Creating a happy workplace for employees is undeniably essential in retaining good talents to help build a worthy reputation and attaining set goals, however, below are three key factors that must not be left out in ensuring maximum productivity. A happy workplace environment does not only help your employees to do their best within the company but also helps to attract good talented people to the organisation. Employees who feel happiness at work tend to be more creative, innovative as well as dedicated to their work and company than their counterparts.
Unhappy workplaces can cause a lot of stress and anxiety, which can lead to disengaged workers. Studies show that disengaged workers have higher absenteeism, more errors and defects, and sometimes even get into more accidents at work.
Now, are you wondering if it’s possible to create a happy work environment for your employees or team without breaking your back?. Don’t sweat here are 7 major tips to help you achieve this in a short while.
- Hire Happy Personalities
Happy employees are far more motivated, productive, creative and great team players. Hiring these kinds of people can help you achieve a happier workplace. However, it requires some amount of thought process and preparation to identify them.
Of course, any hiring manager would start with the relevant experience, skills and past achievements while interviewing the candidate. Ignoring the personality would be a mistake as skills can be learned but trying to get a person to change their personality is very difficult.
- Greet your Team
It is a good practice to greet your co-workers or subordinates every morning when you arrive at the office as well as say goodbyes when you leave from office to go home.
Though small, these kinds of interactions help you to build connections with your co-workers, encouraging friendships and relationships that go beyond the workplace.
One of the biggest obstacles that people face when trying to build friendships is that they assume that the person on the other end might not be interested. However, in reality, everyone wants to communicate and interact with other people. And a simple way to break barriers can be using the greetings, avoid it and you will be hardly noticed!
- Deliver Praise & Recognition consistently
The majority of the well-deserving employees tend to leave their jobs if they feel underappreciated at the workplace.
According to a report from Inc, the number one reason why employees left their jobs was because of their managers – very much aligned with the tune we always hear, “People leave managers, not companies”.
The managers or leaders often display the least priority to giving praise and recognition to the work done by their team members. This makes the employees feel that they are not appreciated for their efforts and get demotivated to contribute their best.
Giving praise and recognition consistently can enable your team to be excited and eager to contribute more towards the success of your organisation and lead to a happy workplace.
A quick recognition mail, a shout-out during a team meeting complimenting the work, a monthly or quarterly award for team members or even simple feedback can help the managers to motivate their employees.
- Avoid Micromanaging
If you want your employees to work in a healthy workplace environment, show them that you and your management trust them to do an effective job. Think for a second! If you are working on a project and your boss keeps pestering you asking for the status, would you like it?
The same applies to your subordinates or teammates too. You need to give them a little space and a sense of autonomy. You should avoid micromanaging at all costs. Perhaps, you hired them in your team because you trusted them, right? So why don’t you trust them now, while they are working for you?
In an organisation, the top-level leaders should try to notice if the managers are encouraging group brainstorming or open communications with their teammates. If yes, then those managers are using their leadership qualities effectively to encourage a happy and stress-free work environment.
On the flip side, if you observe that the manager does not promote a free flow of ideas and tries to show that he is super focused on minor details, then there’s a good chance of micromanagement happening, which needs to be checked.
The happier your employees, the better will be the success of your company!
- Show Empathy
The way an employee feels at a workplace is hugely impacted by the way a boss treats them.
Research made by the brain-imaging study revealed that employees showed increased activities in areas of the brain that were associated with negative emotions when they recalled an un-empathic manager. However, when they recalled bosses showing empathy, the opposite happened in their brains.
More than half of the managers worldwide are indeed ineffective in showing empathy or building relationships with their employees.
However, it needs to change and managers should show empathy by actively listening and understanding their employee’s problems. This contributes a lot to having a happy workplace environment.
- Prioritize the work-life balance
Prioritizing work-life balance for your employees is not only important for their health and relationships but also leads to their improved productivity and performance at work.
Employees need to have greater control and ownership of their lives, as it will help them to have better relationships with the company management as well as family members.
Having a proper work-life balance will enable the person to leave work issues at work and home issues at home. With proper balance, the employees are motivated and less stressed at work. This in turn increases work productivity and reduces conflicts at the workplace.
- Encourage positive thinking
“Stay positive” and “Stay strong” –are the two things that you hear the most from your friends and colleagues when something is not going right for you.
Well, everyone knows life is not worth wasting thinking about the negativities around. You can have a hundred reasons to be happy, but negativity can bring you down even if you have one thing that didn’t work out your way.
“The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.” –Winston Churchill
Managers must proactively encourage their employees to think positively always. There can be situations where you and your team didn’t achieve the expected results. As a manager, you should inspire your team members to be positive and encourage them to do better next time. Positive thinking will eventually bring positive outcomes for your team and contribute to a happy workplace.
We hope our tips will help you as you push towards achieving a better work environment for your employees. Join us next week as we reveal another amazing tip.