Signs of Low Morale

Low morale may exist among your employees, but you may not realize it. There are some obvious signs that you can watch for, though, including:

• excessive absenteeism or tardiness
• high turnover
• poor work quality
• increasing number of errors in work
• necessity to re-do work frequently
• lack of enthusiasm about work
• jealousy or fighting among staff members
• complaints from customers about service

Is morale the problem? Having some of these present in your business may not be indicative of a morale problem. In the case of errors in work and poor work quality, there may be training issues to address. If work quality is poor, don't make the immediate assumption that the employee hates his or her job. It's important to recognize that if an employee has not been adequately trained for the work he or she is expected to perform, morale can suffer.

In all but the worst cases — the ones where employees clearly hate their jobs — you may have to do a little research to find out if employees are unhappy and what it is they're unhappy about. Once you know, you can rectify the problem.