Improving Morale Using Paloma Medina’s BICEPS Framework and a Colorful Spreadsheet.
The importance of morale in the workplace
Low morale is expensive; it’s bad for the bottom line. Morale is a leading indicator for lowered Productivity level and accuracy of completed tasks. When morale is low, delivery of value to customers slows. Low morale has negative impacts on mental health and can lead to burnout if not addressed.
What leads to low morale in the workplace?
There is no one answer. The causes of low morale relate to the individual values each employee holds. It evolves over time as both the company and the individual grow. Low morale triggers are often different for the same person at a different point in time.
In my role as Engineering Manager, I had sunset teams in the past, and I noticed that there was often a dip in momentum and morale accompanying the change. While spinning down a team at work, I began documenting strategies to ensure successful transitions for both the remaining work and the employees moving on to new teams. Finding a home for the ownership of the work tended to be the easy part. Ensuring that folks transitioned smoothly was more difficult.
I came up with a short list of considerations to maintain momentum and shared it with a few coworkers. One coworker, Nassim, asked if I had heard of Paloma Medina’s BICEPS framework for categorizing work needs. Medina’s list was more comprehensive than my original starting point.
BICEPS divides work needs into the following categories:
- Belonging
- Improvement/Progress
- Choice
- Equality/Fairness
- Predictability
- Significance
My introduction to BICEPS came at a great time. Shortly after moving to a new team, my morale decreased. I completed a holistic BICEPS assessment and spent some time reading through each item. In analyzing the results, I noted that Improvement and Significance were the main work needs impacting my morale.
I created a spreadsheet listing the BICEPS attributes and a column for how I felt each need was being met. By developing the spreadsheet, I realized that each need carried a different weight of importance to me, so I added a column to track importance and another column to compute balance. I focused on items of high importance with low rating and determined some actionable items to begin the improvements.
From this point on, I took the self assessment monthly to track progress. In most cases, I noticed improvement in the area of focus, but the diversion of focus from one work need to another affected balance among the areas. Over the course of six months, I realized a net positive improvement in my morale. Work needs which were most important to me were in alignment.
Using BICEPS for your team
My personal experience using the BICEPS framework to assess and improve my morale while transitioning to a new team inspired me to apply it to my own transitioning teams.
I share the BICEPS link ahead of time and allow them to read through and get familiar with the framework. I ask to dedicate 30 minutes in one of our weekly 1:1s to go through a copy of the spreadsheet.
The process is similar to the self assessment described above:
Step 0: Make a copy of the BICEPS template
Step 1: The team member goes through the BICEPS and notes the status of each need at that point in time. This initial pass is focused only on the status and does not address the importance of each need. I am present to answer questions and provide clarity. I regularly prompt the employee not to overthink it and go with their gut.
Step 2: After evaluating the status of each need, the employee then completes the importance column.
Step 3: We assess the overall alignment and discuss initial thoughts and observations.
Step 4: If an area is out of alignment, we brainstorm available opportunities (as well as opportunities I can create) to improve balance. It is also worth noting that these opportunities can serve as the basis for an employee’s quarterly goal.
I’ve run through assessments at a quarterly cadence with several of my team members and I have found BICEPS to be a powerful tool to facilitate meaningful conversations. These conversations, in turn, can highlight specific opportunities to improve an employee’s morale.
BICEPS Spreadsheet tool:
