After an especially tough year, your team needs to feel recognized and appreciated. Boosting employee morale can go a long way in reducing burnout and keeping your staff happy and motivated.

If you’re wondering how to boost morale at work, you’ve come to the right place. Spreading joy is what we do best!

So let’s spread some smiles!

1. Welcome New Hires

Establish a bond with your employees starting on day one! A strong foundation will set the stage for a long, healthy work relationship with your new hires.

Create a welcome kit

In addition to any HR forms or information they’ll need, include tools to make their day easier and some just-for-fun treats.

• A cup or mug for use in the office
• A laptop case
• Pens, notepads, and sticky pads
• A treat! (Maybe some brownies?)

Make it clear that these are gifts for them to keep, not just office property. They’re a welcome gift, after all!

2. Celebrate Employee Birthdays and Anniversaries

Your employees have a life outside the time they spend in the office. Take a moment to recognize that and show your employees that you care!

Birthday Parties

Every month, hold a party for all that month’s birthdays. Order food, a cake, or birthday brownies for the break room and let everyone take part in the fun. Company events like this, even if they’re small, boost team morale and give your staff another opportunity to bond.

You can also offer individual gifts to the birthday person. A treat, movie tickets, a small cash bonus—it could be anything. It’s the thought that counts!

Anniversary Appreciation

Similarly, you can celebrate work anniversaries. When an employee has given you 5, 10, 15 years of service or more, it’s the least you can do to appreciate them with a gift in return.

If you implement an anniversary program, it’s best to have the reward scale with their service. At Fairytale Brownies, employees get an amazing gift for their 10-year anniversary – a vacation of their choice, paid for by the company!

Not only does this make your employee happy, but it also gives newer employees something to look forward to. You improve company morale and employee retention at the same time!

3. Energize Campaign Launches or Completions

Embarking on an exciting new campaign? Finishing up a huge months-long project?

Your team works hard—make their work exciting! Big projects can lead to a lot of pressure and stress for your team, so they can be a drain on company morale if you’re not careful.

When you launch a new campaign, plan something special to kick things off! A new project can feel overwhelming to your team at first, so it’s best to start off with a healthy boost of positive energy. Get everyone revved up and energized for all that’s to come.

The same goes for the day you wrap up a months- or years-long project. Your team is exhausted! Celebrate their hard work and give them a moment to rest and admire a job well done.

Keep office morale in mind during a company rebrand!

Rebrands can be a scary time for your employees, filled with unknowns. If you keep your employees in the dark, it could weigh on office morale.

So make it exciting! Share some positive energy with the team with a party or gifts emblazoned with your new brand look.

Make sure to communicate with your team and keep them in the loop when you can, too.

4. Schedule Time for Fun!

Make opportunities for your team to relax and bond with their coworkers – no work involved!

Playing isn’t just for kids. There are so many reasons why even working adults should make time for fun.

Hold company-sponsored team lunches every month or quarter. Make room in the budget for fun, team-building activities. On special occasions like a once-a-year holiday party, you might even open the event to families or plus-ones!

Team building activity ideas:

• Bowling
• Go-Karts
• Arcades
• Mini golf
• Picnics
• Holiday Parties

5. Encourage the Team with Incentives

When your team meets their goals or hits special milestones, it’s cause for celebration. Why not reward them with some good old-fashioned positive reinforcement?

An incentive program is an easy and logical way to motivate your staff and raise morale. And by offering an incentive for a job well done, the company benefits, too.

As an employer, you get employees who are more excited and motivated to meet goals. As employees, your team gets an extra reward for their work. It’s a win-win!

The incentive can be a cash bonus, but it doesn’t have to be. Consider rewarding extra PTO days or even a physical gift (like a tasty box of brownies?).

Just make sure to set goals that are fair and reasonable. Don’t set it so far out of reach that the goals make your team stressed or frustrated. Consider team goals instead of individual goals, too—that way your employees don’t harbor any bitter feelings toward their coworkers.

Remember, the goal is to encourage your team with an incentive. If you use this program as a stick instead of a carrot, it’ll hurt company morale instead of helping.

6. Review Your Company PTO Policies

Overworked employees lack motivation and energy. They’re tired, burned out, and stressed. That can drag down the overall morale of the office!

If you push your staff too far without giving them flexibility for a healthy work-life balance, they may even start to resent their workplace and look for work elsewhere. Turnover isn’t just expensive—it also hurts morale, too.

Employees WANT time off. In a 2017 study, 81% of respondents said that work-life balance matters more to them than earnings. A fair wage is important, of course, but so is proper time off to rest.

It benefits the company, too. Study after study points to the same thing: time off makes your employees more productive and less exhausted. Meanwhile, a happy, well-rested employee will get more work done in less time.

Take a peek at your company policies. How much PTO does the team get? More importantly, is the team actually using those vacation days?

Sometimes employees are afraid to take the vacation they need, so encourage them to take their PTO. Some companies even offer an incentive that rewards employees for using 100% of their vacation days.

Improving Office Morale is Worth it!

Taking time to focus on and improve employee happiness and office morale is an investment. And it’s one that’s sure to pay off!

Tired, checked-out employees not only weigh down your company morale, but they also lead to eventual employee turnover. Happy employees, on the other hand, will get more work done and have the energy to produce innovative, game-changing ideas.

So celebrate the little moments. Squeeze in breaks and parties where you can, so your team can blow off steam. Take any excuse you can to brighten an employee’s day. When you treat your team right, they’ll return the favor tenfold!