Many years ago, a workplace wasn’t where people expected to be happy – but now a happy workplace is part and parcel of your staff performing their best, great retention rates, and rapid growth.
If you aren’t taking the time to make sure your staff is happy – then you can soon find yourself without a business at all.
It will be no surprise that happier staff are more productive, more motivated and likely to give you outstanding work. So it goes without saying that an unhappy team isn’t motivated, will do the bare minimum, and you will see it reflected in their output.
So what can you do to make sure that you offer your staff a safe and happy environment for them to work in?
Simple Ways to Create a Happy Workplace
1.Recognize
Have you ever told an excellent joke, but no one heard it? Doing great work can be a lot like that but more significant. If your staff is constantly feeling like no matter how good their work is, no one will notice – they may also feel like there is no point doing any work at all.
You must consider in what ways do you not only recognize good work – but reward it too. It shouldn’t be made to feel like a competitive environment – but more like everyone has time to shine.
As well as regularly looking to issue goodies, there should be the possibility that praise and notice will happen randomly too.
2.Wellness
It can be challenging for workers to truly offer them something in wellness with an office. Luckily many companies can be outsourced to help you build these frameworks and even carry them out for you.
Offer things like monthly yoga classes and weekly global cuisine, and if the job is high stress and demanding, it can be essential to have a therapist available.
Not all of your team’s issues might be obvious, but when more serious ones come to the surface, you can offer support for them to get the right help from drug rehabs to paid leave and other services.
3.Professional growth
The more skills your team has access to, the more skilled your team will be. It should always be the case that you have your staff’s training and professional growth options. They are the driving force behind your business.
As well as professional growth, there should be a consideration for personal growth. Every person in the office will have aspirations outside of their work, which should be nurtured.
The moment a staff member feels like they have stagnated, the more likely it is that you will lose that member of the team.
Look for programs that allow you to subsidize learning, offer in-house training, and see if there are groups of staff that would be happy to join courses (usually, there is a discounted rate on groups).
It is also a good idea to encourage your staff to create their groups and clubs. For example, you might have some team keen to make a difference with recycling – see what they need to make that a reality.
4.Events
Not all staff will want to attend events, so there should be no pressure. But, if you have a lot of staff that have family commitments and can’t, you should be thinking about ways to include their family in the events.
Coworkers shouldn’t need to be forced to be social with each other, so carefully consider if company events are the right thing to do.
And as a final note on events, going off-site can feel much better to staff. After all, you don’t want to play where you work!
5.Available
The people at the top are often missing from the equation. It can be impossible to speak to managers and higher-ups. This can create a distinct difference between the workers and the manager and lead to communication issues.
Instead, you should look to create an atmosphere where no one’s time is more valuable than anyone else’s (even if it is on paper). So issues big and small can be discussed with the right people.
Make sure that you have space for staff to book and talk to you in your week. It shows that you value the team, what they have to say – and are in touch with what is going on.
It is essential that you can distinguish between times they want you to listen and times they want you to act.
