Hey Manager, You Might Be Hurting Employee Morale

As manager for your video production team, you could be hurting morale and not even know it.

Your video production team is made up of a lot of different people, each with varying personalities, backgrounds, working styles, and experiences. You, as the manager, are responsible for keeping morale high, employees invested, and the production quality high. This is why you should reconsider using a volunteer system for handing out production assignments.

I get it. You want to give your team flexibility and choice. However, by making assignments solely on the basis of who raises his/hand first, you could inadvertently be alienating some on your team and hurting morale. That’s because there will be people on your team who, as extroverts, will always raise their hands first. Introverts are much less likely to speak up, even if there’s a high profile, high visibility video project on the table. Therefore, the same people will end up doing most of the work; and if not an overall majority, then a majority of high profile projects. Those less likely to speak up will start to feel less valuable to the team as a whole, even though they most certainly have a lot to offer.

And this doesn’t address possible burnout from a minority of team members who end up doing a majority of the work.

Here are some best practices to consider:

• Maintain an up-to-date, accurate accounting of all ongoing projects. You need to know what the current workload is for all team members. Then, instead of asking for volunteers, hand out assignments based on workload.

• Maintain an accurate record of the project type and make assignments on a rotational basis. If someone on your team had to edit a simple, internal, end-of-year CEO video for your client last year, make sure someone else gets that assignment this year. If a shooter on your team got the opportunity to lens a high-end commercial production last month, make sure someone else gets that same opportunity next month.

• Make sure everyone on your team takes advantage of continuing educational opportunities. Sure, it’s nice to have that one guy you can go to for all of your animation needs, but wouldn’t it be nice if you gave others on the team an opportunity to attend workshops and seminars so they could improve their skill set in that same area? Then, instead of one graphics person who is overloaded with work, you now have four with the same ability.

Just by tweaking a few management practices, you can have a video production team where everyone feels more valued.