3 inexpensive ways to improve employee morale

We all spend a lot of our waking hours at work. The job we do and how much we like it can determine the overall quality of our lives to a significant degree. Being in a job that we are bored with can lead to lethargy in other areas of life as well. Likewise, being at a job we love makes the rest of life feel more vibrant.  As managers and leaders, it is easy to fall back on traditional benefits to reward employees and make the workplace more enjoyable. True, there are HR considerations and an organization needs to ensure they are treating all employees with equity and fairness. However, sometimes there are outside of the box ways to improve the work environment that are not necessarily high cost. If you have the authority to implement a reward system in your credit union, find out what your employees value and consider ways to bring their ideas into your organizational culture.

Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

1. Flexible Scheduling: In many workplaces, the days of 9-5 work are long gone, and companies let employees work remotely or on a schedule that best suits their needs. Yes, you are a credit union. Yes, you have retail outlets and members that expect you to be available at specific times. However, that does not mean every employee necessarily needs come and go at the exact same time. Consider letting employees stagger their schedules in a way that best suits their needs.  If your team isn’t big enough for that, give some availability to arrive or leave on a different schedule on occasion, and adjust their schedule later in the week to make up the time. Having the freedom not to worry about missing a life event goes a long way toward job satisfaction.
2. Celebrate: Find ways to celebrate wins. Your branches may have department goals, and your individual team members may have goals as well. It is great to reward monetarily when these are met, but find ways to celebrate smaller victories as well as life events. Spend a few dollars on a team lunch when your group has a particularly good month. Notice birthdays and occasions, and build a cohesive group dynamic. People also like work when they like the people they work with, and celebrating together builds a sense of community.  Finding ways to notice when things go right builds morale in subtle ways. The few hundred dollars spent on occasional lunch or reward for meeting a team goal can pay dividends beyond the moment.
3. Give autonomy: Providing project autonomy to individual employees can be tricky. Giving autonomy is not quite the same as not micro-managing. It is the flexibility to allow people to see their own ideas come to life.  Some people are great performers and are content with their jobs, and may not find this a benefit. But there are other employees who really want to see the impact of their work, or are visionary and want to see their ideas implemented. Some major tech companies have successfully implemented what is called 20% time. These companies give twenty percent of working hours to employees to experiment and create. This may not be completely replicable within your credit union due to regulatory requirements, product mix, and department structure.  Twenty percent might be too much time, and organizational constraints might provide some barriers. However, the concept is solid. There are probably ways to allow your employees to create something a little different – and your organization might feel a unique competitive advantages as a result. People like to feel their work matters, and this is one way to develop creative contributors.