How to Keep Team Morale High During Difficult Times

July 17, 2021 - 7 min read

Kelechi Udoagwu

There is no successful company that hasn't faced its share of hard times. Whether it be an exodus of leadership, a shift in goals and priorities, or a lack of resources, there will be times your employees will find themselves overwhelmed, confused, demotivated, and on edge. Supporting staff during difficult times is par for the course — now more than ever. But knowing how to motivate employees during difficult times can boost workplace morale and make it easier for them to face personal, professional, or social challenges.

2020's global COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it many problems. Declining workplace morale is a new hurdle for managers and HR professionals. The subject of maintaining employee morale during these hard times is of paramount importance as disengaged employees cost companies up to $350 billion a year in lost productivity.

As humans, we are able to handle change but do not do so well with uncertainty. As we come to terms with our new normal, it is time for leadership to regroup and reignite enthusiasm amongst teams and employees. Below are five actionable ideas to increase employee morale and bring your team back to top productivity.

Increase workplace morale by encouraging candid
conversations about where the company is heading

Uncertainty can weigh heavily on your team. One practical way of supporting staff during difficult times is to be open and honest about the direction the company is heading in.

In times such as these, it is important to carry along every member of the team by letting them know vital details about the company's position, priorities, and strategies put in place to stabilize and thrive through this unpredictable season. This gives employees a feeling of control, direction, and purpose as they begin their work every day.

As a leader at this time, being transparent in your decision-making and communicating clearly cannot be overemphasized. It ensures that members of your team understand the tasks to be done and why they are essential.

As you lead, it is also crucial to listen more than you speak. Taking in feedback from other executives and members of your team lets you know what is going on with them at home and work. Open communication will allow you to assess the level of turbulence in different areas of their lives and the business, focus on the most critical issues, and show your employees that their voices count.

Provide counseling sessions to motivate employees during difficult times

While having conversations with your employees, and collecting feedback go a long way to increase employee morale, a better initiative is to provide optional counseling sessions for employees who request them during these times.

As the use of emergency mental health hotlines rises steadily amidst the pandemic, Singapore-based hotel-booking platform, RedDoorz is providing online counseling sessions led by certified counselors and psychologists to its staff and employees who work at partner hotels. Amit Saberwal, CEO of RedDoorz, says he hopes to "spread positivity and optimism" within the travel and hospitality industries, which have experienced "major disruptions" as a result of the novel coronavirus.

You can take a page out of RedDoorz's book and bring in trained professionals, or create small peer groups to reach teammates who seem to be struggling. You can give employees access to meditation apps and also share online mental health resources. Most importantly, you can encourage leaders in your business to openly talk about their mental health as a way to get employees to open up and unburden themselves. If you can get your employees to speak honestly to you, then you can then find better ways to support them.

Nearly 40% of employees say their company has not asked them how they're doing since the pandemic began. Employees in this group are 38% more likely to say their mental health has declined since the onset of the pandemic.

Supercharge workplace morale by streamlining your workflow and celebrating every win

During this time, it's important to celebrate every achievement, regardless of how small. Your employees need confirmation that their work is valued and making a tangible impact.

Each week, you can highlight at least one achievement. This could be anything from higher email open rates to meeting an important project deadline. You'll soon find that calling out little wins boosts morale, productivity, and confidence across your team.

This is also a good time to streamline your team’s workflow and set clear priorities by taking off all unnecessary tasks so employees can focus on the most meaningful projects that move the needle. Some leaders may pile work on employees’ plates because they now work from home. Instead, it would help if you lightened your employees' workload, so they manage their personal lives in tandem with work during these times.

Don't take up more of your employees' time because they are not clocking into the office. You can also reduce the need for too many video meetings as Zoom fatigue is draining. Instead, send emails, summarize reports, and enable visibility into teammates' tasks in a project management tool like Wrike.

Schedule breaks during the workday and allow asynchronous work

To get the best from your employees at this time, it is wise to become output and results-focused. Since the beginning of March, when most companies made the call to work from home, employees have reported working 2-3 hours longer per day. This is combined with the pressures of caring for sick loved ones, maintaining one's health, caring for children who are learning from home, and maintaining valuable work productivity.

As a leader during this time, it is wise that you allow asynchronous work schedules, giving employees room to plan their days in the most optimal way to take care of both work and personal responsibilities.

You can institute roles that promote healthy work-life balance habits and enforce a mandatory break in every workday. This could be the typical one-hour lunch break, but in this case, you insist that all employees log off their work devices at this time.

