8 Ways You Can Raise Staff Morale Now

When colleagues are tired and the budget won't stretch, it's easy to feel there's nothing you can do about morale. There's more than you'd think, and most of it costs little more than a bit of attention.

Some of these ideas take a minute, like a handwritten thank-you card for a colleague who went beyond what they had to. Others need planning: a meeting-free week timed for the hardest point of the year, or "sunsetting" the reports and routines you set up in a hurry, so they stop unless someone decides to keep them. You'll get the cards, a 30-day work-life balance challenge staff can work through on their own terms, and tips for listening well.

The ideas are picked from the training behind the Human Kind staff wellbeing award, and each was chosen because a school with no money to spare could still do it.