HR Inspiring Your Team

Inspiring Your Team

How to build morale during a crisis

By Dana Pietras, PHR, SHRM-CP

Employee morale affects the productivity of any organization, but it’s especially important in organizations that provide patient care. Low morale is associated with poor performance, conflicts that can disrupt patient care, and loss of revenue for your organization. In healthcare situations, these negative effects can lead to poor patient experiences due to unmotivated staff not treating or supporting patients with the highest standards of quality of care. This is especially relevant during this time as the COVID-19 pandemic has spread a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety within the medical community. As a physician or practice manager, it’s vital to the success of your practice that leadership openly communicate and address opportunities to positively impact the morale and well-being of the staff.

Why Morale Is Important to Your Practice When staff morale is high, productivity increases. Satisfied healthcare workers are cheerful, attentive to the needs of their patients, willing to go the extra mile, and display a positive attitude. This will improve the overall patient experience, which is key. When it is low, staff members are less motivated to work. Healthcare workers with low morale have decreased productivity and increased insubordination, conflicts with co-workers, disorganized work methods, routine complaints about seemingly insignificant work-related issues, and an uptick in patient complaints regarding the employee’s behavior.

Low morale increases turnover rates, too, and the constant flow of workers can drastically reduce overall productivity as new employees tend to complete tasks more slowly. The national nurse turnover rate was 17.2% in 2018, and CNA turnover rate was nearly 32% that year.

According to Forbes Media, LLC, 46% of American businesses have implemented

remote-work policies as of mid-February. Staff new to working from home are struggling to stay engaged, focused, and productive, which leads to a decrease in employee morale. Staff will often look to leadership for guidance during a time of ambiguity and need guidance to keep from falling into patterns that can lead to low morale.

How to Improve Morale Among Your Staff

Discover and empathize with the needs of your staff According to BusinessSolver, 90% of employees are more likely to stay with an organization that empathizes with their needs. Being flexible and working to incorporate questions about what’s working and what needs to be improved is invaluable to staff when delivered with sincerity. It is unavoidable that staff working from home will experience distractions, but employees who feel appreciated will work to make up for those moments of disruption.

Prioritize employee health and mental well-being Happy, healthy employees are more productive, but many healthcare workers are vulnerable to job-related illness, injury, and significant stress. While employees continue to work remotely, encourage time outdoors, frequent breaks from the computer screen, and even suggest a fitness app to help employees stay active, avoid burnout, and prevent illness and injury. Always strive to provide an outlet for staff. Carve out time at the beginning of a meeting to have a social conversation to reconnect with each other for a few minutes before getting to essential content, especially when the meeting is done virtually.

Adjust workload and support your employees A study by Southern Methodist University shows that when the overall workload is low, increasing the workload may motivate workers to work harder. However, when the workload is high, increasing the workload can actually reduce worker productivity. Check in with staff frequently to see how they are handling the amount of work they have on their plate. Make it a point to schedule one-onone meetings with your staff, and don’t cancel them unless absolutely necessary. If you had an open-door policy at the physical office, be as responsive as possible on your instant messaging platform to maintain that feeling of open communication with employees.

A softer approach In a March 2020 article, “How to Boost Telecommuters’ Morale During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Moira Alexander suggested that working in an online environment doesn’t have to affect employee morale negatively.

Providing company-wide updates to keep staff up to date about organizational tactics in the face of COVID19, or hosting team wellness check-ins, can make a huge difference in employee morale. Use dialogue and feedback to understand and clarify what employees do, reassess task alignment, and optimize the working environment. Dialogue and shared purpose between employees can help individuals work as a cohesive team to increase productivity and morale. Use this opportunity to capitalize on team members’ strengths and encourage them to expand upon, or even provide online training options for, skill sets that they may have begun developing while in the office.

During work from home periods, it is especially important to publicly recognize individual work and affirm staff’s value. “In a crisis, the only asset you have is your credibility,” said Paul Volcker, the late former Federal Reserve Chairman and Chairman of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board throughout the 2008–2009 economic crisis.

Identify and address other factors that may be reducing productivity Organizational culture, work environment, leadership, peer support, stress, wages, and other factors contribute to employee morale. Identify and address any of these factors affecting your organization’s productivity. Morale is one of the most essential components of a company’s culture and success, and staff will reflect leadership’s value Dana Pietras, PHR, SHRM-CP, is the Senior of their morale in daily effort. Human Improve productivity at your practice by boosting morale among your most valuable asset—your Resources Business Partner at Physicians Endoscopy (PE). She can be reached at healthcare workers. dpietras@endocenters.com.