10 Proven Strategies to Boost Employee Morale and Engagement

People working in companies with positive cultures are healthier, happier, more productive—and less likely to leave—according to Harvard University’s Division of Continuing Education. Research also shows that companies with positive workplace cultures have higher average annual returns.

In this article, we’ll explore tools and strategies to boost employee morale and engagement while addressing other common workplace challenges.

What causes low employee morale?

The way we work is changing. While some of these changes—like flexible schedules and automation tools that save employees time—contribute to greater work satisfaction, others create challenges for morale. The first step toward improving company culture and productivity is understanding what causes low morale in the first place.

Common reasons include:

• Lack of recognition. When contributions go unnoticed, motivation declines. Celebrating achievements and implementing recognition programs signal to employees that they’re valued.
• Poor work-life balance. Burnout is real, and it can be costly. A culture that encourages taking PTO to recharge and establishing boundaries—like “do not disturb” hours—can help employees do their best work.
• Weak leadership. Poor leadership accounts for many bad experiences at work. Transparent leadership encourages open and honest communication and supports a values-based culture.
• Limited career growth. When employees don’t see advancement opportunities, they may look for them elsewhere. Help them envision their future with structured career paths, development opportunities, and regular conversations.
• Lack of psychological safety. Create a respectful workplace where people feel supported by celebrating inclusion and encouraging diverse perspectives.

 

1. Implement flexible working arrangements

Most remote workers (71%) surveyed in a Pew Research study said working from home helps them balance their work and personal lives, but more than half also say it is harder to connect with colleagues. In a Deloitte study on workplace productivity, 84% of workers said they’d be more productive if they could choose their preferred work style. Several studies have also shown that people who work from home typically work more hours than their in-office counterparts due, in part, to a lack of commuting.

These numbers point to a need for remote and hybrid work policies and tools that provide work-life balance while keeping teams connected. Going a step beyond traditional chat, Slack’s work OS offers tools like huddles that help co-workers have spontaneous, real-time conversations on camera or through audio-only meetings. Managers and colleagues can also use clips to provide quick, asynchronous updates that keep everyone in the loop without having to carve out time on the calendar.

2. Show recognition and appreciation often

Small gestures can do big things for morale. When leaders show employees that they appreciate them in personal, authentic, and public ways, it can really boost confidence and optimism. Recognition doesn’t have to be expensive, but it should be thoughtful and intentional. Here’s how to boost employee morale with simple recognition strategies:

• Formal and informal recognition. Formal recognition may require a budget and strategic planning, while informal recognition can be as simple as sending a direct message or sharing a win in the team Slack channel.
• Milestone celebrations. Acknowledge work anniversaries, achievements, and other milestones publicly. This can be done as part of a monthly company newsletter or more frequently in a company-wide channel.
• In-person recognition. Consider team lunches, handwritten thank-you notes, and shout-outs during team or company-wide meetings to publicly recognize individual or team contributions.
• Virtual recognition. Use dedicated Slack channels, online recognition boards, and virtual awards ceremonies to consistently recognize remote and distributed teams.

 

3. Set up regular check-ins

Checking in regularly helps team members feel valued by leaders and helps prevent communication breakdowns, especially among remote workers.

Regular, in-the-moment communication is what drives employee coaching at one European business finance solution that regularly achieves 80% engagement. The company uses Slack’s Coachello integration to prevent communication silos and fragmented communication that can derail projects.

Try these simple check-in ideas to improve employee engagement for in-person and remote teams:

• Structured one-on-one meetings for career development and growth opportunities
• Team huddles to align on current projects, challenges, and wins
• Leadership accessibility through town halls or regular office hours
• Digital touchpoints and collaboration tools to share knowledge and ideas and engage with others

4. Encourage personal development and career growth

A Pew Research study found that 63% of workers who left a job cited lack of career growth opportunities as a reason. Professional development, growth opportunities, and mentorship can help keep your employees engaged.

“The thing that works best in my experience is actually getting to the front lines and talking to employees,” said Marissa Letendre, an independent human resources consultant who has worked with Fortune 500 companies. “Stay interviews are a great way to start,” she said, especially in companies that have already built trust with their employees.

A key question for stay interviews, according to Letendre, is: “If you had a magic wand, what would you change?” She said the changes employees crave are often inexpensive and achievable, like more engaged and effective leadership, or the ability to make an impact or have a voice.

These conversations can often lead to career development opportunities like:

• Mentorship programs that pair experienced team members with newer employees
• Manager training to better support team members
• Professional development courses and workshops for in-demand skills like those offered on Salesforce’s Trailhead Academy
• In-the-moment learning opportunities, like AI recommendations from tools like Agentforce in Slack

 

5. Try team bonding activities

Social connection and bonds between colleagues are foundational to building a strong team culture. Expand team-building efforts beyond the traditional with remote-friendly and hybrid activities that include your distributed workforce.

