Page 100 - Anne Bruce - Building A HIgh Morale Workplace (2002)

80 Building a High Morale Workplace

The solution? The first thing supervisors did was create a
system to rotate tasks from house to house, so that housekeep-
ers didn’t get bored with the same old routines. Next, supervi-

sors revised workers’ schedules, to give them more down time
between jobs. One manager even scheduled in “chat times” for
housekeepers between their assignments. The results were
clear: workers were more refreshed, less fatigued, less bored,

happier, and more positive about their work—and in less than a
year tenure of housekeepers increased by 30%.

Culture councils keep out the negative and lock in the positive.
After a period of low-employee morale and fast-spreading nega-
tivism, a nationwide mortgage banking company based in

Dallas found the secret to maintaining high employee morale
and better attitudes after visiting a competitor’s Culture Day
event. At the event, which spotlighted the organization’s high-
spirited and positive culture, managers quickly determined that
what their own organization needed was a “culture council” to

lead it out of the doldrums and make the workplace exciting
and more energetic. They saw firsthand what a culture council
could do—lock in the greatest things about their company and
keep out the naysayers.
The solution? Managers picked culture council representa-

tives from different divisions and branches of the organization.
Council representatives had to meet certain criteria: they had to
be top performers in their departments, they had to have at
least one innovative or creative idea to boost employee morale,
they had to have at least five years’ tenure so that they could

spread the positive stories and successes of the company’s cul-
ture, and they had to exemplify an unstoppable positive attitude
and behavior that inspires others to be their best.
Just getting selected for the council motivated employees,

who considered it quite prestigious. Twelve council members
were chosen to serve a two-year stint. This term length was to
keep council representation fresh and give others a chance to
carry the baton. In the first two years, the culture council was