As we start to make our way back to normal and return to our daily lives, businesses owners may find that morale has declined since their staff left the office over a year ago. It can be daunting coming back to the traditional office environment, especially when most have gotten used to their home comforts. Productivity may be down, and moods may be sombre, but there are effective ways you can boost employee morale and improve your company culture.

Employees experience their “return to work” journey differently; ask any new mum or someone who has recently returned after a leave of absence. Although this situation is a little different, the ‘returning to office’ stage is still the same, so you need to ensure that all employees feel good and relaxed, and there are several ways you can achieve this…

Returning to Work? Be Communicative

When anything changes within your company, it’s important that you let employees know. When clients or customers give feedback, when you make a new sale or when big changes happen in your employees’ lives, it’s important to keep everyone in the loop. One of the biggest reasons for a decrease in employee morale is lack of clarity, so make sure your staff know what’s expected of them.

When employees are returning from working from home, try asking them often how they’re doing, how their workload is and if anything needs changing to make them feel better. This can let employees know that you have their best interests in mind.

The Importance of Employee Recognition

As previously mentioned, letting an employee know when they’ve received praise from a client or customer is extremely important in improving employee and office morale. It gives them the confidence and productivity they may need following their return to work. By praising their work, you can pay focus to employee career progression, allowing them to enhance their skills and pay focus to their skills.

To manage employee career development, trying organising one-to-one meetings to discuss how staff are finding the return, and what you can do to help them enhance their skills. To discover personal development plan templates, you can browse a full collection here.

Offer Growth

Providing feedback and career progression opportunities can help to boost employee morale and increasing employee engagement. High morale means more loyalty to your company, and this can be achieved by providing development opportunities and leadership roles.

Creating careers that provide challenges, long standing benefits and positive work environments leads to loyalty and a productive workforce. Employees like to know that their job is taking them places, so make sure they know you have their best interests at heart.

Encourage Breaks and Chats

Sometimes, employees can feel pressured to never leave their desks, especially during busy periods. When returning to work, the culture shock mixed with completing work on time can be overwhelming. Therefore, it’s important that you encourage taking small coffee breaks for staff to recollect and refresh.

If you notice some members of staff are having a hard time, let them know that your office door is always open. Encouraging chats can make staff feel more comfortable, and free enough to talk about what’s troubling them. Remember to be compassionate and sympathetic, and try to come up with effective solutions.

Humana operates complimentary brands online that work together to create a simpler experience. We understand our employees needs and expectations, and always work to create local jobs and revenue. To find out more, please fill out our online form here.