10 Ways to Keep Surviving Employees Motivated After Layoffs

Unfortunately, 2009 may go down in history as a year of record mass layoffs. No doubt, these are trying times for both employers and employees. And employers can find that employees who survive layoff events will start to show signs of feeling less motivated and engaged. This situation, of course, usually results in lower productivity levels.

So employee engagement becomes even more important these days. Studies are starting to pop-up as identifying some organizations with alarmingly low employee-engagement numbers. For instance, one polling report indicated that nearly three-fourths of workers today are "disengaged" from their work.

Fortunately, in spite of these trying times, employers do have the power to take positive actions, which can help keep surviving employees perpetually motivated and engaged in their work.

Generally, here’s what you will want to remember:

• Let employees know that they are valued consistently and regularly.
• Communicate with employees on an ongoing basis.
• Keep employees informed about the meaning of the organization, especially if there have been restructuring events or redefined purposes for the business.
• Provide employees with regular and ongoing feedback.
• Implement or continue employee development initiatives and programs.

Now, here are 10 specific and little-to-no-cost ways that employers can accomplish the above-listed goals:

1. Develop or increase communications such as through an employee newsletter.
2. Consider writing ongoing e-articles about various initiatives taking place since the layoffs.
3. Install a telephone ‘hotline’ so that employees can call in and hear updated messages.
4. Schedule ongoing meetings that can be organized in a variety of ways. For example, you can hold departmental style or small group meetings. You can also organize focus groups with various departments and you can solicit employee feedback. Employee focus groups can also be excellent sources for generating ideas about cost-saving measures or process improvements.
5. Praise employees in a public fashion so that team members know what type of valued work performance is expected and rewarded.
6. Continue with training and development in creative and resourceful ways. You may want to bookmark and read this HRTools Insight for cost-effective ideas and trends. Or, some organizations take advantage of this cost-effective training alternative—send only one employee to a training event and then assign this individual to return and educate others within the organization.
7. Go out of your way to treat the surviving employees (those remaining after the layoff event) almost as though they are new employees. By contrast, you want to avoid sending the message that they should feel lucky to even be employed.
8. Allow surviving employees the time to grieve, as described in this HRTools.com article by Dr. Cara Whedbee. Some surviving employees may have worked with their laid-off co-workers for years, and now they go to work seeing empty chairs/desks or emptier shop floors as regular reminders that they are gone. So these surviving employees are faced with a sense of loss.
9. Remind employees of the employee assistance program (EAP) if the organization has this benefit program. Managers should avoid putting themselves in counseling roles, but an EAP is often an employee benefit that provides confidential and professional counseling services.
10. Prepare to be an active listener. Managers should practice the art and technique of active listening. It’s important to empathize with employees because they are going through a great deal of stress. Not only have they lost valued co-worker relationships, but oftentimes, they are expected to do more with less.

As mentioned, the costs to take these steps are none to minimal. And the return on investment is significant, because a business will rise above the competition with motivated employees. When a business acts swiftly to re-engage its surviving employees, it does a great service to everyone involved—including customers, stakeholders, management and employees.

So let employees know how much you value them and their contributions. Communicate where you plan on taking the company and how they can help. By taking positive action steps and letting employees know you care, studies show that employee engagement will correspondingly rise to the levels businesses need to succeed.

Most managers are not trained in the strategy of conducting an employee counseling meeting. Typically, managers don’t get a lot of training when they’re first hired/promoted. Because of this, they tend to make several common mistakes. 

Some of these mistakes include: 

• Not asking for training
• Not being prepared for an employee counseling meeting
• Not having all the facts of the incident 

Not being prepared is a major pitfall. You need to be prepared with at least enough information to be able to address your concerns with the employee. 

There may be times when you’re having a preliminary meeting with the employee to gather facts versus going into the meeting already having the counseling documentation in-hand. That’s why you need to be flexible. 

If you feel you need additional information, then you don’t want to go into the counseling meeting with the documentation already written. 

Here are some tips to help you effectively conduct an employee counseling meeting: 

• Don’t let too much time go by between when the incident occurs and when you meet with the employee.
  
  
• Don’t forget your reference materials.
  
  
• Focus on improvement and development, not just corrective action or discipline.
  
  
• The purpose of the counseling meeting is to be educational, such as reviewing a policy or going over a job description.
  
  
• Review all the facts prior to the meeting.
  
  
• Be specific in your documentation, as opposed to general. Details will give the employee a better understanding of his/her deficiencies.
  
