If you are responsible for your employee morale program, we are going to guess that it isn't going so well. And, that assumption is purely based on the fact that you're still referring to it as employee morale.
With a changing workforce comes a new set of Human Resource terminologies. We're hearing a lot of buzz surrounding employee motivation. While the notion of motivation is similar to that of employee morale, the actual motivators might sunrise you.
Forbes recently spilled the beans on how "out-of-touch" managers aren't in tune with what motivates today's employees to succeed. This translates into diminishing employee morale levels company-wide; trickling down to decreased productivity and employee retention.
To start course-correcting, you first have to evaluate the role and function of your Human Resource department. Let us state for the record, we aren't placing blame on HR. It's just that many of today's organizations have adapted and stretched their HR department to the point where they are unrecognizable (aka ineffective).
As the VP of RPO Client Services for Yoh, I've seen first-hand numerous clients who have had to cut headcount. So much so, there aren't enough people to complete the work necessary to run an efficient recruitment operation.
"Do more with less" is the prevailing mentality, but with recruiting on an upswing in many companies, there simply are not enough hours in the day/week. Employees are losing steam and enthusiasm.
Now, the good news. There are a few options to counteract the bad behavior, however in the scenario outlined above, taking on the added responsibilities to do so isn't a viable option. For companies in the midst of this situation, Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), the process by which a company outsources part or all of its recruitment functions, is a likely solution. Many of the clients I work with note an immediate lift in morale as a result of HR feeling less defeated or stretched beyond its capacity.
To bring it home, companies need to understand what its HR department can do well, and where it needs a boost. The decision isn't always easy, but the long-term benefits of bringing in additional resources can make all the difference for everyone in the organization.