Employees are the backbone of any organisation. As employees grow, companies grow inherently which is a clear indication that organisations need to provide proper pampering to their employees and make efforts to create a positive working environment.
Organisations usually deal with unhappy employees who are only physically present at work. This absence of putting heart and soul into one’s job makes things difficult and stressful for not just them, but the organisation as a whole.
This calls for the employers as well as the higher authorities to inspect every element within their company that affects the working conditions in their space and introduce improvements gradually.
How to create a better working environment for your employees
Building a favourable and positive workplace can be a pretty daunting task for organisations and many may not even know where to begin. Here are some quick ways to help companies not just build but sustain a positive, healthy and growing working environment for their workforce.
Maintain a balance
Many companies often overlook the idea of work-life balance. This may usually occur when the company expects too much from their workforce and bombards them with work, giving no or little consideration to the employee’s capacity.
It is often seen that employees who are overworked, submitting reports on weekends and even holidays are the most frustrated of the lot. On the other hand, some companies fail to realise the potential and talents of the workers and don’t offer enough tasks utilising only a part of their potential.
In order to create the best environment, companies need to consider work-life balance as a strong component and ensure that the employees are able to really enjoy their work and the life outside of it.
Encourage outdoor activities
Are your employees genuinely involved in their tasks? Do your employees feel a strong connection with their team members? Are your teams suffering due to lack of team-work and ineffective collaboration?
It is now a common practice that companies try to introduce fun outdoor activities for fostering personal connections between their employees. This creates greater engagement with the team and also builds trust among the staff.
Planning team-building exercises like lunges, fun games, hikes and other activities does not only give the employees the much-needed break but also refreshes connections and communications within teams, leading to higher job satisfaction.
Strong sense of community and a strong connection with co-workers have proved to be a major factor in high employee retention.
Sustain their independence
Whenever employees associate with a company, they are willing to work towards the company’s objectives and missions. However, most companies make the mistake of over-tracking their employees’ daily tasks and find more flaws than good in their way of working. Such practices are a clear sign of a toxic workplace.
Companies can ensure that their employees are not existing in a negative workplace by giving the staff a sense of independence at work. This means that the higher managers need not always watch and list down every employee’s schedule.
Even the team leaders should be trained in such a way that they let the employees take breaks, stretch, work the way they want, all without any interruptions. “No questions asked” is the way to go for creating a healthy work environment.
Keep disengagement at bay
Is your employee leaving or “quitting” too early? Do you see many employees leaving the company within their first year of hire? Disengagement could be the underlying issue associated with such early departures.
Stats prove that as much as 27% of employees think of leaving their jobs in the first year itself and cite “disconnect” as the main issue. If you wish to retain the employees, companies need to keep disengagement at bay by appreciating the employees’ hard work and efforts and making them feel valued to the organisation.
Things like employee rewards, bonus or as simple as greeting notes can make employees feel morally charged. This inculcates a sense of belonging within the workers, keeping them motivated and aligned with the company’s goals and long-term objectives.
Nurture their creativity
Due to the extra work pressure and immense stress-related issues arising in work culture, employees are often faced with creative blocks. This means that the employees are so stuck in their routines and overbearing workloads that their brain no longer works in a balanced manner, creating lack of ideas and innovation.
To prevent your employees from falling into this pit, companies need to encourage and nurture talents within their force. This involves promoting a culture and working environment wherein creativity has a special place and mundane ways of working are not encouraged.
Giving every employee to speak their minds and the freedom to get creative in their repetitive tasks on an everyday basis is one way to ensure that employees have their creative brain cells active at all times. The leaders need to be trained in such a way that they listen to every member whether young or old bv and support creative methodologies over the conventional ones.
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Embrace technology
With so many technologies, platforms, apps and Hybrid workplace software ruling the market, it is understandable that manual work is no longer the trend. The introduction of automation has reshaped the way organisations operate and the way employees perform day-to-day activities.
A positive environment can only be instilled by hammering technology into the core of the company’s workflows. This requires that managers and employers embrace the technologies whole-heartedly for making their employees’ lives easier.
Introducing newer ways of working and updated software in the operations can drastically improve the team’s performance, enhance speed of working and above all, provide error-free results and data. Employers should not feel afraid of jumping on new trends and encouraging necessary improvements and upgrades within the enterprise.
Focus on overall wellness
Better environment is more about mental well-being rather than the physical surroundings. As much as companies focus on great interiors and uptown space infrastructure, it is mandatory that companies pay as much attention to the mental wellness and mental health of the employees.
Companies need to incorporate the idea of wellness programs as a part of their weekly or monthly to-do tasks for breeding a motivated and inspired workforce.
With burnout being a serious issue at the digital workplace, companies have shifted their focus on wellness activities like holding yoga hours, reserving exercise sessions, healthy diet and food at canteens and building recreational rooms.
This step also brings in the remote as well as on-site employees together and inculcates personal connections within the employees.
Build an appealing ambience
While we talk of the environment, the surroundings matter a lot. In fact, the people are a direct reflection of their surroundings which indicates that a good and appealing office layout will reflect on the growth of employees.
It is now being seen that companies are focussing on the physical aspects of offices particularly the office layout, desk arrangements, lighting and overall design. For example, offices now ensure that the office furniture, the working equipment and service areas are in the best of condition.
Cleanliness as well as attractive design is at the heart of all office layouts nowadays, be it the cabins, desks, food zones or any utility; for giving the employees the best working conditions at all times.
Airy surroundings with proper sun-lit rooms are proven to enhance the mood and work wonders to create a relaxing workspace. Artificial and subtle light tones in conference rooms and desk stations are also helpful in promoting an uplifting and a happy working environment.
Make space for communication
According to a report, 86% of employees believe that ineffective communication and collaboration leads to workplace failures. This is not a surprising revelation because absence of communication is absence of synchrony, which in turn ceases growth and efficiency.
For ensuring that employees work in a good working space, companies need to work really hard on all kinds of communications including that within the team and also between the workers and the employers/higher authority. Companies need to install Internal help desks for seriously addressing the employees’ concerns and queries.
Listening to the employees’ woes and unpleasant experiences and valuing their opinions can bring a great transformation within the company culture as well as instil feelings of satisfaction and happiness amongst the staff.
Why should organisations focus on creating a better working environment?
A good, supportive and encouraging working environment is integral to any organisation. Here are some reasons why offices need to work in this direction and make the workplace a better space to interact and work for their working staff.
Good working environment affects the very attitude of the employees. A great environment builds a positive attitude in teams which makes them more responsible towards their tasks and instils passion for work.
Looking closer at the working environment of big companies, it is usually seen that employees’ happiness is directly reflected in clients. This is because a satisfied employee puts in extra effort in all tasks including interacting with clients, which in turn ensures that the company is always at gain and prospering.
Higher productivity rate is a direct consequence of providing a high-standard working space to the staff.
Employee retention rate is high among organisations that work towards creating a positive atmosphere at work as employees feel more connected to such places and tend to stay associated with such firms for a longer duration.
In Summary
9-5 jobs are a pass as more employees are looking at their offices as a place that harbours their passion and zeal to work. No wonder that great working conditions and a positive culture has emerged as a top requirement for employees now more than ever.
About the Author
Vignesh D is a digital marketer, with 4+ years of experience in the Digital Marketing Domain. He mostly works in B2B organisations. and spends a lot of the time in SaaS communities getting a lot of the information from industry experts.
