How To Maintain Morale When Your Business Is In Hot Water

If the last few years have shown us anything, it’s that we never know what is around the corner. That’s always been true in the business world and sometimes, you will run into tough times. The businesses that survive are the ones that are able to stay resilient and push forward, even when things are hard. However, when the odds are stacked against you, morale around the office is likely to be low.

Employees will be worried about their jobs and what the future holds, and all of this anxiety and low morale will impact productivity. The thing is, you need to stay productive if you want your business to weather the storm, so you need to deal with your morale issue. Here are some of the best ways to maintain employee morale when your business is in hot water.

Let People Know What Is Happening

In a perfect world, you would have been able to plan ahead and prepare for this downturn in business. In that case, you would have had time to get ready and tell your employees about the situation. Unfortunately, that’s not always possible. Instead of just springing it on them when times are tough, make sure they know what is going on from the very start.

Let them know what has happened to cause all of this chaos and how you plan to turn things around again. The idea here is that you want people to feel included and valued. If people don’t have a clue what is going on, they start to speculate and the version of events they create is usually much worse than the reality. People will start assuming that they’re going to lose their jobs and the business is going to fall apart completely, so just communicate about what is really happening.

Celebrate The Small Wins

No business turnaround will happen overnight. There are some successes along the way but then there are bound to be some setbacks too. You can’t expect your morale issues to disappear in one fell swoop, so you need to take them one step at a time. That’s why it is important that you celebrate every little win along the way, no matter how small it might seem on the surface.

Doing so will keep up people’s spirits and show them that they are making progress, even when things feel like they aren’t going anywhere for a while. The more wins you have throughout this period of time, the higher morale will become around the office.

Praise and reward people when projects are completed or you have a good month. You don’t have to spend lots of money, the recognition alone makes a big difference.

Remind People Of Past Successes

As we mentioned above, no business turnaround happens overnight. You want your employees to understand that and keep things in perspective. That is why it is important for them to remember what you have done in the past and how far you’ve come already. A little bit of encouragement and reminding people of the work and success they’ve achieved is a powerful thing when morale seems low.

Remind people that even if your last marketing push was a bit of a flop, there were plenty of other times where everything worked out just fine. Reminding people of those victories will help them to see that as bleak as things might be now, things can improve.

Invest In Employee Wellbeing Programs

It’s likely that your employees will struggle with their mental health when times are hard because of all of the extra stress. If you want to improve morale, it’s vital that you support your employees by implementing employee wellness programs to help them manage their mental health. This is good practice for all businesses anyway because wellbeing is closely linked to productivity. By giving people the support that they need, you can make sure that the atmosphere around the office is always positive. 

Remove Unnecessary Sources Of Stress

If you’re really serious about improving morale at your business, you need to prevent and remove sources of stress and anxiety wherever possible. If some people are feeling stressed or anxious due to their jobs, ask them what they would change if they had the option. You might not be able to implement all of those changes, but it shows that you care about your employees as individuals and want them to succeed. Getting rid of any frustrating processes will streamline things and make life easier for your employees. 

You will always face morale problems when times are hard, but if you follow these tips, you can keep people’s spirits up.