As a part of workplace mental health initiative, employees are now encouraged to treat switching off as a scheduled event, rather than working through breaks and long days. Some companies are going one step further and making it impossible for employees to send emails after hours.

The fact is when home doubles as the office, employees have a tougher time switching off. Since the pandemic started, Surfshark, a VPN provider, has seen spikes in usage between midnight and 3 am, proof that workday barriers are beginning to erode. As a result, good leaders must make an effort to help employees unplug each day to maintain good health and workplace morale.

Organize optional fun virtual activities to boost employee morale or encourage rest

Different personality types refuel in different ways. An introvert needs solitude to recharge and strategize, and an extrovert craves more people-time to relax and soak in positive energy.

In the words of the great Benjamin Franklin: "We must all hang together, or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."

Schedule regular open hours with team building activities for remote teams to get your team's mind off the madness. During this time, employees can choose to stay offline and recharge, login but not participate, join in and engage in virtual happy hours, scavenger hunts, and other online team building activities your company needs. You can also check out our ultimate list of team building games for more ideas.

How to motivate employees during difficult times

As a manager, it is up to you to gauge the stress level on your team and eliminate additional stressors or distractions that may hinder their performance. Demotivation is extremely contagious and spreads uncontrollably, just like the COVID-19.

To kill the infection at its source and focus on improving morale in the workplace during these difficult times, you must continue to build good habits that support positive workplace morale and resilience in employees.

We recommend that you:

Encourage honest conversations about the company's position and where it is heading between leaders and employees.
Frequently gather employee feedback on essential topics
Provide mental health coaching and counseling sessions
Lighten employees' workload and focus on wins
Promote healthy work/life habits and allow asynchronous work
Have regular manager/employee conversations about individual needs and actions
Maintain transparency to motivate employees during difficult times
Organize optional fun virtual activities to boost employee morale and encourage rest

Work with Wrike and start focusing on building employee morale

Wrike's collaboration tool is the perfect software for businesses facing the challenge of improving morale in the workplace, especially now - with the new challenges COVID-19 has brought to the business world. Maintaining team collaboration, remote team communications, and proper work management is all possible with Wrike's solutions for business continuity. You can get started by signing up for a free two-week trial here.

Kelechi Udoagwu

Kelechi is a freelance writer and founder of Week of Saturdays, a platform for digital freelancers and remote workers living in Africa.

