Tech startups are crucial in the modern digital world. Developing one into a thriving company takes time and may involve early-stage growth challenges. Anyone founding a business can keep their team’s morale high while navigating the tricky early years.
Implementing employee-first strategies will transform everyone’s experience within the business. Report by Oscar Collins, Founder of Modded.
1. Schedule Weekly Reflection Meetings
The rapidly evolving world of a tech startup can complicate everyone’s communication abilities. Deadlines and updates might happen so quickly that people forget to update everyone within the company. They may also schedule emergency conferences that don’t include each worker.
Research shows that 10% of employees host 54% of meetings, which may leave the remaining 90% of team members feeling out of sync. Weekly reflection conferences can address that issue.
Meeting in-person with a virtual link for remote workers allows everyone to recount what they’ve accomplished, their current goals and any updates people need to hear. A team-wide email can also be effective, but it may not allow everyone to vocalize their current workflow.
2. Provide Delicious Snacks
Startups are known for requiring long hours. People might not work the same schedule every day, which complicates when they eat. Others may not make enough money to order lunch or dinner while the company is still in a pre-revenue stage.
Maintaining a snack bar and a fully stocked fridge can meet that need. Workers are 13% more productive when they’re happy, so adding food options to the workplace can be a positive long-term investment.
Startup founders can poll their teams for snack and beverage suggestions before adding them to the office kitchen. If the workspace doesn’t have a kitchen, providing delivery services at meal times is another way to please the people working extra hard to make the business successful.
3. Define Everyone’s Roles
Hectic schedules and changing responsibilities complicate many people’s jobs within new tech companies. Things might not settle into a reliable routine for months, but employees may not stick around that long without structure. Leadership teams should clarify everyone’s core responsibilities with an organizational chart. Hosting a companywide workshop to create the chart would also give everyone a voice in their team’s long-term framework.
4. Enforce Work-Life Boundaries
Extensive hours, changing schedules and shifting responsibilities often lead to work-life complications for startup employees. People want to throw everything they have into the company, but blurring the line between professional and private lives can be exhausting.
If someone wants to spend their evening playing a musical instrument to improve their cognitive functioning and have fun, they shouldn’t feel pressured to watch their phone notifications for emails simultaneously.
Startup founders should enforce healthy professional boundaries with flexible schedules. Remote work can also be available for anyone needing a low-key day. Teams will still accomplish their goals while enjoying the breathing room necessary to maintain their mental health.
Other rules may provide more stability for everyone’s well-being, too. Workplace leaders can consider opportunities like quiet hours or a hard limit on how late everyone can stay.
5. Design a Win Board
People have higher morale at work when they feel like they’re a crucial part of the company’s functions. If they’re creating positive results with no recognition, spirits drop quickly. Startup leadership teams can prevent that from happening by celebrating every employee’s wins.
Create a win board and place it where everyone sees it daily. Tracking achievements like giving a great presentation, meeting a deadline or suggesting helpful ideas in meetings makes employees feel empowered, especially during hectic times.
6. Welcome Everyone’s Feedback
While 35% of employees may only want feedback a few times each month, they may hope to provide their opinions more often. As a tech startup develops, team members will have suggestions to make the company successful. Recent leadership decisions may also not sit well with them based on why they chose to work there.
Startup founders should provide numerous ways to get feedback from every company level. Anonymous pulse check software is available for digital submissions, while one-on-one meetings allow people to vocalize their thoughts with their managers.
If everyone feels heard, they’ll know they’re a valued startup member. Morale could get stronger if leadership teams maintain their openness to feedback in the long term.
Improve Company Morale for Greater Business Success
High morale encourages people to clock into work even when they’re tired or stressed. Given how both factors are common in early tech startup years, founders should implement strategies to maintain everyone’s spirits.
Listening to them, caring for their needs and encouraging them through recognition are a few ways to start that process. The best solutions will become evident for each workplace with time and practice.
