I Was Sentenced to 5 Years at The Office! - Employee Morale

Employee morale is yet another issue that is talked about a lot, but rarely addressed effectively. Organizational culture plays into morale and engagement so deeply that the process of improving morale can be a long, tough road.

Here are just a handful of things that should be considered in trying to elevate morale:

- Create an environment that's fun and lively. If your work environment resembles a prison more than a theme park, employees probably aren't excited about their surroundings.
- Carefully evaluate your management style. Is it facilitating in nature or is it dictatorial or overly assertive and direct.
- Encourage employees to come forward with problems, suggestions and issues. Listen carefully and acknowledge their concerns. Follow up on them and communicate results of your findings back to them. Don't leave them hanging.
- Address compensation and benefits to make certain that you're at least competitive with the market.
- Be consistent in how you administer rules and policies.
- Be fair and reasonable with all employees.
- Set expectations for employees about team work and working cooperatively. Let it be known that you expect employees to get along while on the job. Morale can be impacted heavily by fellow employees who don't work and play well with others.
- Be clear in your expectations and follow up when they aren't met.
- Don't ignore low performers. If they can't become good employees, terminate them. Bad employees affect those around them.
- Don't allow double standards. What's good for one employee is good for all of them.
- Eliminate a punitive mentality. Don't make employees feel that they will be punished if they make mistakes. Accountable, yes. Punished in some manner, no.
- Encourage innovation and creativity.
- Show employees that you care about them. Taking an appropriate personal interest in employees lets them know you care about them as people and not just as worker bees.
- Communicate as much as possible to all employees. Keep them well informed about what's going on in the organization.
- Look at the work environment. Is it light and airy or is it dark, dreary and counterproductive? Does it seem lively or more like a morgue? Don't underestimate the impact of decor.

Reviewsnap Partners with OpenSesame for Enhanced Delivery of Performance Management Solution

Reviewsnap, the leading cloud-based performance management software solution, today announced a powerful partnership with OpenSesame, the e-learning marketplace. The alliance integrates the services of both companies, giving customers of either vendor greater and more streamlined access to performance management content.

“With this partnership, our customers will have the tools to instantly act on performance information to more directly and immediately enhance their organization’s capacity to bring learning into the workflow,” said Chris Arringdale, vice president of marketing for Reviewsnap. The combination of the Reviewsnap and OpenSesame platforms will “ultimately accelerate the speed of innovation and improvement for any of our customers,” Arringdale said.

Reviewsnap is a performance management system that lets managers and supervisors give real-time, detailed feedback to employees, while capturing meaningful data about performance at the organizational level. OpenSesame is an online marketplace of corporate training courses. Its clients can choose from thousands of courses, read customer reviews, watch course previews and instantly use purchased courses.

The two companies will offer an integrated platform for the employees of Reviewsnap customers to connect with online training opportunities based on gaps in performance competency identified through the Reviewsnap performance system.

“OpenSesame has reviewed and selected course curricula based on core competencies defined by Reviewsnap,” said OpenSesame CEO Don Spear. These include courses in areas such as business acumen, customer service and communication skills. “Excellent training courses from OpenSesame’s 100-plus developers will be embedded in the Reviewsnap platform, giving employees instant access to performance improvement opportunities,” Spear said.

About Reviewsnap

In times like these, growth is earned by companies that align their people behind shared goals. If you are working to get everyone on the same page, Reviewsnap is with you. More than performance management software, we offer true partnership through genuine customer service and support. And unlike those other guys who care more about shareholders than customers, we can’t sleep at night unless you can. We are all together now. We are your performance management partner. We are Reviewsnap. Visit us on the Web at www.reviewsnap.com or follow @reviewsnap on Twitter.

About OpenSesame

Based in Portland, Ore., OpenSesame is an open marketplace connecting e-learning buyers and sellers. Buyers browse thousands of courses in a wide variety of subjects, from workplace safety to business skills, all compatible with any learning management system. For more information, visit www.OpenSesame.com or follow @OpenSesame on Twitter.