Ensure Positive Employee Morale

One of the most difficult tasks that managers face after finding the right employees for a job is keeping them happy and motivated. Maintaining a high level of employee morale may be difficult as the economy falters, budgets are cut and employees are generally expected to do more with less. However, keeping the morale high might not be as difficult as you think.

Transportation Management + Engineering takes a look at how recent trends such as telecommuting and flexible scheduling can keep morale high within the workplace. Also, we address the issue of job security and what can be done by managers to reassure the confidence of employees that remain in the workplace after cuts have been made within an organization. Finally, Transportation Management + Engineering offers a fail-safe solution that will keep employees satisfied and motivated in order to ensure a high level of morale.

In addition to the basic benefits that every organization offers—paid time off, health care, sick leave—new employee standards have come to the forefront in recent years. In response to the growth of the Internet, e-mail, as well as cellular phones, many organizations have become more adept at allowing employees to telecommute.

Telecommuting offers employees the ability to remain in constant communication with each other from basically any location in the world.

An example of this may be when an employee of a state department of transportation is unable to make it to the office for an extended period of time, therefore, business must be conducted within the home. Despite being away from the office for a few days, the employee is still able to be in contact with the DOT and make decisions even though not physically present in the office.

According to Lin Grensing-Pophal, author of "Creative Approaches to Employee Retention," time is very valuable to employees. Grensing-Pophal wrote, "many companies are exploring the option of telecommuting–allowing employees to work from their homes instead of coming into the office."

One more example may involve an organization, which has representatives who permanently conduct business within their own homes–hundreds of miles away from the organization’s main office. Communication is possible due to the employee’s ability to establish contact via a company network through the Internet.

Flexible scheduling is one of the most popular methods of ensuring high employee morale. While transportation engineers may be hard at work relieving traffic congestion around North America, they also have to face this traffic every day and many have discovered that leaving an hour later for work–of course, staying at work an hour later–has greatly reduced the overall amount of time spent commuting. Reducing the number of hours spent in traffic also has a number of positive implications outside the office—reducing smog, saving gas, increased life span of pavements–additionally, it can have a profound effect on the positive morale of employees.

Ask any one of your employees about their commute. More often than not, their response will not be positive and many organizations are beginning to recognize this and have begun to allow employees to work on a flexible schedule.

Stewart Friedman, a professor at the Wharton School of Business, has written that "giving more employees more freedom over their schedules results in the greatest productivity and increased morale."

The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century also has addressed the issue of commuting by employees in an effort that could increase employee morale. TEA-21 allows employers to offer workers either cash or tax-free reimbursements for parking, mass transit fares and van pooling expenses all in an effort to unclog roadways.

Naturally, managers are forced to deal with issues that also have a negative effect on employee morale, especially with the recent downturn in the economy.

If there has been a loss of jobs within the organization, it is important to restore the confidence of the remaining employees, and that starts with management being honest about why changes have been made.

According to a paper titled "Doing More With Less; Motivating Your Workforce in Uncertain Economic Times," written by Andrea C. Poe, communication is the key to keeping employees motivated and morale up in the event of employee cutbacks.

"Communicating honestly demonstrates good management, and good management can go a long way to keeping your shrinking workforce intact," Poe wrote. "Even after cuts are made, make sure management communicates about the state of business so employees are kept up to date."

While having to let employees go is difficult, keeping the remaining employees motivated and their morale high is just as important. As mentioned above, honesty and communication are key.

As I mentioned in my editorial, taking the time to recognize the work your employees are doing may be very important to their morale. Managers don’t necessarily have to praise them for every little thing they do, but it is important to recognize the efforts of employees on a regular basis. Compliments and positive reinforcement in the form of a face-to-face conversation, telephone call or even an e-mail acknowledges that you are paying attention to the work they do.

I recently discussed this issue with a number of attendees at the Institute of Transportation Engineers Annual Meeting & Exhibition in Chicago and most agreed that high morale and job satisfaction could be directly related to positive reinforcement and compliments coming from a manager, group leader or department head.

What do you do to increase employee morale within your organization? Share them with other Transportation Management + Engineering readers by sending your ideas in an e-mail to tmeeditor@sgcmail.com. Ideas will be posted exclusively on our website (www.tmemag.com) during the month of November.