The use of technology in the workplace can cause a lot of stress, whether that’s software that’s slow to load or even faulty equipment preventing someone from completing a task. When used properly, technology can actually boost your team’s wellbeing. Here are a few examples of how to use technology to improve morale in your office.
Send out a newsletter
One of the most common reasons for low employee morale is because workers don’t feel valued by their company. They may feel like they’re putting in a lot of effort for very little reward. Although you may think that a paycheck at the end of every month is enough to motivate staff members to do well, some need more positive encouragement than that.
One of the simplest ways to make sure workers feel valued is to acknowledge their achievements in a team newsletter. Each week, choose between three and five individual achievements by staff members who have excelled at their job and highlight them in a group email.
Conduct a staff survey
If morale is low across your whole team, it’s important to resolve any internal problems that are causing motivation to lag. This could be anything from team members feeling overworked, under too much pressure or even that they don’t have the proper resources to work as effectively as they would like. The easiest and most efficient way to complete a staff survey is to do it digitally. Create an employee engagement survey that can be sent out to colleagues over email so they can complete it in private and at a time that suits them best.
As these surveys are conducted digitally, the data will be calculated instantly. Some of the smarter systems can even analyze the data for you and highlight the most common trends within the information collected. For example, the system provided by inpulse.com will not only measure how many respondents considered themselves to be stressed but also list the most common reasons staff give for being stressed. Once you have this data, look at steps you can take to combat the most common challenges facing your team.
Make yourself more contactable
Traditionally, if a staff member wanted to raise a concern with management, they would have had to call up their manager’s secretary to arrange an appointment. Depending on how busy a manager’s diary is, this could take weeks for a staffer to air their issues.
Today’s technology makes it much easier to conduct a meeting with a colleague. Now you don’t even have to be in the same room. Many meetings are now conducted on video conferencing software such as Skype or Zoom. If you’re discussing sensitive issues, make sure your software is protected with a pin code to prevent any unwanted participants from joining the meeting.
Consider other ways staff can contact you with other concerns. Voicemail can be difficult to keep track of. Instead, consider using WhatsApp so you can instantly be notified about problems and reply to them when convenient.
