For those employees susceptible to distraction, the modern age of social media is THE golden road to becoming sidetracked.

In fact, according to The Telegraph, “Employees waste 759 hours each year due to workplace distractions”. We know ourselves, one click, and we find ourselves lost in a world of awful Talent show auditions and (admittedly) amusing memes.

We’ve all been there. It’s an easy way to kill time when you’re at a loose end or struck with a stress-filled bout of procrastination. Even so, for you and your workforce, it can drain productivity and eventually, morale.

There are various reasons why your employees may get distracted at work. Sometimes it’s a sheer lack of responsibility and tasks. At other times it’s having so much work that staring down the endless list of deadlines is too much to take. But what is one of the main underlying reasons? The answer is low morale.

Here’s what you should be doing to increase morale in the workplace:

1. Celebrate hard working employees

If you find that one or several of your employees are frequently working overtime, while others in the same department are leaving on time (or early), then spread the workload out.

For those that aren’t working as hard when there’s work to be done, you can provide them with, via email, a productivity report that will show them that they’re not putting enough effort in. This not only gives them the hint that they need to work harder, but it will also help to bypass unwanted confrontations.

When employees are operating well, and meeting targets, you should celebrate them. Let them know you’re cognizant of their hard work and that their effort is helping the company become a more productive entity.

2. Monitor for Motivation

One way to improve motivation that often gets overlooked is through monitoring and reporting on employee activity. Employee monitoring software does the work for you, assessing who’s a top worker and who’s a far cry from. More importantly, you’ll be able to see why there’s a difference, and with data like this in hand, you’ll be able to pinpoint any major issues in the workplace as a whole, and for individual employees.

3. Ensure that your company has a promotion path

Sujan Patel recommends that your company has a clear track towards promotion in his post on boosting workplace morale, saying:

“Forty percent of millennials expect promotions every one to two years. To maintain employee morale among a new generation of employees, you need to emphasize the viability of your promotional tracks. Be clear about opportunities to grow, not just during recruitment but on a regular basis.”

4. Embrace Corporate Social Responsibility

From an outsiders perspective, would your company’s name be correlated with being ethically responsible?

Here’s what Ivan Widjaya from bizpenguin.com says in his smallbiztrends article about the importance of having this association:

“You don’t have to be running a Fortune 500 company to be an ethically responsible company that embraces corporate social responsibility and all that it stands for. In fact, if you refuse to embrace it and all that it entails, it’s quite possible a strong majority of the people that work for you are currently unhappy in their jobs.

This year and beyond, community social responsibility (CSR) needs to become an essential part of how you do business. Not just for maintaining your market presence, but also for reducing employee turnover and improving morale.”

5. Daily Team Rally

Mike Michalowicz suggests that one of the best ways to lift morale is through regular team ‘huddles’, saying:

“Remember this: people’s emotions are a result of the stories they are telling themselves in their heads. When your people are down, keeping it quiet will only make it worse. Have daily huddles (standing mini-meetings that last no more than 10 minutes) where you share the actions and progress you are taking to make things better. Let people share specific challenges they are facing, and the actions they are taking it to fix it. The daily huddle creates a regular shot of energy (better for you than doughnuts and coffee). Just be sure to stick with this for the life of your company. There is nothing worse than starting the huddle process and dropping the ball on it… that will further crush morale.”

Your Turn

Which techniques do you rely on to help boost workplace morale? Let us know in the comments!