  
• Stick to the facts during the meeting.
  
  
• Do not take sides. It’s important to remain neutral.
  
  
• Listen to what the employee has to say by practicing active listening. Part of active listening is listening in order to reiterate and/or paraphrase statements made by the employee.
  
  
• Get clarification when/if you need it.
  
  
• Give feedback during the meeting. Also, don’t hesitate to bring up what an employee is doing well. Obviously, the point of the counseling meeting is to focus on areas that need improvement, but at the same time, if the person is doing really well in another area, it’s a good idea to acknowledge it.
  
  
• Communicate your expectations going forward. Make sure the employee walks away from the meeting with an understanding of what’s expected of him/her.
  
  
• Clearly explain what improvements need to be made.
  
  
• Clearly explain the ramifications of improvements not being made.
  
  
• Make sure to discuss the timeframe for making the improvements.
  
  
• Focus on getting the employee to make a commitment to improving.
  
  
• Make the employee feel empowered.
  
  
• Be fair and respectful.
  
  
• Ask the employee for his/her opinion on how the changes can be made.
  
  
• Maintain confidentiality. Confidentiality is critical. 

Once you have an employee counseling system in place, it’s critical that you be consistent with regard to how you deliver counseling and how you conduct a counseling meeting.

Preparing for an employee counseling meeting is just as important as conducting the meeting. 

A key mistake managers make is not being prepared enough for employee counseling meetings. 

Maybe the manager is upset about the issue and hasn’t had enough time between the issue happening and actually conducting the meeting to prepare. Maybe the manager doesn’t have all the facts yet. Maybe the manager hasn’t spent enough time thinking things through. 

Obviously, there are extenuating circumstances where managers might not be as prepared as they’d like to be. But overall, it’s really important to prepare for an employee counseling meeting as early as you can. 

Preparation Steps 

1. Plan Ahead—For all employee counseling meetings you want to plan ahead, if you can. You want to think about where the meeting will take place; you want to think about who needs to be present at the meeting. You want to think about the time and date the meeting will take place. You also want to anticipate the employee’s reaction to the meeting ahead of time. Some employees may be upset about being counseled or they might feel attacked.
   
   
2. Consider Your Timing—Although having an employee counseling meeting is important, you want to consider the meeting’s timing to ensure you’re not putting the employee in a bad position.
   
   For example, if you were to conduct your meeting right before an employee has a presentation to give, the meeting could cause the employee to feel bad and not do well in the presentation afterwards. Or the employee might not be fully engaged in the meeting because he/she is focused on the presentation he/she has to give.
   
   You want to make sure you allow yourself enough time for the meeting. You want to make sure you have the meeting far enough after the occurrence (but not too far) so you have plenty of prep time to get the employee’s feedback and ask questions, etc.
   
   
3. Keep a Professional Demeanor—You want to make sure you are calm and composed before you conduct a meeting, otherwise you could end up appearing unprofessional to the employee, which is a bad idea. That’s why it’s important to have enough prep time in between the occurrence and the counseling meeting.
   
   
4. Consider the Meeting Agenda—You need to know what you’re going to say prior to going into the meeting.
   
   For example, if the employee you’re meeting with has had past verbal counselings or written counselings, you may need to recap the history in the meeting you’re having with the employee now.
   
   
5. Have Resource Documents Available—You want to make sure you have any resource documents available prior to your employee counseling meeting.
   
   For example, if you’re issuing a counseling for a policy violation, it’s always helpful to have the company’s policy at the meeting so you can review it with the employee.
   
   Or, for example, if you’re issuing a counseling for a performance issue, it will be helpful to have the employee’s job description with you so you can refer to different points and talk about what expectations the employee isn’t meeting.
   
   You want to make the meeting educational.
   
   
6. Do Your Research—Before you go into the meeting, you need to have done your research. You want to make sure you have the facts of the situation. You want to ask any questions and get any necessary feedback prior to the meeting. That way you can be specific, rather than making general statements. 

Final Thoughts

I have talked to a number of managers and supervisors about preparing for employee counseling meetings and all of them have told me, in their opinion, it helps to make a meeting as educational as possible. Obviously, the point of an employee counseling meeting is to be corrective, but the correction should come in an educational way. 

It’s always a good idea to contact your HR department and see if there are resource documents readily available for your meeting. Having a job description or policy with you in the meeting to review with the employee always adds to the fluidity of what you’re saying. 

