Morale++
@Meezy tweeted the other day asking if employee morale should be valued, and if so, why, and how. I don’t follow anyone who said “no,” but I figure the question deserves more response than 140 characters. Or a multiple of 140 character blurbs. Anyways…
Employee morale is what drives an organization. It’s directly proportional to an organization’s performance, though the effect will appear slightly lagged. Too many bad financial quarters, and employee morale goes down. Too many bad managers, and a company’s performance declines.
I had a boss who said that he didn’t believe in motivation, and that it only comes from a person’s drive to succeed, but that’s bullshit. There’s a reason that I did no work at company V and why I worked incredibly hard at company O, and I doubt it’s my own age or drive. I had 2 days off between the jobs. To say that motivation is out of control is to surrender a fight that you have to win to be successful, which is arguably why company V lost 5/6 of its developer team in under a year.
To improve morale, it’s good to have an accepting environment that breeds cult like mindshare. That doesn’t mean squashing dissenting ideas, but everyone should love working with each other. There shouldn’t be anyone who’s viewed as inferior or stupid - those people break an organization back into reality. You want everyone to be happy that they’re getting up to work with competent people.
So, here’s a list of items you can do to fix morale, in my not-at-all-humble opinion:
* Beer : It seems simple, but it’s a nice sign of a more lax work environment. The majority of us in the workforce don’t appreciate military environments (regardless of your affection for the military itself). We’re also grown ups. The majority of us appreciate alcohol. Keep it available for good achievements or just random Fridays.
* Casual dress code : I know this list will seem along the lines of my ideal employer, but I think keeping up morale is something I want in an employer, and these are obvious ways to do it. Again, don’t tell us how high our socks need to be or how many buttons we need to have on our shirts. For those of us who work in offices or cubes and don’t deal with clients, why can’t we work in sandals and caps? If we work better that way, doesn’t it make more sense?
* Challenge us : Employees take jobs to have a good time. Part of that good time comes from solving difficult problems. Keep the problems in breathable workspaces and timeframes, but don’t put off things because they might be difficult. Embrace the difficult stuff, because that’s where innovation happens. Nobody cares about easy shit.
* Treat us like adults : This probably encompasses several of my other items. Like I said, we’re adults. We know how to get our work done. We’re trustworthy. If you don’t think that’s an accurate description, then you have a shitty work relationship with your employee. When we arrive, when we leave, what we do during the day, what we do on our vacation, really should be 2nd to the idea of getting work done. If we show up for meetings but then only spit out work at 3am in the morning, that shouldn’t be an issue as long as it’s at an acceptable pace. Power hungry bosses like to treat their employees like kids, which isn’t good for morale (I’ve already gone through that and left the house - what’s to keep me from doing the same with you?)
* Recognizing that it’s your responsibility to retain employees : I think this is a catch-all for the things people will think I’ve missed. It’s your job, as an employer, to retain employees. If they leave, it’s because of you most of the time. It means you weren’t paying enough for the environment you were producing. Think of things that you do that you think are important but aren’t vital to the running of the company, and interfere with your employees more than it needs to. Cutting down on those might help a lot.
That’s all I thought of off the top of my head. Feel free to leave your suggestions for keeping morale up in the comments.
Jimmy Bogard said:
May 01, 08 at 3:26 pmI think the manager meant he didn’t believe in extrinsic motivation. There’s a difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic is fleeting and can be easily gamed, where as intrinsic is lasting and sustainable. He probably didn’t understand/know about the intrinsic kind.
terry said:
May 01, 08 at 3:30 pmWell, I think intrinsic motivation comes from outside sources for the most part. While it’s good to take control of as much as you can, you’re still working with other people who largely determine your work environment.
meezy said:
May 01, 08 at 4:16 pmCasual Dress — I think as our generation moves up in the ranks of business, this idea will spread. If an employee has to spend 45 minutes a day getting ready instead of 7 minutes, he is more likely to leave when staying an extra 30 minutes would finish the task.
