Being in charge of a business comes with a great number of responsibilities. One of the biggest and most important ones that can have a huge impact is taking good care of your employees. You need to make sure they are motivated.
If you have the basics covered, such as satisfying salaries and appropriate benefits packages, follow these tips to create a happy workplace and motivate your employees. The benefits of putting some work and time into this will be manifold.
Most importantly, though, you will ensure your employees make fewer errors, have fewer accidents and are actually less absent from work.
All of this will have a great effect on your business’ productivity rate. It will also influence the general happiness of your workplace.
7 Simple Ways To Cultivate A Happy Workplace
1# Be flexible
One of the most important ways how to create a happy workplace is to show you are understanding of your employees’ needs.
You should show that you are glad to meet them halfway. This will look different for different people and within different businesses. On a basic level, it is always good to come into something with a flexible attitude.
In most cases, being flexible will be seen in allowing your employees to keep flexible hours. This can mean coming at a later time but staying longer. Alternatively, it can be simply allowing them to use their break time whenever they want during the day.
Having this kind of flexibility will make your employees feel valued and their different needs taken into account. You could have a parent dropping their kids off at school at 7.30 when you do not start work until 9.
Allowing this person to come and leave at an earlier time will make them more productive. They will also be appreciative of being able to achieve a better work/life balance.
Businesses whose employees can get a lot of work done remotely can also benefit a lot from being flexible. This flexibility will show when it comes to when and how often their employees come into the office.
On a related note, some businesses are even flexible when it comes to the number of vacation days they allow. The employees decide how many days they need as long as they meet their goals.
2# Praise and recognition
Many managers believe that they need to rule with an iron fist. For a long time, many people were of the opinion that fear is what will drive their employees’ productivity up.
However, one of the simple ways to cultivate a happy workplace is to manage your employees respectfully and benevolently. Research has shown that people react much more positively to positive feedback.
Meaning, your employees are bound to work harder if you reward them when they deserve it and recognize their involvement in reaching the desired results. Obviously, sometimes it will be necessary to criticize as well.
However, this will go over much more smoothly if your employees do not feel like all you notice are their mistakes. This will develop a trust and a bond that will create a happier workplace and more motivated employees.
3# Don’t micromanage
Another one of the tips to create a happy workplace and motivate your employees also has to do with trust. If you are heavily involved in your business and like the feeling of control, sometimes it can be tempting to micromanage your employees’ work.
You may want to make sure that everything is done just the way you like it. You should try to refrain from doing this, however. Remember that you have hired your employees for a reason.
Also, try to be as clear as possible when it comes to the goals you want them to hit. When employees feel trusted and supported, they are much more confident in their work. This is what you want in the end.
4# Encourage a work/life balance
All of these tips have one thing in common. It is important to show your employees that you appreciate and care for them.
One of the ways of doing this and knowing how to create a happy workplace is to show you understand the high demands of a 21st-century lifestyle. There are different ways to do this.
However, the underlying tenet is showing you care for your employees’ lives outside of work. You can mostly do this through the different benefits and perks you offer.
Whether you allow working from home, flexible vacation days, childcare options or something completely different, you will be cultivating a workplace with happy and loyal employees.
5# Highlight the importance of wellness
As mentioned before, most of these tips to create a happy workplace and motivate your employees are related. Wellness, in its many forms, is a big part of modern life. In order to prevent burnout syndrome for your employees, make sure they feel taken care of at work.
Some of the ways you can encourage them to take better care of themselves are by providing healthy lunch options, bike racks for those who decide to cycle to work or corporate discounts for gym memberships.
6# Organize team building
One of the 7 simple ways to cultivate a happy workplace is to provide your employees with an opportunity to get to know each other outside of work. Nowadays, team building exercises are par for the course of any respectable business.
They are pretty easy to organize, or even better, have them organized for you. This is also another place where you can take your employees’ needs into account. In order to do it, float a couple of ideas for them to choose.
Not only are these exercises fun, but they often foster creativity and provide your employees with an opportunity to learn more about each other.
Your workplace will be happier and more fun, and your employees will be able to communicate in a more enjoyable and effective way.
7# Hire the right personalities
Finally, one of the easiest ways how to create a happy workplace is to hire people that are upbeat and fit well within the existing working community.
You will all be spending so much time together and leaning on each other, it is important to be able to do it with people who are positive and come to work with a happy attitude.
Author Bio: Simone Weil is a blogger mostly writing about corporate culture and technology. She also works with moving companies such as peasleyboisemovers.com in building their brands and providing them with content for their blogs. She lives and works in Idaho.