Doing so will ensure the employee will walk away from the meeting having a better understanding of what he/she needs to change/improve on. 

Following these steps will help you get prepared to conduct an employee counseling meeting.

In my last Insight, I explained that employee counseling documentation is a very important part of the overall counseling process. 

Now, I would like to share some tips to supplement what I said about employee counseling documentation: 

• It’s important for a manager to always follow the company’s employee counseling documentation procedures.
  
  For example, if one of the procedures is to mail the written counseling document to the HR department, then a manager should do that consistently for any employee who is issued a written counseling document. 
• Within the document, it may also be a good idea for a manager to note the impact of an individual’s poor performance. It’s important to focus on the impact of the employee’s actions.
  
  For example, an employee’s lack of follow-up resulted in a missed deadline which directly impacted the department’s budget. 
• With regard to verbal counseling, a manager should always keep an employee log (either in a notebook or in a Word document) that notes when a verbal counseling has taken place. This allows the manager to refer back to the incident, if necessary.
  
  This type of documentation is not usually sent to the employee’s personnel file, but is just for the manager to use when writing performance evaluations to determine if it’s time for a written counseling document, etc.
  
  Written counseling documents are usually sent to the personnel/HR file. 
• As a starting point, a manager should utilize resources available to him/her—the employee handbook, the company policies and procedures manual, and any reference guides to employee counseling documentation. 
• It’s important to keep the counseling educational and preventative, as well. It’s not just corrective.  The point of an educational counseling document is to help the employee understand his/her deficiency, or violation, and help him/her cure such a deficiency. 

So, no matter when, where or how employers utilize employee counseling, the documentation of such events is extremely important; it needs to be accurate and stored properly.

Employee Counseling Manager Training is important for new and seasoned managers. 

There have been a number of situations where I’ve assisted companies with their manager development training. Overall, companies find it very beneficial, and they recognize the importance of having training for managers. 

Companies also understand the need to give employee counseling training to not only new managers hired from outside the organization, but also to provide training for employees who are newly promoted into supervisory positions within the organization.

For example, if an employee has been with the company for a period of time—maybe years—and then he/she is newly promoted into a supervisory position, he/she may have the technical expertise to be a manager, but he/she may need more development and training in supervisory skills. One of those skills should be how to handle written and verbal employee counselings. 

In my experience in dealing with companies as an HR professional, I have found it very beneficial to look at all the different positions that may need this training. 

Also, it’s important to make continuing training for all managers a requirement, so the managers can continue their development. 

I help companies design training to fit the specific needs of their managers and other employees. 

Employee Counseling Manager Training Tips

When you conduct a training program, the elements I mentioned in part one of this Insight series should be addressed. 

As far as the training itself, it’s good to use a variety of methods, such as role playing, reviewing procedures and policies, breaking out into small groups and doing different training exercises, allowing managers to practice writing counseling statements based on a given scenario, etc. 

You don’t want to have your training program be a certain format. You want to offer a variety of mediums. 

Then, of course, there’s always online employee counseling manager training, which is very beneficial for companies. This rings true especially for companies that have multiple locations or employees who work remotely. 

Online training is also great because a company’s situation (multiple locations, remote employees, etc.) might not always be conducive to an in-person training session, but the training could still be accomplished through an online conference program.

Managers should use employee counseling documentation to document employee: 

• Performance
• Behavior
• Policy violation
• Written and verbal warnings. 

It’s very important for managers and supervisors to document things like this because they may forget the incident occurred or the facts of the incident. The facts may be needed to adequately address the incident in the future, specifically in regard to using the incident as a basis for taking future disciplinary or other job-related actions. The employee may forget it happened, as well. 

For these purposes—and others—it’s important to have good documentation so you can refer back to it when necessary. 

Mistakes Managers Often Make

When it comes to employee counseling documentation, there are a few mistakes managers commonly make: 

• Lack of Documentation—not documenting anything is a very common mistake.
• Insufficient Documentation—not sufficiently completing the employee counseling documentation form, or failing to obtain a signature/acknowledgement from the employee substantiating the counseling action.
• Not Having a Standardized Form and Using that Form in a Consistent Manner—using several different forms for the same task. It’s important to have some type of template established so managers can consistently work from the form and apply it consistently in reviewing and counseling job-related actions between different employees individually and different groups of employees generally. There should also be an established procedure for documenting employee counseling meetings. This is especially helpful for new managers so they know what happens to the form after it’s filled out (Does it go to HR? Is it mailed somewhere else? Etc).
• Not Being Objective; Not Sticking to the Facts—managers may sometimes tend to want to state their opinions or feelings in a counseling document, but it’s always best to be objective.
• Use of Inappropriate Words—managers should refrain from using any demeaning words (or words that could be construed as discriminatory against any particular protected class of individuals) in this document. They need to write in a professional manner. 

