels about the company, the work they are doing, and their place in the organization.

What causes employee morale and productivity to drop?

Morale has a direct impact on employee engagement which is linked to the level of productivity. Keep employee morale high and productivity will arise, do nothing about the low morale among your personnel and you will find a decrease in productivity.  LTherefore, low morale is an issue that needs to be solved in order for the company to be successful. According to a Gallup report, about 70 percent of American employees aren’t committed to delivering their best performance at work. Disengaged employees are estimated to cost the U.S. nearly 550 billion dollars annually in lost productivity.

So what causes employee morale and productivity to drop? Here are some common reasons:

• Poor leadership in the company. The problems often start at the top and how you as a manager are acting is affecting your employees. An American survey shows that half of the employees feel that their own performance would improve if their direct manager would get additional training in people management. 
• Lack of rewards. Your employees want to be recognized for the efforts they put into their work and a lack of rewards or incentives can cause morale and productivity to drop.
• Punishments and criticism. If your employees are punished for making mistakes or fear retribution for errors that might occur, this can have a negative impact on their morale and  productivity. 
• Negative colleagues. Human beings are herd animals, who can only survive in highly coordinated groups. So it’s safe to say that a co-worker’s low morale affects team motivation leading to a whole group of disengaged and unproductive employees. It’s simply difficult to do your best work when you or the ones around you are suffering from low morale.
• Fear of the Future. If your employees have any reason to worry about the future, for example hearing rumors about potential layoffs, this will lower morale at the workplace.

How to improve employee morale

There are three steps to the process of improving employee morale productivity:

1. Assess the current situation

   and find out if someone in the workplace suffers from low morale. This can be done in several ways such as personal interviews or surveys covering questions about employee morale, wellbeing, and productivity.

2. Understand the cause of low employee morale and productivity

   by analyzing the information gathered in the assessment step. Try to be as specific as possible describing the causes to be able to prepare for the last step: improving morale.

3. Take steps to improve employee morale and productivity.

   Once you’re aware that someone or several employees are suffering from low morale and why, be direct in taking steps to improve it. Meet with them one-on-one to discuss it, implement new routines and processes to prevent the thing causing low morale, and help your employees in any way you can.

Low morale can be the result of countless things both in the workplace and at home, and the reason for it will vary to a great degree depending on the individual. The only incorrect way is to not address it at all. The longer negative morale is left to fester, the harder it will be to raise employee productivity. Address the issues as quickly as possible, and make it clear that you sincerely want to turn around the morale. You will need honest feedback from your employees as well as any ideas for how to improve morale.

Use Remente’s mental wellness platform to increase mental wellbeing

Assessing, understanding, and improving morale should be a continuous process where your employees have the option of expressing themselves whenever they want or need. Remente provides organizations with a digital platform, helping you keep track of and better understand your employee’s emotions and state of mind. It also enables your employees to influence their morale, productivity, and well-being through motivational tools.

Our tools developed to improve employee morale and productivity includes:

• Daily video sessions with a coach who will guide your employees in the concepts of self-care and mental wellness to create a foundation for good employee morale and ultimately productivity.
  
• Goal Setting Guide helping your staff to reach their goals both in their professional and personal life. The guide makes it possible to break down goals into actions, habits, and milestones.
• A Day Planner to enable employees to achieve to-dos and to get an overview of the tasks a-waiting.
• Life Wheel Assessment for gaining insights into the current work-life balance.
• A Mood Journal to make it possible to measure motivation and get a greater picture of the overall mental well-being.

We believe in offering tools to help the employees help themselves. Therefore we provide a battery of resources to obtain and retain good employee morale at the workplace. This includes courses about stress management and life-work balance, step-by-step guides on how to be more productive, and valuable insights about mental wellness. Everything your business needs to keep employee morale and productivity at high levels.

Remente assists and supports the organization throughout the wellbeing initiative of their employees and offers an instantly scalable, data-driven, and engaging approach to a healthier and better-performing organization.

Our award-winning app is based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, a form of psychotherapy proven to provide great results when it comes to improving mental health which often leads to improved morale and productivity at the workplace. With the system offered by Remente, good employee morale is just a few clicks away.

Sign up for a free demo of Remente today and experience how it can help you increase staff motivation and productivity.