In need of ideas to boost employee morale?
As we drag through year two of a pandemic that’s just now getting under control, it’s likely many professionals need a morale lift. In particular, educators, working parents, healthcare workers, and social workers have been strained during the uncharted pandemic waters.
A boost is what most employees need at this point. It also serves as a reminder of how quality company perks are what matter to employees — sometimes even more than a fat paycheck. Benefits like unlimited time off, relaxing break rooms, and solid recognition programs are what employees want and need right now.
If you’re fresh out of ideas for ways to lift your team’s spirits, fear not. Below we’ve compiled easy, affordable ways to get your team back into their pre-pandemic groove.
Here are 11 ways to offer activities and perks to boost employee morale:
Easy Employee Morale Boosters to Try
1. Invest in Recognition Programs
Recognition is essential in retaining employees who work hard and dedicate many hours each week to your company. Consider a variety of ways you can offer recognition to your employees. Email shout-outs, in-person praises, gift cards, and company-branded giveaways are all great ways to recognize hard workers.
Have a free-spirited team? Create a quirky recognition ritual. Doing so gives employees a special event to look forward to at your gatherings. Infuse fun in your recognition rituals and your employees will no doubt get a kick out of them and enjoy them.
2. Send Out a Daily Funny
Make your team’s daily 9-to-5 grind more enjoyable by giving them something to giggle about before they start their day. Laughing is an immediate way to stimulate the lungs, muscles, and heart, and can reduce tension. Long-term, regular humor can improve mood, increase personal satisfaction, relieve pain, and improve the immune system.
Daily funny ideas:
- Email a list of three short jokes
- Send a clean, short standup comedy clip
- Share a local newspaper or magazine comic
- Email a collection of your favorite funny quotes
- Read a “dope of the day” news story before a meeting
Help make your workplace feel less tense and more joyful by infusing humor into daily work. When employees see leadership and management doesn’t take work-life so seriously, they can relax a bit more, too.
3. Throw a Puppy Party
There’s something about puppy snuggles that are the best. If your company is back in-office these days — and no one is allergic to dogs — consider hosting a “bring your dog to work day” event. Have company-branded dog bowls on hand and plenty of dog treats for staff to hand out during the day when Fido comes wandering about to say hi.
Create Your Pet Policy Now: 6 Reasons to Allow Pets in the Office
4. Provide Tuition Reimbursement
There’s no doubt that college — and obtaining a degree — is hard work and also expensive. If you have employees who have always wanted to finish their degree, offering tuition assistance is one way you can help.
Perks of offering tuition reimbursement include:
- Earn a tax break
- Attract top talent
- Reduce turnover costs
- Enhance employees’ skills
About half of those students who start a degree won’t finish within six years as affordability and time are often barriers. Boost your employees’ confidence in themselves by encouraging them — and providing financial support — to work toward a degree they’re dedicated to finishing.
5. Offer Paid Birthday Leave
Who doesn’t love to have a paid day off? Make every employee’s birthday wish come true by giving them the day off. If their birthday falls on a weekend or a holiday, consider giving them the next business day off. Encourage them to do something they love in the name of self-care.
6. Try Team Building Activities
Gather the troops for an afternoon of team building that won’t make them roll their eyes. You can find entertaining team-building activities that will get employees laughing and having a blast.
Some ideas to try for your next team building event:
- 5K event
- Field day
- Egg toss
- Escape room
- Potato sack races
- City scavenger hunt
- Brewery/winery outing
- Ropes challenge course
Want some more ideas? Check out Why Team Building Matters (+7 Ideas to Get You Started)
7. “Mug” Your Team
If you have an office full of coffee and tea drinkers, help them start their day off right with a little surprise on their desk. Leave a customized or company-branded coffee mug on your employees’ desks with a box of tea or coffee or both for them to enjoy. Include a note of appreciation, and, if possible, call out a specific recent action of theirs that you appreciated.
8. Workout Together
Teams that workout together stay together, right? This routine can easily be done with both remote or in-house teams to build a sense of camaraderie. If you have an on-site gym, create classes that your departments can take together. Or, plan to get 10,000 steps in by a certain time during the workweek. An active leaderboard can up the competition level, too.
Simple ways to workout together:
- Meet at a local park
- Host a fitness contest
- Sign-up for a 5k event
- Create a morning workout group
When leadership encourages working out, it can also help deepen coworker relationships through accountability. Coworkers who work out together can encourage and inspire one another not only in fitness but in the workplace, too
9. Offer Unlimited Time Off
Your employees shouldn’t be taking vacations just when they’re on the brink of burnout. Hoarding vacation days is no way to look forward to the most relaxing time of the year for hard workers. Offer unlimited time off to your team members and watch retention rates grow, recruiting skyrocket, and morale improve.
10. Create a Better Break Room
If you’ve ever worked in a drab office with an even more depressing “break room”, then you know how unpleasant it can be. A messy, disorganized, or downright undesirable break room can make employees feel uninspired and drained after what should be a refreshing work break.
Ways to perk up your break room:
- Add a snacks box
- Freshen up the paint
- Decorate with nice art, quotes, murals, etc.
- Furnish with comfortable chairs, bean bags, etc.
- Include a self-help library for staff to checkout books
- Diffuse relaxing essential oils like lavender or lemongrass
Ask employees how their break room experience could be improved. It may be a simple fix you hadn’t thought about.
11. Create a Staff Message Board
Positive messages are always uplifting. Plus, it serves as a reminder that your employees’ work doesn’t go unnoticed. Start a staff message board — either virtually or on a bulletin board/whiteboard — for individuals to write kind, thoughtful messages to one another. It’s a simple way to create team bonding that doesn’t take much effort at all but means the world to employees.
Employee Morale Improvement Doesn’t Have to Be Hard
When you take the time to consider what employees really want, it’s pretty basic:
They want to enjoy their work without getting burned out while also being shown they’re appreciated through a variety of perks and benefits. In some cases, you might even find job perks are more valuable to employees than a bigger salary.
Professionals who lend your company their talent and time desire to be comfortable in their work and personal lives. When you focus on morale boosting as a whole for your company, the perks are usually more aligned with what employees really want.
That’s what it comes down to: Ask your team what they want.
Ultimately, there is always a discussion about it, but in offering perks like unlimited time off, team-building events, and encouraging workplace fun, you’ll find morale levels stay much higher, much longer.
Want more ideas to boost employee morale? Check out our free downloadable guide 52 Morale Boosters for Every Week of the Year for ideas to use every week of the year!
