The world of employment has really shifted, hitting the fast forward button on several workplace trends. It’s now more important than ever for companies to keep their employees happy and productive.
Employees at work. Photo: Courtesy.
According to nectar, employee happiness is one of the most important factors in running a successful, profitable company.
Happy and engaged employees tend to miss less work, perform better, and support company innovation. When employees are happy, loyal, and engaged, company profits are much higher—and turnover is much lower.
However, when employees feel unhappy and unmotivated, productivity goes down, turnover goes up, and the company suffers.
Here are ways employers can make their employees happy and in return, motivate their productivity at work:
1. Prioritize work-life balance
Employees’ work-life balance plays a big role in their happiness at work. Work-life balance has become a little bit of a buzzword, but it still plays an important role in any healthy work environment.
What is a work-life balance? It’s the management of time spent both at work and outside of work. In other words, it allows people greater balance and flexibility between their work commitments and their family and personal commitments.
Making sure your employees have a great work-life balance is a crucial part of building a healthy work environment and keeping employees happy.
Offer flexible working options, like allowing workers to work remotely some days, and utilize video conferencing to make everyone feel included no matter their location.
Encourage managers to measure progress in productivity and projects instead of time spent in the office.
Managers should also encourage their leaders to take breaks and disconnect and conduct regular reviews of employees’ workloads and ask them about their management of the workload.
Employers should also give employees time to volunteer and give back to their community and reconsider time off policies to allow employees more time to unplug.
2. Allow flexible working schedules
A flexible working environment is more than just a buzzword: it’s the future of work. When employees feel as if they have greater flexibility at work, they feel more freedom to balance between their professional and personal lives.
That level of comfort will only lead to greater happiness and productivity, because employees don’t feel as if they are being squeezed in any way.
Flexible working schedules allow workers to feel less stressed, more refreshed, and happier overall.
3. Pay attention to what your employees say
At many companies, leaders make decisions—and employees only hear about them after the fact when they cannot contribute to the process.
When big decisions are made that affect the workforce without their input, employees tend to feel left out and forgotten. This, in turn, leads to overall unhappiness and a lack of motivation.
When considering how to build a positive work environment and keep employees happy, it’s important to listen to employees and ask for their feedback.
4. Create career mobility
Employees need room for growth and career mobility in order to feel motivated, productive, and secure. It can be tricky for employees to feel as if they are striving for something when they have nowhere to go, career-wise.
In many cases, employees are striving for their next promotion or raise to keep going. But if they don’t have that option, employees often feel as if they don’t need to try harder—because no one will appreciate the work and it won’t benefit them in a tangible way. Instead of moving up within your own company, they will instead look elsewhere for their next opportunity.
5. Offer Extensive Benefits
Benefits are one of the most effective ways to keep employees happy. It’s a no-brainer: when employees feel their company takes care of them, they’re far more likely to feel satisfied and productive.
However, most companies don’t want to put any extra money toward benefits, especially when they have just spent so much money and resources on hiring a new employee.
10. Be Supportive Of Innovation
When employees feel as if they can grow at their job, they are far more open to being productive every day. How do you better support innovation? Innovation starts with training.
Allow employees space to learn new processes and grow their skillset. Set up a system to help people better pitch their new ideas—and set up a process for follow-through.
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