On these corporate streets, where no one seems to be smiling, it is now more crucial than ever for companies to maintain happy and productive employees and attain the highest efficiency levels.
Happy and engaged employees often miss fewer work days, perform better, and encourage corporate innovation. However, it might take time to determine how to keep staff pleased in the current economic climate. In addition, external circumstances might influence your employees’ satisfaction, which is typically outside your control.
So, how can you create a happy and productive workforce?
1. Prioritize a healthy work-life balance
The work-life balance of employees has a significant impact on their job satisfaction. As a result, work-life balance has become somewhat of a buzzword, yet it remains an essential component of any thriving workplace.
What does work-life balance entail? First, is the management of time spent on and off the job. In other words, it permits individuals better balance and flexibility between their career, family, and personal obligations.
2. Permit Flexible Working Hours
Everyone has their work routine, and everyone feels more productive at certain times. Some employees may be morning people, while others may be night owls. Flexible work hours enable each individual to retain their optimal personal schedule while managing professional assignments. Allowing employees to choose their schedules, they are significantly more productive.
3. Consider Your Employees
Managers’ actions and demeanour may significantly affect how workers view their work. According to the TINYpulse Employee Retention Report, 40% of employees interviewing for new positions regarded their supervisor’s performance as poor.
Consider instead taking recommendations and comments from your employees into account. Involve your workers early in decision-making, particularly if the outcome may influence them.
4. Enable Career Mobility
Employees frequently strive for their next promotion or raise to continue working. But if they don’t have that choice, they often feel as though they don’t need to strive harder, as no one will acknowledge their effort, which won’t directly benefit them. Career advancement and upward mobility are crucial stepping stones for employees. It gives them the emotional freedom to take bigger chances, propose new ideas, seek help and mentoring, develop their abilities, and grow as employees and individuals.
5. Establish an Positive Work Environment
94% of executives and 88% of employees agree that a healthy corporate culture is essential to a company’s success, according to research by Deloitte.
Another simple approach to create a happy office environment? Smile more! Smiling is one of the easiest ways to transmit happiness and positive energy, a sign of positivity. Particularly, managers should consider smiling more. Your grin will spread happiness and make others happy, as happiness is contagious.
6. Recognize and compensate employees for their hard work.
Thanking someone can go a long way. However, managers may sometimes need to understand that recognizing workers’ hard work or accomplishments does not require a huge gesture. Regardless of the size of their achievements, employees feel soothed and acknowledged when their supervisors and leadership compliment their hard work and recognize the time and effort that went into their accomplishments.
7. Offer Extensive Benefits
Whether giving your employees a day off on their birthday or providing them with additional maternity or paternity leave, it’s essential to determine what each employee needs and how you can assist them better. When employees believe they are being listened to and their needs are being met, they will be considerably happier and work harder.
8. Encourage short breaks
Permitting employees to take more frequent intervals may appear paradoxical. However, the more pauses employees take, the more mental space they have. The workers will return rejuvenated with sharper heads, prepared to work smarter rather than harder.
9. Change Your Office Environment
The actual workplace environment should be designed to better meet the demands of your staff in terms of office furniture, live plants, and refrigerator space. More is needed for managers to assume what their people desire. It involves discussing and comprehending precisely what your employees require to feel more comfortable and comfortable in their working area. Here are some workplace interior design ideas from Pinterest.
10. Be encouraging of innovation
Provide staff with room to learn new procedures and expand their skill set. Set up a system to enable people to present their fresh ideas more effectively, as well as a method for follow-up. A feedback method would also assist staff in understanding why their ideas were rejected. Once an idea has been accepted, execute it as quickly as feasible and give credit to the person who came up with it so that others may see that you take innovation seriously.
Gen Z employees are occupying a larger percentage of workforce population, and they want to enjoy the work they do. We carried out a survey within our Gen Z community and spoke with some of their employers, and the result is a resourceful guide on “How to attract and retain Gen Z employees”. It’s free and available for download here.