Tough management requires that top executives take steps to
assure that low employee morale is not hurting their business,
thereby decreasing value to shareholders. The first step for an organization is to identify its current employee morale level. For example, senior executives have a dramatically higher perception of
employee morale in their organizations than do the managers, who
are closer to the employees. “If morale is suffering, the senior management is the last to know,” says a senior executive at a small
company.
Top executives need to listen more to employees, candidly, and
institute processes to continually benchmark morale levels, which
can present somewhat of a challenge. Executives also need to communicate more, or at least better, as detailed in Chapter 1.
At the personal level, managers and employees must keep balanced to improve their own morale, sometimes looking outside the
job for that personal satisfaction. “My job morale is not too hot,
but I keep my spirits up by doing other things, writing and teaching, which make life a bit more interesting,” says the CIO of one
major organization. Higher employee morale means lower turnover, less training, and more familiarity with the company, its products, and its customers. And when the economy and business pick
up, these employees are more likely to stay where they are happy