As a business owner, you stand to benefit greatly from a team of happy employees. There are many ways business owners can boost morale in the workplace, one of which includes ensuring that the workplace environment is designed with employee satisfaction in mind. Creating a positive work environment that is inclusive of uplifting corporate culture and leadership can greatly influence employees’ attitudes towards their job and can significantly boost performance levels and productivity.
In today’s article, we look at 5 effective ways of creating an employee-focused workplace, so keep on reading to find out more.
1. Designing An Effective and Functional Office Space
One of the biggest components of creating an employee-focused workplace is, of course, ensuring that your workspace is designed in the most functional way possible. Depending on the industry you’re in, your employees’ needs will differ when it comes to the ideal working environment.
Your office space should include all the technology that is needed to run the day to day operations and should prioritise efficiency and effectiveness over everything else. Simply put, an employee that is placed in an environment that is unsuitable to accomplishing their tasks and responsibilities may end up suffering from low morale and poor job satisfaction. Aside from technology, it is important that your office includes all the necessary fixtures and fittings that are needed to run smoothly.
Case Study: Medical Clinics
For example, if you are running a dental, medical or chiropractic clinic, it is important that you enlist the services of a medical fit out company in order to ensure that you have appropriately designed reception areas, treatment rooms and waiting areas.
2. Creating A Positive Work Culture
Workplace culture plays a vital role in any organisation and encourages employees to interact based on your organisation’s ingrained values and attitudes. A positive workplace culture offers employees an environment that they can excel in and most importantly, enjoy being in.
Here are just a few ways in which managers and business owners can encourage positive work culture:
Promote Diversity and Inclusivity
Embrace 2022 by encouraging your employees to share their pronouns with one another. Encourage the use of inclusive language and consider prioritising diversity initiatives. A great idea would be to work with your human resource team/department to ensure that diversity is one of the main focuses of your company’s recruitment strategy.
Introduce A Zero Tolerance Policy
It goes without saying that everyone in the workplace deserves to be treated with respect, dignity and kindness. In order to ensure that your employees feel heard, it is vital to provide them with the opportunity to speak up about any issues or discrimination they may be facing in the workplace. There should be a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to matters such as workplace bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination. Harsh penalties should be applied to such behaviour in order to discourage inappropriate conduct at work.
Employee Recognition Programs
Recognising and rewarding outstanding employee performance is a fantastic idea. By rewarding hard work, you will naturally encourage employees to continue performing at peak levels, and are guaranteed to make our staff feel valued within the company. Furthermore, rewarding hard work is a great way of fostering healthy competition amongst colleagues – a leading contributor to high performance and greater business success.
3. Perks Of The Job
Everybody loves a great office perk. Perks can come in many different forms, some of which include providing an office coffee machine, a pantry full of snacks. free to use massage chairs and/or gym membership reimbursements. If you really want to go the extra mile, you could even consider providing daycare services, dedicated nursing rooms, ergonomic desk accessories and game rooms.
By offering a diverse variety of perks that appeal to a variety of different interests and preferences, you can be assured employees that are more productive, in better spirits and more willing to go the extra mile.
4. Organising Corporate Events
If you’re looking to build team morale and foster positive work relationships, nothing beats a fun corporate event. Corporate events are much more than just a chance for employees to mingle, gather and let their hair down. Some of the benefits of hosting corporate events include promoting creativity, creating a more focused team, boosting morale and most importantly, validating your employees.
If you are the owner of a startup with a small expense budget, fret not. Company events don’t need to break the bank – why not organise a hike at a nearby nature reserve? It costs nothing but is a surefire way of getting employees excited. Everyone wants to feel appreciated, and a corporate event is a great way to celebrate the successes of individual employees, teams, and the organisation.
5. Embracing Flexibility
It is important to remember that we are all human and life gets in the way sometimes. This is why embracing flexibility as a business owner can be so beneficial to the overall success and happiness of your employees. As a general rule of thumb, your employees should never have to fear being on the receiving end of heat for taking personal time off.
Similarly, allowing employees to work remotely during the busy seasons of life can also prove to be a smart move from a business perspective. At the end of the day, you’ll earn the respect of your employees rather than the reputation of being rigid and unaccommodating.
Fun Fact: 88% of employees would consider a lower-paying job in exchange for greater work flexibility.
Every organisation is built on people, happy employees are the most significant investment you can make for your business. We hope that this article has given you a few new ideas on how you can further promote an employee-focused workspace that allows your staff to be their healthiest, most productive, most motivated selves at work.