#Company Culture #Employee Engagement #Team Collaboration

Leadership 5 min read

3 Advantages of Embracing an Informal Company Culture

Official memos. Oxfords and briefcases. Informal chit-chat in flat grey cubicles. If you’ve ever worked in for company with a strictly formal culture, you know just how drastically things have changed in the last decade. Casual dress codes, flat management organizations, drinking and swearing at work — companies have started to let loose a little in an attempt to adapt to the desires of a younger workforce and bring more fun to the work environment. Creating a vibrant culture that attracts top talent, inspires your employees and grows your company is leading many organizations to bring a more relaxed, spontaneous, and collaborative atmosphere to their offices. And yet finding the right balance of informality and professionalism can be tricky. Instead of simply planning happy hours and installing arcade games in your break room, focus on these three areas where a more informal—i.e., less rigid—company culture really count. Transparency & Honesty What does strong leadership look like? For many, it means looking like you have all the answers, navigating change with confidence, and being decisive when it comes to tough choices. 26-year-old founder Nathan Latka pushed against all that when his company Heyo was approached with an acquisition offer. Instead of holing up with his core executive team, he made the entire process public — not only to his employees, but to the one million monthly listeners of his podcast. To say it was a risky move is an understatement, to be sure. The lucrative offer may have gone up in smoke. But Latka points to some compelling benefits of being so open with his team: for one, they came up with ideas he would never have thought of and challenged his assumptions and blind spots. It gave his entire company the opportunity to learn from the process, and it gave him the chance to lead with questions instead of answers. Even when he had already arrived at a decision for himself, he went into meetings to listen and ask questions. The result: his team was more invested in the outcome, having spent time analyzing the situation and solution from all angles themselves. Plus, other people brought up opportunities he hadn’t thought of and often either changed or deepened his perspective on things. Good leaders know that open communication is essential for a thriving business. 85% of employees are unsatisfied with the quality of communication at work, and 81% say they would rather “join a company that values ‘open communication’ than one that offers perks such as top health plans, free food, and gym memberships.” It’s not always easy to let your team behind closed doors and admit that you may not know the best course of action, but the payoff is worth it. In the end, Latka's deal went through — and he even signed the letter of intent live on his podcast. Flexibility & Accountability You have to be willing to let your culture change as your company grows, and that requires flexibility. This doesn’t mean that you simply let your company culture define itself — you have to be proactive and intentional in cultivating the best work environment for your team. But you also have to be adaptable, and with more of today’s employees working remotely or requiring flexible schedules, that means reframing how you approach company culture (including remote work culture) and how you measure your team’s contributions. As many others have pointed out, the term “work-life balance” creates a false dichotomy where your work and the rest of your life are in competition, on opposite ends of a spectrum. Companies that recognize their workers’ personal lives not as an inconvenience or distraction, but as an opportunity to enhance employee performance and satisfaction, are able to create a culture of flexibility that results in truly engaged employees. When allowed to set their own hours, research has consistently found that workers are not only as productive as their colleagues with standard office hours, they’re happier, less stressed, and far less likely to consider leaving the company. With more team members working remotely or non-standard office hours, this can mean significantly less face time with colleagues and managers—and it can be easy for company leaders to tend towards micromanagement to ensure that work is progressing as planned and priorities are clear across the team. But micromanagement actually dampens your team's creativity, motivation, and morale. Making accountability an intrinsic part of your company culture allows employees to take ownership over their work and results, resulting in greater productivity, performance, and work satisfaction. Personality & Fun Southwest Airlines is famous for its personable flight attendants who crack jokes and sing songs during instructions and announcements—and for its people-first company culture. As Southwest’s president and CEO Herbert Kelleher says, “What we are looking for, first and foremost, is a sense of humor.” A fun atmosphere builds a strong sense of community among your employees, and it helps counter-balance the stress of hard work. Among companies noted as “great” in Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, 81% of employees say they work in a fun environment. A fun work environment encourages free thinking and creativity, helps people build relationships across teams and departments, and encourages productive collaboration. How to Get Company Culture Right We asked business leaders and founders their secrets for creating a perfect work environment, from hiring to match your values to inspiring employees. Read their advice, then hit the comments to let us know what you think is the key to a thriving company culture.

Leadership 10 min read

Avoid the Domino Effect: Help Your Team Members Understand Their Impact

It’s easy for people to miss the forest for the trees and have a severe lack of understanding about how their own individual work fits into the larger picture. Failure to understand these interdependencies leads to a frustrating domino effect of delays and failure. Here's how to ensure that doesn't happen.

Leadership 7 min read

What Is Peer Recognition & Why is it Important?

