Techn@gerial

Morale is the de facto measure of corporate contentment it would seem, often featuring in weekly meetings as an agenda item and cited in “Company of The Year” awards as a key indicator.  But what is morale and is there anything you can do to keep it high and buoyant?

I have an  unusually “glass half empty” theory about morale and that is that it is an indicator in a process which is actually pretty much the same for all people.  That is a gradual decline from the heady first few days in a new job to the gut wrenching day someone decides to move on to a new role.

Obviously everyone is different, with varying tolerances for the day to day issues that can be encountered in any job and the upheaval or fear of change may keep people chirpy in the direst of circumstances.  But does that alter my theory?

Consider the diagram above which attempts to plot morale over time, and provides an exit line beyond which thoughts of leaving are inevitable.  Dips in morale are initially narrow and shallow, as problems are overcome or some other change in role or circumstances has the employee bouncing back with a smile.  These may get deeper and due to the recurrence, wider, i.e. taking longer to recover from.  Each episode lowering the overall level to which the employee does bounce back to.  After a series of these dips, and without a restorative event (promotion, new role etc,) the person will think more and more about leaving.

The Stay Line is a very individual one, I have pitched it at the point where I think most people moan about their jobs but wouldn’t want to leave.  This may be due to commitments, fear or patience but it is a strong pull keeping people up off the exit line but it does create tension if people stay at this level too long.  It takes a brave person to leave from this position but I would argue it is the time to start looking for a new job.  I guess it is the “rut” people find themselves stuck in…

So what?  Well, there is a lot to be said for understanding where your staff are on this scale, if you agree it exists.  Knowing how to keep the inevitable dips short and shallow and where each of your team members’ stay line is, can help avoid losing people you’d rather keep hold of.  How you keep them is not something I can help with, but having a model like this to talk about with them might help keep your people in the green zone.

Tweet This Post