As we always hear, employees are an organisation’s most important asset. The ongoing pandemic causing many individuals to feel uncertain, under pressure and low, means that taking care of your employees has never been more important. Their mood, mental state, and well-being have a direct impact on employee productivity, employee turnover, team engagement, and even customer satisfaction.
Even the most talented group of individuals’ productivity can be affected by their feelings, emotions, and general mental well-being. It is important to take this into consideration, and not treat people as machines or robots. This is why creating a happy workplace should be one of the key priorities of a team leader. A workplace with a positive vibe attracts good people and helps those already working for you do their best for the company. This is supported by research conducted by Oxford University’s Business School which found that employees are 13% more productive when they are happy.
This post presents 5 things you can easily implement at your workplace to uplift the vibe that will help employees stay happy and satisfied.
Though a fun work environment and having a good time with your office buddies does contribute to how happy you may feel at work, a stronger and deeper sense of happiness comes from feeling cared about. This could be fostered in the workplace with methods as simple as asking employees how they are doing and taking a little time to find out how things are going in their life. This act of caring should be role modelled by the leadership, which eventually creates a culture of caring that everybody else soon follows.
There is no need to wait for the annual performance appraisal to give feedback or praise to your employees. Whenever you see someone genuinely committed to their work and deliver good results, make sure to recognize it and show that you value them. The appreciation that employees receive from the leadership boosts morale and contributes to happiness, at no cost to the organisation.
When employees engage in the same work routine continuously, they can get bored, which lowers their productivity. As a leader, you should add some variety to the workweek to help people feel refreshed and stimulated. Organising opportunities for employees to interact and build comradery outside of regular work tasks by facilitating a ‘Fun Friday’, where some time is dedicated to playing a game or discussing non-work topics, is one example of how a more varied work environment can be developed. This will encourage your team to get together and can even help employees escape from their work pressure and workload, all of which promote a happier workforce.
We have seen certain highly regulated work cultures where teams are led by bosses rather than leaders. In such cultures, managers tend to micro-manage, offer little flexibility and often strictly control how people spend their time during office hours. Employees who work in these cultures work are under a lot of pressure as they are being constantly watched and monitored. To mitigate this, adding some flexibility to the work environment is encouraged. This can be done by allowing flexible working hours, working from home facilities, and allowing employees to take a break when needed. When the relationship between the leader and the team is built upon trust and mutual understanding, employees do not exploit the freedom and flexibility they have. Rather, they use it for the betterment of the company.
Who likes to work in a dull or uncomfortable workplace? Have you ever wondered why companies like Google spend millions on creating an outstanding and contemporary work environment for their employees? If your office environment is disorganised, messy or uninspired, then people who work there might echo this and feel lethargic and unhappy. People sense and feel what is around them and this can significantly influence our state of mind. Little things such as playing music, having proper lighting and colours, getting rid of unnecessary clutter, organising the environment, having air-conditioning facilities to maintain proper temperature, improved interior designs, and floor planning, and even displaying photos and artwork can make a big difference in your work environment as well as enhance how people feel.
Implementation of the above points will add to employees’ happiness and satisfaction. However, as a leader, how do you know whether your employees are happy in the first place or if the implementation of the above recommendations have been successful or which other areas to target to improve your employees’ experience?
This is the reason why leaders have to have evidence-based tools to listen to people. This way you can address specific things that can boost the level of employee happiness and satisfaction.
MyTeamPulse is a great platform that enables you to listen to the real pulse of your team. It is an evidence-based, anonymous tool that empowers employees to have their say, thus enabling leaders to build happy, satisfied, and fully engaged teams. Such teams have proven to be 17% more productive and have the capacity to double (2X) the profitability of the business.
Sign up for a free trial + a debrief session with one of our Team Development Specialists to get your team humming.
