Business writing

To: Ima Boss From: Zachary Holloway Subject: Workplace Morale in the Manufacturing Industry Date: October 9, 2019 Employee morale in the workplace has a significant impact on the efficiency and productivity of an organization. Happy workers satisfied with their employment show up more often, work harder during their shifts, and have a greater overall performance in the workplace when compared to less happy employees. When morale is low, however, performance suffers as employees become disillusioned with their role in an organization or their job security. Ensuring employees remain satisfied with their employment is pertinent to maintaining a level of excellence and productivity for a business. This memo will list proposals designed to alleviate morale issues within the factory environment. Proposal A: Increased Pay A possible, straightforward solution is to increase pay to employees, particularly those with the lowest salaries. A primary concern of many employees is the economic strain they may experience. This is especially true during difficult economic periods. Increasing hourly wage and salaries for employees will assuage economic woes and allow them to dedicate more time and energy to their responsibilities at work. The increased costs from payroll and the lower net profit for the company are legitimate concerns. The possible loss to inefficiency, however, poses a greater risk, as employees may seek additional pay elsewhere. Even if they are retained as full-time or part-time employees, the stress these employees will put themselves through will hurt their productivity not only in their new job but in their current job as well. With proper budgeting and a shift in expectations for quarterly profits, the investment in employees will provide returns through the renewed focus and dedication of grateful employees. Proposal B: Implementing a Four-Day Work Week The traditional five-day work week is easy to plan for and is expected by the vast majority of American workers. The five-day work week also leaves people with only two days to use for their own plans, with many Americans using the weekend to handle important business they could not otherwise handle during normal business hours throughout the week. Research from several academic bodies has shown that when workers are able to condense or reduce the time spent at work to four days, they have greater job satisfaction and higher motivation than counterparts working in a more traditional schedule while often accomplishing the same amount of work. If the four-day work week is applied to factory workers, a likewise improvement will occur. There are two primary methods of handling this scheduling change. The first method is to maintain the salaries of employees while reducing weekly shifts from forty hours to thirty-two hours. This will provide the most agreeable situation to workers, as their pay will remain unchanged. It may prove difficult to convince shareholders and some management personnel to accept this change, however. The second method is to decrease the days worked while maintaining the same weekly hours. This will require that employees working five eight-hour days would then work four ten-hour days. Some employees may not be willing to accept this change, but the concept can be negotiated with them to find an agreeable schedule. Either change will create a positive shift in employee morale and will likely come down to the requirements of the industry. Proposal C: Providing Quality Services to Employees The average American often does not have the time to acquire quality services and amenities during the work week. Many employees will purchase unhealthy fast food for lunch and ignore their personal wellbeing to get to work on time. If employees feel unwell or stressed out, they will not be able to wholly focus on their responsibilities at work. A sick worker may even spread their illness to other workers, which may lead to efficiency-damaging absences and lost man-hours. To avoid this, management can organize services and supplies to fill these missing components in the average organization member’s wellness. An employee who may go out and purchase fast food could instead eat a nutritious meal provided by the workplace at no cost to him. Another benefit could come from providing disinfectant and simple medication to workers, so that they may limit the exposure of illness to others will also helping themselves get better. Some in management roles may object to the costs associated with these amenities, but the opportunities missed by employees being late, sick, or otherwise unable to completely fulfill their roles creates greater losses that are often not addressed. An employee is an investment; the time the employee puts into their work and the time put in by his or her company to train and employ them represents real-world value that should not be ignored. Summary These proposals all aim to improve workplace morale and the lives of employees as a whole. They all involve some change in profit expectation or the foundation of how a factory typically operates within its industry. It would likely be much easier to implement improvements that fall within the realm of “Casual Fridays” or “Team-Building Exercises.” Those types of proposals may seem to promise some manner of morale boost but offer little value to employees who are often overworked, stressed out, and burned out on work. The proposals submitted here incur costs but promise greater rewards, as employees come in energized, dedicated, and inspired to work harder and smarter than they have before.