Contingent Worker Morale & Your Bottom Line

There is one thing that no business can be without; business depends on workers to actually do business.  Without workers, there is no business.  

Maintaining high worker morale is important to productivity.  Happy workers who are satisfied with their jobs are more productive than workers who are not satisfied with their jobs.  There are many benefits of high employee morale; here are just a few of them:

• Increased Productivity
• Reduced Absenteeism
• Lower Turnover
• Reduced Workplace Stress

Maintaining high employee morale should be a priority for all managers, in every industry.

Read: Workforce Management Solutions—What Drives Excessive Overtime?

Employee Morale and the Contingent Worker

Morale and job satisfaction are a concern for all employees; it can be a particularly thorny issue for the contingent worker.  The typical contingent worker is at your business for a limited time.  He or she may not feel like a true part of your organization, and there may be significant division between contingent workers and regular employees who may see temporary employees as a threat.  Contingent workers usually have not been at your organization long enough to become familiar with your company's culture and methods of doing business.  To improve contingent worker morale, you must take particular care to impress upon them their significance and importance to your organization.

Steps to Improve Employee Morale

Improving employee morale is an inexact science, but there are concrete steps that you can take.  In essence, it comes down to showing each employee respect as an individual, whose feelings, ideas and thoughts have merit.  Here are three concepts that can help you improve morale: 

Every job is meaningful; each worker has value

There is no such thing as an unimportant job; all of your employees contribute to the health and success of your organization.  During regular performance reviews and everyday interactions, be sure to stress to your employees that they are the key to meeting the goals of your business.

Read: HR's Cheat Sheet To Reducing Employee Turnover

Everyone should participate in decision-making

It would be impractical for all decisions to be vetted by every employee, but there are ways to make all workers feel included in major decisions.  In the days and weeks leading up to a major decision, solicit feedback from all employees, either directly or through intermediate supervisors.  Once the decision has been made, be sure to communicate it quickly and clearly to all affected parties.  Employees will more readily accept decisions that they have participated in making.

Everybody is a part of the team

Teambuilding exercises often seem silly or superfluous, but they can be effective when used correctly.  If the team analogy does not work for your employees, maybe the family analogy will work better.  In any case, morale improves when everybody works together toward a single goal.

Be sure to address these issues sooner rather than later, to stop potential problems before they start.

Read: Workforce Management Solutions: How To Obliterate Production Bottlenecks

Maintaining employee morale is not just about productivity; it is intrinsically good.  Employees who have a positive work environment will be happier and healthier, both on and off the job.  As a manager, you have both the power and responsibility to do what you can to improve employee morale.  Of course, not every employee will be satisfied with his or her job.  Regardless of this, there are concrete tangible and intangible benefits of employee morale.  Make a plan to achieve them, and start working today.