moraleUnless you’re a one person operation, there’s no getting around the fact that your business lives and dies by the people you hire. Your employees are the lifeblood of your company, but never forget they’re human too. This means that their morale is bound to suffer from time to time. However, when that happens, so will their work. So here are six easy ways for keeping employee morale nice and high.

Their Job Is Their Vocation

Everyone wants to feel like the 40 hours they work a week aren’t wasted. In this regard, even a large paycheck will only get so far. Instead, get them through the daily grind by instilling the idea that what they’re doing really matters. Why are you in this business? You must feel like it contributes something above just turning a profit. Now make them feel the same way.

Celebrate Accomplishments

It’s important to always take a moment to celebrate victories, even small ones. For one thing, it helps break up the monotony that often comes with the day. However, it’s also a great way to let your employees know that you see how they’re working and that it does pay off.

Be sure you don’t throw the same celebration every single time. You don’t want them becoming predictable or seeming like they’re rubberstamped efforts on your part.

Give Employees Time for Their Own Projects

From social media giants like Facebook to packaging titans like FedEx, many companies grant their employees a 24 hour period or more during their year to work on whatever they want and get paid for it in the process.

There’s generally a guideline that the project must be related to the company and usually that it can be completed within one day. However, that still gives workers plenty of room to have a lot of fun. It also gives them something to look forward to and helps them feel appreciated.

Mix Things Up

As we mentioned, monotony is a killer. From time to time, then, you should mix things up. This may mean where people sit or how their day is organized. Sometimes it might just mean a surprise outing to somewhere fun in the area or taking them out to lunch.

Always Make It Fun

This might sound corny, but the more people love their job, the more excited they’ll be to show up to work and the harder they’ll work at it. As such, it makes sense to try to make work as fun as possible. You might loosen the dress code, do company potlucks or just about anything else. So long as it doesn’t interfere with the work that needs to be done, it’s a good idea if it makes the day fun.

Nurture Positive Attitudes

Nothing is as important as positivity. Offer workshops to help your employees nurture a positive mindset or simply show videos on inspiring people who either overcame the odds or found meaning in everything they did.

The importance of increasing employee morale can’t be overemphasized. Implement the above seven steps and start seeing results in the near future.