It’s important to avoid all these mistakes so that if an outside person is reading the document (such as an HR manager or employer), he or she will get an accurate picture of what has occurred. 

Steps to Developing Effective Employee Counseling Documentation

Here are some steps managers can take to more effectively document employee counseling meetings: 

1. At first, managers should ask if there is a written employee counseling documentation procedure they can refer to. Is there a document or template of a standardized form they should be working from? Do they have enough information to warrant addressing the employee with a written counseling form? Or should it be a verbal counseling instead? It’s also important at this initial step to determine whether a formal disciplinary process or procedure is in place, and to follow that process/procedure (see below, No. 4).
2. If documentation is necessary, managers need to be objective; record the facts and observations, not personal judgments.
3. Managers need to be sure they’re consistent when conducting a counseling meeting, whether it’s for performance deficiencies or conduct issues. Managers should be consistent in how they talk to employees during counseling meetings, especially if there’s more than one employee that has an offense.
4. Refer to the company’s policy, practice or performance standard that has been violated. For example, if a manager needs to issue a written counseling form for a dress code violation, the manager can reference the actual dress code policy in the counseling document because part of counseling should be developmental and educational in nature. It shouldn’t just be corrective action.
5. Indicate previous warnings or counseling meetings if the manager is issuing a written counseling. For example, if the manager is issuing a written counseling and the employee has been verbally counseled previously, the manager should identify previous counselings. 
6. It’s important to complete all sections on the employee counseling report form.
7. Sign and date the form.
8. Have the employee review, then sign and date the form.
9. If the employee refuses to sign the form, document that the employee refused to sign. Signing basically acknowledges that the employee reviewed the form. It doesn’t necessarily mean they agree or disagree. But it is important to note if the employee refuses to sign. 

In my next Insight, I’ll explain more ways to effectively document employee counseling meetings.

In my Insight series on employee counseling, I discussed how important it is for managers to be trained in employee counseling techniques.

Training managers in how to conduct employee counseling meetings is crucial to their management development. When there is no training and managers are not prepared, issues may arise for the organization.

For example, there may be situations where it’s “too little, too late,” where maybe there is training, but it’s not timely, and a manager has been in their new role for some time and has already been dealing with issues that they should’ve been trained on earlier.

There are a couple mistakes commonly made by employers regarding employee-counseling manager training:

• Not having a manager training program at all; and
• Assuming that all managers—including newly hired managers—have experience dealing with employee relations issues.

It’s very important not to assume that just because a manager is experienced means they know all the nuts and bolts of how to handle an employee-counseling situation.

In situations like this, it’s also helpful to offer ongoing training “refresher” courses for managers that have been with your organization for a period of time.

Steps Employers Can Take
Here are some things employers can do to ensure managers can effectively deal with employee relations:

• Make sure employees know company policies—First and foremost, employers need to ensure their employees know and understand the company’s policies regarding performance issues or policy violation issues.
  
  Employers need to give a handbook to every single employee when they come onboard, and/or make it known where the employee handbook is located (such as on the company’s intranet site) so employees know what’s expected of them upfront.
  
  When hiring temporary or contract employees, there should be expectations set for them to follow, as well.
  
  
• Find or create a “manager training” Web site—Some companies have an internal—or access to an external—management development Web site where managers can go to access ongoing training. This training should include a program developed to educate managers in a number of areas involving employee counseling.
  
  For example, the training should include how to prepare for an employee counseling session, how to issue written or verbal counseling to an employee, how to document written counseling or document verbal counseling after it’s given, etc.
  
  Training should also cover how to “fact-find” to attain necessary information prior to rendering a decision or corrective action in an employee counseling situation. Sometimes a manager may be in a situation where they need to do some “fact-finding” before deciding which approach should be taken.
  
  It’s very important for managers to go into initial employee-counseling meetings with some facts and then they can listen to the employee’s side of the story.

In my next Insight, I’ll give some employee counseling manager training examples and more information about creating a training program tailored to your managers. 

