What “black-holes” in productivity and morale hinder your team?

As a talent recruiter for the last five years, I’ve been invited by clients to conduct employee surveys or interviews to identify areas where productivity, team morale, and employee well-being can be improved. These companies prioritize ways to motivate and retain top talent, knowing that team morale is central to healthy organizations – and profitability. 

In addition to the positive feedback, the employee surveys also could involve identifying negative factors such as these:   

• Poor management  
• Poor communication  
• Excessive work stress  
• Unsustainable work-life balance    
• Personal (non-work) factors that affect an employee’s physical and mental health  

After gathering data from employees, what I find most effective is collaborating with management, their teams, or individual employees to dive deeper and identify and dissect the ‘black holes’ that extract positive energy and productivity from people and teams.  

Naturally, resolutions that improve staff morale and teamwork can take many forms, from team-building activities to incentives, improving the workplace culture, offering flexible work hours, and other initiatives that build camaraderie and employee satisfaction – but I have found the following four approaches to be especially effective:  

1. Be realistic 

Being realistic is important to both employees and management in improving morale. Is the job just not the right fit for an employee? Are the issues specifically job-related or are other factors hindering employee job satisfaction, to the detriment of the team’s performance? People are every company’s greatest asset, yet human beings are complex and there might be more to the story – and the resolution.  

David Robson, science writer and author of The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Transform Your Life, echoes the benefits of an employee tailoring their job to more closely align with their values and interests; however, he offers this advice to people who have lost their passion:  

“If you still feel like you are in a rut, you might simply be asking too much from your career,” Robson says. “We can sometimes have unrealistic expectations of our jobs to provide meaning in our lives… But on [Anna K.] Schaffner’s advice, I’m also making sure that I spend more time on all the other activities I love. In her words: ‘It can be incredibly healing and curative when work is just work.’” Schaffner is the author of The Art of Self-Improvement: Ten Timeless Truths and a UK-based life coach who specializes in exhaustion, burnout, and resilience.  

Again, perceptive hiring managers see the wisdom here. Work-life balance and a positive company culture are essential for employee satisfaction and retention and high-performing teams and organizations.  

2. Help your employees ‘job craft’ 

The concept of job crafting was developed to increase and act on our understanding of how people can shape and redefine their jobs to better align with their strengths, values, and preferences. You can create more positive work experiences, happy employees, and high employee morale among team members by helping people make changes to their tasks, relationships, and perceptions of their work. 

3. Benefit from confidential feedback 

Often, people feel uncomfortable addressing workplace issues with their superiors. Confidential surveys can help, but one-on-one interviews by a trusted third-party advocate can trigger the most revealing “black-holes” that lead to actionable results. Management needs to know things that may not be obvious but are vital to enacting changes that bring relief and productivity back to the team. My role as a contracted, third-party advocate creates a safe, confidential space for candid input, and allows me to communicate meaningful findings to management. 

4. Get assistance with outplacement and recruiting 

Some perceptive hiring managers have asked me to assist with their outplacement efforts to help an employee move on to a new position or career, and then have me recruit a new team member who energizes the team. This is a proactive way to ease transitions while making teams and employee engagement stronger.  

A ‘mindset reset’ for current times  

Speaking of being realistic, it can be difficult for a team struggling with post-pandemic burnout and lack of motivation to bring their best selves to work and perform together as one. An ideal team environment (whether remote or in the office) should pull an employee out of their “home” to have a more fulfilling career with a “day-home” where they feel compelled to work efficiently with an energizing team or a set of clients. What “black-holes” in productivity and morale hinder your team?  Today, short- and long-term success requires ongoing commitment and adaptability from management to changing workplace dynamics and finding ways to nurture positive employee perspectives to boost employee morale.  

If you’re looking for the right talent to improve morale on your team, please reach out to me today to see if we can help with any of the above solutions.