Improve morale and you'll improve productivity.
Once employees start complaining about each other and about their work, it isn't easy to turn the situation around. These are symptoms of workers feeling overworked and unappreciated. It can also start from one troublemaker. Whatever the cause, there are ways to solve the problem.
Instructions
1. Listen to your employees. Ask for their opinions and then take action; do not make radical changes without your employee's input. Employees who feel a sense of ownership in their jobs and their companies take pride in exceeding expectations.
2. Give each employee three entry slips for a drawing. Place a stack of entry slips by the contest entry box. To enter, they write the name of an employee on the slip and write a one or two line comment about something good the employee has done. Then they sign their name.
It is mandatory for each to fill out their three slips, but optional to fill out any more beyond that. The more slips they fill out, the more chances they have of winning the drawing.
3. At a pre-announced time, hold the drawing and pull out one slip from the box. Each person on the slip (the person being praised and the person doing the praising) gets a prize. The prize can be simple like a coffee mug filled with wrapped candy or work related, like getting an extra hour for lunch one day.
4. Photocopy all the slips and place them in the employee's file so they get long-term credit for what they did. Give the slip to the employee being praised. This builds goodwill among employees, when they see that someone noticed and praised what they did.
It gets the staff to shift their thinking from always noticing and focusing on negative things. They start looking for the good things that go on in the workplace.