Although there are common mistakes made during employee counseling, there is something you can do to ensure your managers are providing effective employee counseling—provide them with training.

Providing Managers with Training
New managers should be provided with basic employee counseling training.  It is also important for experienced managers and supervisors to become involved with ongoing training with respect to counseling and the counseling process.

Managers should be aware of the internal employee counseling process within the organization. This includes knowing the appropriate forms to use, knowing what to do with the form after it’s filled out, knowing the process after a counseling meeting is conducted, knowing the different procedures, etc.

For example, is the “Employee Counseling Form” sent to Human Resources (HR) for the employee’s personnel file? Is a copy kept at the department level?

All of this information needs to be part of the training process.

Managers should be trained on the various scenarios that could occur in the workplace, which would lead to the need for employee counseling, such as:

• What to do if an employee quits on-the-spot.
• What to do if an employee becomes upset.
• What to do if two employees (or more) get into an altercation.

Managers need to know how to handle situations like this (and more). If you have a manager that doesn’t have a lot of experience conducting employee counseling meetings, they may be caught off-guard with these types of situations. This is why it’s important to make sure your manager training includes some role play.

Managers also need to be trained:

• To be a good listener and get each employee’s side of the story before making a decision.
• How to prepare for an employee counseling meeting.
• How to determine what the problem is—for example, is it a performance issue? Or a policy violation?
• How to give corrective action steps or explanations pertaining to the employee deficiency, and also provide some additional training (or retraining) if necessary. For example, maybe there is an employee who needs to review a particular policy again to make sure that they’re well-versed in it so the issue doesn’t happen again.
• How to prepare the counseling document, as this is a very important part of the employee counseling process. It’s not always just about taking corrective action, sometimes it’s also about providing guidance and mentoring.

A key to effective employee counseling is to ensure that managers—whether they’re new managers within the organization or managers that have been with the company for awhile—receive ongoing training so that everybody’s on board with the protocols.

No two situations are alike, which is why it’s important to carefully review each situation and develop your managers to be successful in their role at your company.

Employee counseling can be one of the most difficult aspects of being a good manager. The employee counseling process can be an uncomfortable process for both employees and managers. 

There can be unknowns when you walk into a counseling meeting, such as the employee might be in denial, the employee’s response to the counseling may be defensive, the employee may get upset, walk off the job or quit.

Common Mistakes
A common mistake would be assuming that just because a person is a manager means they have experience with employee counseling. There’s a good chance that the manager may not have a lot of experience dealing with conflict or with issuing counseling documents and meetings.

Another mistake is not keeping the counseling confidential. This is a critical part of employee counseling. You want to make sure you have your counseling meetings in a confidential area without distractions. Managers shouldn’t counsel employees or give corrective action to an employee with others listening.

Accusing an employee before learning all the facts of a situation is another common mistake managers make. For example, if an employee behavioral problem involves more than one employee, it’s important to not have a counseling document pre-written going into the meeting, especially if the purpose of the meeting is fact-finding. If you do this, employees may draw conclusions, such as the manager doesn’t care about finding out the facts or doesn’t want to hear both sides of the story. Get the facts—who, what, where, when, why—and be open to further fact finding if necessary.

Not being objective is another pitfall for managers. It can sometimes be hard to remain neutral, but in an employee counseling situation, you want to focus on being as objective as possible.

Other common mistakes managers make include:

• Not being adequately prepared for the counseling process
• Not being consistent in how counseling is administered
• Ignoring a problem and hoping it will go away
• Not addressing issues as they arise
• Not being a good listener
• Interrogating employees—you want to make sure to ask open-ended questions
• Lack of follow-up with employee 
• Lack of recognition for improvement by the employee

In my next Insight, I’ll give steps companies can take to ensure managers are providing effective employee counseling.

 Coaching involves energizing and empowering employees.

Are you or your managers responsible for employees who are not adequately performing?  Most managers are accountable for their employees’ performances. So it is in the manager’s best interests to learn techniques for coaching underperforming employees in ways that inspire them to improve.  

HR and Performance Specialists advocate using a fair and firm approach when coaching underperforming employees. One of a manager’s goals is to shift job responsibilities and job ownership to the employees. Everyone benefits — employers, managers and employees — when managers skillfully coach their underperforming employees.

Employee coaching is based on the premise that if employees do not get feedback, they do not know where they stand or they may be confused about what is expected. Whether you have new hires or employees engaged in their first few months of employment, it is better to initiate positive feedback starting with their first day of employment.

