The Sound of Morale

Morale is tough to tackle. For people with trouble understanding it, it’s best viewed as the emotional and mental ecosystem of the collective. It’s fostered, positively or negatively, by how a company’s values are translated into actionable items. This flows into how those items affect culture and how that culture affects employees, which trickles to productivity in various forms. What are the factions of this ecosystem? – Communication – Professionalism (One part humanism and one part business) – Leadership/Coaching Consistently implementing the aforementioned is what breathes life into any business. That atmosphere can become exponentially tensioned during stressful times if these items aren’t actively practiced. With morale, there is a tendency to be reactionary rather than proactive. This is rooted in the ideology that “the customer is always right” and so they are first-line priority in most businesses, rather than the people in the organization itself. You can imagine that when morale is part of the conversation, things are not going well for business. Whether it be the revolving door syndrome, losing clients, loss of brand or reputation, or depleted productivity they are all symptoms of a full-blown monster: low morale. ## Does it have to be ugly? The short answer is no. The environment cultivated in a business and on its production floor is going to directly impact customers. Why? Because even your best and brightest will be burned out by an environment that is emotionally and mentally exhausting. This lowers their productivity, quality of work, boosts absenteeism, increases illness, and more. Past that the chances of them leaving rise. This turnover crunch is a global business dilemma, and for the United States alone it is an annual $1 trillion dollar problem. Think that’s not a big deal? That statistic was reported by Gallup in 2019. It’s growing, especially when you factor in a tight labor market. ## The Sound of Morale Sunken morale sounds like new hire emails weekly, bad communication from the top down, and the silence between peers. You know, that deadly silence you get when you walk into a room and everyone scatters as soon as they see their manager. It’s crucial to understanding and being able to pick out businesses that have a healthy versus rotting morale, especially when you’re interviewing for a job. Take advantage of being offered a tour, or specifically ask for one. During that tour some things to look for and do are: – How do peers speak to each other? Are they speaking to each other at all? – Is music playing? Most production floors allow for music because it’s great for morale, and thus productivity. Be wary of silence, it speaks to a crew planning a departure. – Talk to your potential peers. Ask them questions about the company and how long they’ve been there. If you start to notice everyone is brand new that is worth questioning the hiring manager about before accepting an offer. Places that have a new workforce every few months is not somewhere worth being. You end up becoming a statistic yourself. – Is the Production Lead and/or Director of Maintenance consistently out of the loop? In this business, you will get curveballs, but if it’s a daily thing there’s a faulty communication line somewhere and it’s usually from someone high enough up that, that won’t change any time soon. How does this affect you? You’re going to be pulled mid-job, asked to stay late for “urgent” jobs that could have been planned better, expect a ton of “hurry up and wait” situations, and you’re constantly going to be rushed. – Do departments cross-pollinate? Is there departmental fighting? If all departments are compartmentalized communication becomes difficult because they isolate themselves. That usually makes it harder to do the job because of the eggshells you’ll be walking on. Pay attention to a lack of a “team” mentality. – Discuss pay at the end. This is more important than you may believe. Knowing what the fair market rate is in that area for your experience is crucial in negotiation. Companies that are strict about paying less than fair wages don’t value their employees. If you take less than what you deserve in your compensation package, and it’s not an entry-level position, it’s going to hurt your ability to stay working there. Keep in mind though that pay is not the only form of compensation since you can negotiate other things into your offer. – Ask about the policy on raises. Some companies never do them, and unfortunately, inflation devalues the dollar annually. If you aren’t making more each year your buying power drops.