IACA Office Hours
Employee Engagement and Morale
July 13, 2021
Thank you to all who attended! We had a great discussion! Below are some highlights.
Challenges and contributors to decreased engagement/morale
- Call center environment
- Lower salaries/lack of salary increases
- Freeze on bonuses/increases due to pandemic
- Increased workload
- Lack of financial resources to celebrate/appreciate staff
Ideas and actions taken to increase engagement and/or morale
- Newsletter (including positive comments only newsletter)
- Managers sharing information with other staff
- Monthly stipend
- Department-wide increase
- Surveying staff to get input on ways to increase engagement/morale
- Daily stand-up
- Providing staff access to mental health and wellness resources
- Team meetings focused on non-business topics (i.e. vacations, pets, hobbies, etc.)
- Training
Other engagement ideas
- Recognition for achievements, including from upper management and across sections
- Potlucks
- Using a blackboard or whiteboard for trivia, updates, etc.
- Personal projects
- Theme days/Wacky Wednesdays/Jersey Day
- Appreciation cards/certificates
- Rotate staff to different section every Friday/General staff rotation through sections
- Jeans days (other than Fridays)
- Alternative work schedules
- After hours party
- Photography contest for framing to go on walls
Resources
- The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People – Gary Chapman
- Fewer than half of employees in Europe feel trusted at work – Allyson Zimmerman, March 22, 2021 https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2021/03/22/fewer-than-half-of-employees-in-europe-feel-trusted-at-work/