Consider activities like:

• Virtual happy hours. Schedule a virtual happy hour once a month where teams can participate in games, get-to-know-you activities, challenges, or casual, interest-based conversations.
• Social groups. Give employees a platform for nonwork-related conversations, such as a #watercooler channel in Slack or other more niche topics like #gardening, #recipesharing, or #filmlovers.
• Quarterly lunch and learns. Invite a subject matter expert to speak or conduct a collaborative professional development workshop for in-person and remote workers.
• Birthday and anniversary shout-outs. Highlight birthdays and anniversaries—weekly or monthly—in a dedicated Slack channel; consider sending around a virtual card for everyone to sign and share their wishes.

 

6. Practice leadership transparency

Leadership transparency matters to employees. For one leading employee experience and analytics platform, trust is built into their company values. These include:

• Trust people to make decisions
• Amplify others
• Have the courage to be vulnerable
• Learn faster through feedback

Their Slack channel—#yay-we-failed—invites employees (affectionately called “campers”) to openly discuss mistakes and learnings. They also have a #ceo channel where their founder and CEO regularly answers questions submitted via the company’s ask-me-anything surveys.

Building trust with your team starts with consistent, authentic actions that match company values, such as:

• Frequent, proactive, and open communication. Share company updates, challenges, and wins openly and often. Explain the “why” behind decisions that affect employees, communicating important news as soon as possible.
• Accountability. Take responsibility when things go wrong; create a culture that encourages honesty, ownership, and learning from mistakes.
• Consistency. Leadership’s role in engagement includes actions such as honoring deadlines, keeping commitments, and aligning actions with stated values.

 

7. Embrace diversity and inclusion initiatives

In an inclusive culture, everyone feels comfortable being who they are and sharing their ideas. This sense of belonging is critical for psychological safety, and it benefits your organization, too. Look for ways to promote diversity and ensure all voices are heard by using inclusive meeting practices, celebrating cultural differences, and tracking diversity metrics at all levels.

For example:

• Encourage different perspectives and respectful discussions among teams
• Bring remote workers into the culture conversation with team chats and one-on-one conversations in Slack
• Create unbiased recruitment strategies, performance evaluation criteria, and advancement pathways
• Define equitable, consistent processes for assigning work
• Prevent unintentional AI bias with human oversight
• Track outcomes to ensure fair representation

 

8. Support work-life balance

Work-life balance may look different depending on individual schedules and preferences, but every employee should have clear boundaries for their work and personal time. For example, managers can respect work-life boundaries by:

• Sending emails and messages only during work hours. Slack users can set up “do not disturb” hours where notifications are silenced when the user is unavailable.
• Creating reasonable response time expectations for their teams
• Providing mental health days or floating holidays
• Allowing employees to work remotely one or more days each week
• Sharing time management tips and tools that can help reduce workplace stress, fatigue, and burnout

 

9. Gamify tasks

Gamification at work boosts productivity for 90% of employees and improves employee engagement by 48%. To get results like these, build gamification strategies around organizational goals and connect employee engagement apps with Slack to gamify tasks where your team already works. Effective programs typically include elements like challenges, levels, points, and instant feedback.

Clappy, an app that lets employees give kudos, praise, and shout-outs to each other, makes it easy to gamify recognition by offering incentives and rewards, levels, and leaderboards all within Slack.

Teams can also gamify daily routines and goals with tools like Raidboss that let them create challenges, earn rewards from the company shop, and send shout-outs to team members right from Slack.

10. Conduct regular employee satisfaction surveys

Employee satisfaction surveys help measure mood, but they’re not the only method for collecting data. Polling apps and conversational AI assistants are other ways to do it. For example, one online travel search site uses a custom Slackbot to keep track of employee sentiment across their company and in specific departments. The key to creating surveys that generate honest, useful feedback is thoughtful design and implementation.

Here are a few tips:

• Keep surveys concise and focused. Respect employees’ time by including only essential questions.
• Include quantitative and qualitative questions. Ask questions with rating scales to capture statistical information (quantitative) and open-ended questions where employees can express nuanced thoughts (qualitative).
• Use anonymous surveys. Encourage employees to give honest feedback by using anonymous surveys for sensitive topics.
• Close the feedback loop. Share findings and planned actions with employees promptly and consider their feedback in decision-making processes to build trust and show them that you value their input.

 

Happy workers build stronger companies

Employee morale is a crucial measure of an organization’s health—and a good predictor of productivity, engagement, and retention. Ultimately, company policies, career growth opportunities, and compensation will have a big impact on morale. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore issues like company culture, recognition, and connection. All these things matter for remote and in-person teams.

Boosting employee morale isn’t a one-and-done effort. Invest in long-term strategies, from flexible work arrangements and career development to implementing the right tools and checking with your teams, to show your ongoing commitment to employee well-being. When you invest in your people, everyone wins.