At work, money doesn’t buy us happiness. Statistics show there is only a loose connection between the money we earn and job satisfaction. But it is possible to boost job satisfaction through one powerful variable: peer recognition. In fact, peer recognition is so powerful that it can deliver half the engagement of a salary increase at just 5% of the cost. Clearly, peer recognition resonates with us on a deeply emotional level. But why does it create such high job satisfaction, and how can you make it work at your company? What is peer recognition? Let’s start with what peer recognition isn’t. Peer recognition isn’t employer recognition. Employer recognition programs are rampant. As far back as 2012, some 75% of companies already had a program for recognition in place. Peer recognition is different. Peer recognition is the validation and encouragement you receive from other people, especially those you perceive to be credible, such as colleagues. And it’s this distinction that leads to feelings of acceptance and significance. Why is peer-to-peer recognition important in the workplace? Peer-to-peer recognition satisfies a different need than salary. A salary is important for practical purposes: feeding a family, maintaining a home, or saving for retirement. Recognition, on the other hand, hits employees’ emotional needs: the feeling that comes with having a positive impact on the world. Congratulations from the company is a nice benefit. But peer-to-peer recognition tends to have more credibility because it comes from colleagues and friends who understand our situations. Consider the benefits that come with peer-to-peer recognition: Employee engagement: Any form of recognition can help with employee engagement, even if it comes from management. A compliment on recently completed work not only reinforces good habits, but it lets employees know that their work was noticed — and therefore brings social context to that work’s meaning. Concrete productivity results: According to one study, peer-to-peer recognition programs are over 33% more likely to create better financial results for the companies that create them. Employee retention: Peer-to-peer recognition does more than provide emotional validation. It provides emotional depth, especially in deepening the relationships at your company. This leads to longer employee retention and better job performance, keeping employee morale high. In other words, peer recognition for one employee can improve morale for all employees. How to create a peer-to-peer recognition program While employee recognition programs are common at over 75% of organizations, only about 41% have peer-to-peer recognition programs. Why the disconnect? Many companies don’t know how to make recognition feel more organic at the employee level. It’s easier to initiate an employer-led recognition program and call it a day. But what if you do want to go an extra step and include employees in the selection process of these recognition programs? Set your goals and track your results: What is peer recognition without a goal to start with? You need to begin with clear, definable objectives if the program is going to be a success. Try working from an objectives and key results (OKR) template to bring clarity to your planning in the early stages. Involve your employees: You can’t do this in a vacuum. You’ll need a communication plan. But the more you do, the less it becomes a peer-to-peer recognition program. Involve employees at every step. If you’re creating an award, for example, let employees handle the nomination and the voting. Avoid ritualization: An “employee of the month” program is great, especially if you have employees who regularly vote on it. But if participation is low, chances are that the peers at your company won’t value the award as highly as you’d like. Make sure that every peer recognition you hand out is the result of honest feelings on behalf of employees. Announce the program and get out of the way: Whatever style you choose — such as an anonymous award nomination process — make sure that people know about it. Then, get out of the way. Let employees take ownership of the rest of the process through nominating and voting. The more you try to steer employees one way or the other, the less it will feel like peer-to-peer recognition. Peer-to-peer recognition examples and ideas Let’s get concrete about the ways you can thank your team with a few peer-to-peer recognition ideas: JetBlue’s internal award nominations JetBlue created a program in which employees could nominate a co-worker for their day-to-day contributions. Any example of extra effort was welcome. Once JetBlue selected a winner, the company would then share the news via its internal newsfeed and provide the winning employee with award points they could use toward prizes like dinners and travel benefits. The program succeeds because it’s organically peer-to-peer. Colleagues do the nomination. Colleagues get the rewards. And colleagues read about what the winner did to earn it, reinforcing the idea that extra work at JetBlue does not go unnoticed — either by management or peers. JetBlue recorded 14% increased engagement as a result of its recognition practices. A dedicated Slack channel for peer-to-peer recognition Heather Reid, a resource manager, recalled one company she worked at that used an open Slack channel expressly for the purpose of peer-to-peer recognition. Whenever an employee wanted to compliment another, they simply turned to the Slack channel for it. Reports Reid: “It worked like magic for us and encouraged a supportive, appreciative, and closely knit group.” It’s a testament to the power of peer recognition that there were no financial incentives here and no prizes. There was simply a centralized location for employees to compliment each other. Sometimes, that’s enough. How to encourage peer recognition The easiest way to encourage peer recognition is to create an award program where employees submit the nominations. But as Heather Reid’s example demonstrates, it can be simpler than that. You might start small and create a forum where workers can praise each other. Failing that, consider moving on to incentives. You can still create peer recognition meaning with programs that involve prizes from leadership or even corporate points, as shown by JetBlue. The important thing is that the process of highlighting and selecting the right employee to award should be left to their peers. It creates a different dynamic at work when you feel welcomed, appreciated, and recognized. And although effective leadership can accomplish a lot, there’s nothing that can quite replace the feeling of being honored by your peers. Employees can’t recognize each other if they don’t know what other people are working on. Boost transparency and get started with Wrike today.

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How to Keep Team Morale High During Difficult Times

Increase workplace morale by encouraging candid
conversations about where the company is heading

Provide counseling sessions to motivate employees during difficult times

Supercharge workplace morale by streamlining your workflow and celebrating every win

Schedule breaks during the workday and allow asynchronous work

Organize optional fun virtual activities to boost employee morale or encourage rest

How to motivate employees during difficult times

Work with Wrike and start focusing on building employee morale

Kelechi Udoagwu

Related articles

3 Advantages of Embracing an Informal Company Culture

Avoid the Domino Effect: Help Your Team Members Understand Their Impact

What Is Peer Recognition & Why is it Important?

How to Keep Team Morale High During Difficult Times

Increase workplace morale by encouraging candid conversations about where the company is heading

Provide counseling sessions to motivate employees during difficult times

Supercharge workplace morale by streamlining your workflow and celebrating every win

Schedule breaks during the workday and allow asynchronous work

Organize optional fun virtual activities to boost employee morale or encourage rest

How to motivate employees during difficult times

Work with Wrike and start focusing on building employee morale

Kelechi Udoagwu

Related articles

3 Advantages of Embracing an Informal Company Culture

Avoid the Domino Effect: Help Your Team Members Understand Their Impact

What Is Peer Recognition & Why is it Important?

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Increase workplace morale by encouraging candid
conversations about where the company is heading