04 Jul How to create a happier workplace
Engagement at work is associated with feeling valued, secure, supported, and respected, it is generally negatively associated with a high-stress, cut-throat culture. Disengaged workers have been shown to have 37% higher absenteeism, 49% more accidents and 60% more errors*. Protect your business and employees by making some small changes that make a big impact to the happiness of your workplace.
Consistently Deliver Praise and Recognition
Feeling unappreciated is the top reason employees quit their jobs. It is important that you recognise your employees hard work and contribution to the business.
Create a system that makes providing your team with recognition and praise. Call 10-minute company catch ups, gather around in a circle and call out work you want to recognise. This is also a great opportunity for everyone to learn about what people in their team are working on.
Impromptu praise is also highly valued. Send out a note about an individual’s great work or hand write a note. The unexpectedness of the gesture will give it greater impact.
Offer Meaningful Perks
If you automatically assume that paying people more is the key to making them happier, guess again. Employees want to know that their employer cares about them and not just their work.
Invest in employee benefits that make a difference to their life, encourage health, physical activity and cultural boosting activities.
Invest in your teams personal and professional growth
Personal development is a basic human need, and your employees need to constantly grow in order to feel fulfilled. When employees feel stagnant, that’s when many start scrolling through the job boards in search of something new.
- Subsidise education for team members who want to take classes, purchase online courses, or attend industry conferences to improve their skills.
- Host “lunch and learns” where a team member presents on a topic he or she is passionate about.
- Start a book club or crowd-source a library.
- Launch a company-wide Individual Development Plan, where employees come up with four personal and four professional goals that they want to achieve by the end of the year.
Incentivise Wellness
While a health lecture may sound like a decent idea to help people improve wellness, it’s not something that will get your team excited. For wellness to work, you have to get buy-in and make it something that’s enjoyable for your team and something everyone feels comfortable getting involved in.
Yoga, healthy potluck lunches, health challenges, or awesome healthy snacks have all been a hit at most companies we work with.
Build Trust
Your team wants to be trusted. They want to be given responsibility, because it shows that you’re confident in their abilities. Trust means micromanaging less, but also encouraging accountability to ensure things are getting done.