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There is a good chance that you’ll witness reduced operational efficiencies, a loss of profits and high staff turnover rates due to your workplace suffering from low morale and high absenteeism levels. The costs on a business could be increased further if a company is required to invest in recruitment processes or pay for extra training for their current staff members.
In this article, Chill Factore, which offers many fun things to do in Manchester including fun and inclusive team-building activities, looks at just how costly an unhappy workforce can be for firms. They also advise on what employers can and should be doing to create a positive workplace environment that both their staff and the business as a whole will benefit from…
Calculating the cost of unhappy staff members on a UK business
Employees who feel dejected in their current roles are less productive, according to studies. Considering that satisfied employees outperform companies with unhappy workers by 202%, it’s clearly beneficial for a company to take notice of the happiness of its staff.
Just how can staff members who are feeling unhappy in their jobs affect a business’ profit margin? Personal Group, a staff services company, discovered that people who were happy with their job were 12% more productive than those who felt negatively about their role. Staff that aren’t satisfied will typically be less enthusiastic and involved — and this disengagement is reportedly costing the UK £85 billion a year in lost productivity, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workforce report.
If working hours feel long or staff members believe they are poorly organised, this can also lead employees to have negative feelings and their emotional wellbeing can be adversely affected. This in turn affects workplace performance. A poll carried out by The Hoxby Collective found that 33% of workers said they’d suffered mental health problems directly because of rigid working hours. If your staff are unfit for work, this will cost you. According to estimations by The Centre of Economic and Business Research, absenteeism alone will cost the UK economy £21 billion by 2020, while overworking your staff can also lead to exhaustion and lack of sleep — another contributor of poor productivity levels that costs the UK economy £40.3 billion a year. Consequently, it’s key to create a positive working environment that staff want to get up in the morning and work in if companies want to keep paid sick days to a minimum.
It’s becoming clear that there’s a link between staff morale being low and employees having feelings of anxiety or depression too. According to research from the Centre for Mental Health, it costs employers £3.1 billion in staff turnover and £10.6 billion in sickness just to cover mental health problems of staff in the workplace. From implementing staff perks and bonuses to creating a happy, communicative atmosphere; all employers should be investing in lowering the risk of mental health issues for their staff.
As well as a member of staff being less effective in their role, unhappiness can also heighten the chance that a person will decide to leave a firm to seek employment elsewhere. The Oxford Economics and Income Protection Providers Unum has calculated that the average amount of replacing a staff member sits at approximately £30,614 — taking into account hiring, lost time, training, and adapting new staff to the workplace culture. Can your business afford to keep covering or taking on new staff?
Without a doubt, we’ve established that staff morale is important for the development and success of a business. Fortunately, there are many initiatives employers can enforce to boost employee happiness.
A guide to improving staff morale around your business
At the beginning of 2018, results of an Investors in People poll found that almost half of the survey’s 2,000 participants had admitted they were thinking about leaving their job in the year ahead and that this was because of poor management. Meanwhile, 39% stated that it was because of feeling undervalued and 30% claimed the reason was lack of job development opportunities. Are these factors that you can explore as part of a business strategy to improve staff morale?
It’s appears clear from this poll that management is an important factor for people when they decide to leave a firm for a new job. Considering the cost of replacing staff, this is something you’ll want to reduce. Assess how your supervisors and managers treat and interact with their staff — could they do with having stronger relationships to encourage better communication? If so, consider scheduling a series of corporate team-building activities to help boost collaboration across all of your departments, or organise onsite charity fundraisers, staff quizzes or regular nights out to inject a sociable aspect into the corporate environment.
Don’t underestimate the benefits training and development can have on staff morale either, whether offered in-house or via external training courses. Sending your staff on these will not only make them feel valued — another factor of workplace happiness — but should also mean your company will benefit from more knowledgeable and confident business decisions, which should prove lucrative in the long run.
According to a report created for Britain’s Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), improvements in job quality can also give workers’ wellbeing with a boost. For instance, give your employees more authority over their working day — from how long it takes to complete a task properly, to how they schedule their day. This level of control and variety will help make workers feel more important and excited for the day ahead, while re-evaluating the time it takes to complete a task will lower the risk of them feeling rushed or stressed, thereby reducing the chance that they will take time off for anxiety-related issues.
Are sick days causing your business to rack up high costs? If so, it may be worth trying to implement a strategy that focuses on improving the health of employees as well. The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence claims that a well-researched and managed wellness plan can reduce sick days by almost a third — which means the expense of covering shifts and reduced productivity levels will go down accordingly, too.
We can see it’s evident that if a business is hoping to bring down costs due to high staff turnover levels, lost productivity and sick days, it’s wise to focus on ensuring the company’s workforce is happy. Show initiative and start implementing positive processes today to ensure that your staff feel happy, secure and valued at work.
Sources:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/work/5-reasons-unhappy-work-can-do/
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/273968
http://smallbusiness.co.uk/lack-of-sleep-work-costs-uk-2543203/
http://www.cityam.com/274044/unhappy-and-unengaged-employees-losing-uk-gbp85bn-year
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