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Ten Real causes of Low Morale inProfessional Firms

by Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan, Organisational Provocateur

This month we continue our journey to discover what messes up morale inprofessional service firms.

Last month we discussed the symptoms, and this month we gointo some real causes. The problem is that most practice leaders get bogged down with thesymptoms and never hack their ways through the jungle of symptoms to find the real causes.Why don't they do it? Because it is time-consuming and it may even be necessary to bring insome external help. And sadly, many professional firms operate on a super-high ego level, so bringing in external help is out of the question.Apart from subject matter expertise (law, accounting, etc.) the long-term success of every professional firm revolves around making the most of their people's capabilities through better leadership, teamwork and communication. Some may say, these are soft skills, butwithout them you are running a craft but not a business. There is a world of difference between practising law and running a law firm.

1. Misemployed People

According to a survey (I can't remember who it was done by) some 82% of the working population are misemployed. What that means is that they go to work and spend the day performing activities and being busy, but are light years away from tapping into their fullcapacity. This problem can be a touch more easily camouflaged in industrial firms, but in professional service firms, where the firm's success is based on one-to-one trust-basedrelationships with clients, people have to put out all they have. And again, I'm not talkingabout only subject matter expertise. Even the best IT specialist needs sales skills to interviewa potential buyer for the details of the potential project.

2. Communication Problems

In many firms people don't dare to speak their minds because they know they would be punished for doing so. British writer, St. John Ervine once said, "To hear nothing but what is pleasing is to make a pillow of the mind." Sadly, many firm partners and practice leaders areactually sleeping on this kind of pillow. They only hear the good news. It reminds me of communism where people didn't bother to tell their party leaders about the bad news in fear of having the messenger killed.I have talked to far too many practitioners in firms who would come to work in themorning, and then spending the evening sending out resumes for new jobs. I know an IT firmwhere all the Open Source experts quit at the same time. The problem was that the firm was positioned as an Open Source specialist and the mass exodus almost killed the firm. When Italked to two of the guys who quit they told me that there was only a one-waycommunication system in place. The partners and the practice leaders in the suites did the barking of the orders, and the "grunts" serving the clients did the "sir, yes sir" game.A professional service firm is a tight community. If you can't freely speak there, thenthere is a serious problem. Communication should flow not only downwards from partners but also upwards towards the partners. You have to establish communication channels for every possible situation. Often even short delays can be dangerous, so instead of gettinghung up with the style of the communication, focus on speed and substance. A handwrittennote right now is more valuable than a nicely printed memo the day after tomorrow.1

mproving employee morale benefits everyone involved in a work place. Boostingemployee morale means that people will take more pride in their work, call in sickless often and be more productive. Happier employees mean happier employers,since the employer will not lose money due to inefficiency and lost time.Improving employee morale can be accomplished fairly easily.Most people thrive on feeling appreciated. You can improve employee morale byshowing your appreciation in simple ways, such as rewarding an employee bysaying, "job well done," or, "thank you for the good work." It is a grave mistake onthe part of employers to only interact with their workers when there is a problem.Another way to show appreciation and boost employee morale is by beingfriendly and interested in your employees. A warmsmileand a sincerequery about how one is doing will in turn motivate employees. Knowing people’s namesand personalizing the work environment inspires employees to want to help you.Encouraging social interaction between employees and immediately resolvingconflict is another way to improve employee morale. Social events such as officepicnics and softball games create a sense of camaraderie between employees.Social interaction positively influences cooperation and a general enthusiasmabout coming to work everyday. Isolation, on the other hand, causes depressionand a lack of motivation.Another way to improve employee morale is by offering reward incentives. A jobwell done might be rewarded with agift card or a cash bonus. This reward can come as a surprise to the employees who earn it, or it can be announced as asort of game or contest. Having a goal to work towards that directly benefits theemployee can help create enthusiasm, which tends to be contagious.A very important factor in improving employee morale is the work environment.Psychological research shows that atmosphere greatly and directly affects themotivation level and feeling of well being of the employees in a workplace. Whenpossible, providing comfortable and aesthetically pleasing furniture is one waythat researchers suggest to motivate people. Lighting, flowers and artwork canalso help improve employee morale.

Poor Employee MoraleBeating Poor Employee Morale in Today'sWorkplace

Among the most important things thatcan be done to improve upon abusiness' s chances for success is tobeat poor employee morale in theworkplace and motivate team membersat their jobs. By failing to prevent or repair poor employee morale, there is ahigh risk of employee burnout andoverall dissatisfaction. This is anextremely expensive way to do businessbecause it leads to poor productivity andincreased absences from work.Moral in the workplace is among theend results of the different elements thatmake up the entire workingenvironment. Examples of theseelements includes salary, worker satisfaction, responsibilities, supervisory contributions, overall workingconditions, status, and a great deal more.Poor employee moral is something that should be managed as soon as it startsto show - that is, if it has not been prevented in the first place. The reason for thisis that it is extremely contagious. Rarely is poor employee moral limited to asingle individual.It is therefore important that signs of poor employee moral be watched for verycarefully among all employees. Such symptoms can include frequent absences,increases in the number of errors, decreased productivity, decreased quality of work, frequent tardiness, apathy, sulking and moping, backstabbing, andincreases in accidents or injuries.Remember that poor employee moral is not the cause of these problems, but it isinstead a reaction to another part of the workplace that is not functioning at itsbest. Therefore, if the problem is to be solved, the reason for the poor employeemorale must be identified.Issues from the User Forum:

Poor Employee Morale

I was recently promoted to amanagement position in an office of 25 employees. The office is dividedinto two groups, myself managingone half. My problem is that a veryreserved, conscientious, hard-worker (I'll call her Jac...< more >Suggest a solution for this issuePost a question to other users