Treat us like adults — I think there are degrees of this that work. If you have 1 guy working 3am-6am, yes he gets his work done, but if at 9am everyone else comes in and they find an issue with it, they are potentially blocked until he starts again at 3am, essentially losing a day. I have the same issue with off-shore outsourcing.
Telecommuting — I think, in the IT world especially, telecommuting is underrated. If an employee lives in a big metroplex (DFW) and commutes for 1-2 hours per day, he is going to waste a lot of money on gas (goes back to pay for the environment you produce) and lose a lot of time. Even if he never works late, he is committing 10 hours a day to work. Let him work from home and he will be happier, and probably still work 9 hours. Any money the company has to spend on teleconferencing (livemeeting, phone, electronic whiteboard), they can save on office space.
terry said:
May 01, 08 at 8:50 pmyeah, i think the adult thing also means that you’re expecting all of your employees to help out each other. if one guy consistently blocks people because of his strange hours, then it’s detrimental. i still think it all comes back to how to make the team/organization more productive.
and seriously, telecommuting ftw. i’m hoping this gets embraced more strongly as we get older and move up (good point on the dress code).
Jimmy Bogard said:
May 02, 08 at 8:00 amemail < twitter < phone < livemeeting < face to face
No technology will ever supplant face-to-face communication. Ever. We should give up on that idea. Given the amount of communication that is non-verbal (between 60-90% in most estimates), job functions that require lots of communication are at a severe disadvantage when not face-to-face.
It’s a tradeoff between convenience and cost-savers of working at home versus the cost of missed and bad communication that telecommuting technology creates.
terry said:
May 02, 08 at 8:39 am@jbogard i think your argument accurately reflects the biggest pain point for telecommuting right now.
i don’t think the goal of telecommuting is to supplant face to face communication as far as communication quality, but i think it’s undeniable that (1) telecommuting options are getting a lot better and (2) it saves the employee a ton of hassle. if you’re trying to make a good work environment, it’s a tradeoff that should be considered. i wouldn’t expect an employee to think that his job is the most important thing (if he did, i don’t think i’d want to work with him), but i do want him to be available as much as possible. telecommuting helps significantly there.
as for the 60-90% of communication being non-verbal, i’ve got a couple of problems with that. first, i’m not sure how they test it. it might be one of those crazy statistics like “you only use 10% of your brain” that are entirely made up. further, i wonder if the people that they’re testing are more used to face to face communication and consequently rely on subtle body language hints. it’s entirely possible that people rely on these nuances because it’s their preferred medium, whereas a person who relies much more on IM might have established ways to make up for that lost communication.
i agree, though, that some jobs aren’t in the forseeable future doable through telecommuting. i don’t know if i’d say “ever,” since we have no idea how things will change in 30 years (lolcows?).
Jimmy Bogard said:
May 02, 08 at 9:03 am@terrbear
ha i used your twitter handle
The stats were from a non-verbal communications course I took (actually just sat in) in college. It talked about the total message you were trying to convey. Emotional communication is ~99% non-verbal, made up almost entirely of body language. I can let you borrow the book if you’re interested. It comes from psychology and sociology studies.
Then again, all of my employment experience has been as part of a team, where trust was essential, and only could be built through human interaction. Again, if I can’t see what my client feels about what I’m creating, I’m missing a lot of information
terry said:
May 02, 08 at 9:10 am@jbogard (twitter ftw)
i think when you’re dealing first hand with clients, it’s important to be there. as a consultant, you’re involved in sales whether you appreciate it or not. your appearance, demeanor, attitude, answers, etc., all influence the client’s perception along with their likelihood of recommending you in the future.
i think trust is also a huge deal, and i’ve been lucky enough to work closely with people over IM only after dealing with them a lot in person. @meezy and i work a lot over IM (and sometimes phone), but i think we’re good at it because we’ve done a lot of work in the past face to face.