Employee Morale: A Leadership Responsibility

What makes an organisation a happy organisation? How does a leader keep employee morale up and improve motivation?

- Gayathri Vasudevan

In India, many industries and sectors are grappling with attrition and there is a lot of debate about what causes attrition, how do we ensure employee morale is high. There is also a counter view that the new generation is fickle.

One recent survey done by Hay Group says that as the demand for jobs grows, India is expected to witness its highest attrition rate where one in four employees is likely to switch jobs. Young Indians, across industries, are bold and have high career aspirations. They want to learn more, experience new things, besides earning more and will not hesitate to move on at the next available opportunity, if the same is not provided in their current workplace. While this is true even amongst the older populations, the proportion is lower.

Theoretically, we are aware high employee turnover in any industry, at any level, comes at a cost and has an undesirable impact on the employee morale too! Poor morale not only leads to decrease in work efficiency, it also brings down the overall effectiveness and is detrimental to organisational growth.