Coaching is not a “quick fix.”

Coaching is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. Let’s get started with some employee-coaching criteria and considerations:

• Effective coaching starts with a specific skill-set that includes excellent communication and listening abilities, and a keen awareness of nonverbal communication cues.
• Coaching includes educating, orienting, encouraging, confronting and counseling techniques.  
• Coaching encompasses internal-organizational areas such as standards’ definitions, departmental policies and procedures, company policies, quality control, compliance and regulatory standards. When coaching employees, you need to rely on data and information that supports or documents your coaching objectives.
• Coaching involves leading by example. The coach should focus on employee behaviors and helping them learn new habits. Coaching focuses on developing the employee so they will perform better on the job.

Employee coaching can be accomplished in a number of ways or situations. If you want to develop a coaching-techniques training program for your business, here are some situational examples:

• An organization has a department responsible for developing or maintaining a computer program. To streamline the training process for all the employees, a “train the trainer” approach is used. This coaching technique enlists one individual who, after participating in a training class, returns and trains all the others in the department. So rather than send everyone in the department, only one person is assigned to attend an offsite training class.
• An organization has a new hire. This person may be a newcomer to the company or they may be a transfer within the company. This newcomer is assigned to work along side a more-experienced employee within the department. This assignment is usually viewed as a mentoring type of arrangement. It is also known as a “buddy” system and it doesn’t always have to be a manager-to-employee relationship.

If coaching involves the managers, supervisors and the employees, it is important to have feedback going both ways. This relationship involves shifting responsibilities back and forth:

1. It is the employee’s responsibility to tell the manager or supervisor if they need assistance or if they are not catching on.
2. It is the manager's responsibility to ensure that the employee is on track with what they should be learning, whether it involves acquiring a new skill or learning a new job task.

Remember, it’s never too late to start coaching your employees. To maximize successful coaching experiences, it is better to start coaching your employees on their first day of employment — before they reach the “underperforming-employee” stage.

By June Seroka

One definition of employee morale is the general level of confidence or optimism by a person or a group of people, especially if it affects discipline and willingness. Employee morale can also be a psychological disposition that is subject to environment, work, economic factors and corporate culture.

Boosting Employee Morale
There are many situations in business where you may need to boost employee morale:

• Layoffs
• Employee issues
• Problems within a department or businesses challenges
• If an organization is going through a merger or an acquisition
• If a company is going through a recall
• If a company is going through an outside government investigation or a lawsuit

Anything that puts the company in a limelight could ultimately affect employee morale.

I've been involved in many layoff situations, due to internal factors or mergers/acquisitions. To help organizations work through the layoff process, I have helped their employees by providing outplacement services and Employee Assistance Program (EAP) services.

During layoffs, the remaining employees often go through what's called "survivor's guilt," and so boosting employee morale is important.

Open Communication
Boosting employee morale during times of crisis all boils down to open communication. Open communication needs to occur across the board. It starts with top management and trickles down from there.

The middle manager and the supervisors need to have ongoing dialogue with employees and give the employees the opportunity for feedback. The managers should also have processes to help employees feel engaged in the organization. Lack of engagement creates problems at work, affects others and can result in low morale. Employees want to feel connected to the organization.

If employees feel like they are part of the organization as a whole and are tied to the goals of the organization and not just to their particular position, it will positively impact their morale.

Accomplishing Open Communication
Companies can accomplish open communication by having a corporate newsletter. For example, employees may be working in different states or in different locations and so they'll feel tied to the organization when they receive the newsletter. This will also enable employees to learn more about the company's community involvement in different locations.

Have a well-communicated and accessible mission statement that's visible for employees to see. The most important aspect is that the company should not only display the mission statement, but follow it on a daily basis.

Process for Boosting Employee Morale
Boosting employee morale is an ongoing process and employers should want to make it part of their cultural development. Here are the steps to take:

1. Do a client survey/opinion survey
2. Follow-up with the results of the survey
3. Implement an action plan
4. Carry through with the plan
5. Have top management continue building trust within the organization
6. Have ongoing departmental and company-wide meetings
7. Managers and supervisors should provide ongoing communication with staff. This includes communicating goals and objectives and general information, as well as performance feedback.
8. Acknowledge employee accomplishments through rewards and recognition programs

To empower and engage your employees, maintain open communication which includes an ongoing dialogue and continuing feedback. These things need to occur on a daily basis as opposed to just during times of crisis.