December 7, 2016 by Galina Litvin Leave a Comment
There is no such thing as the PERFECT work place. But there are things that an organization can do to help improve employee productivity and employee morale. A company’s most valuable resource is there employees, thus it is important for an organization to care about the well being of their employees. Without the collective workforce of employees most companies would not be able to produce products or turn a profit. Thus it is amazing how many organizations do not place much value on these types of resources. An employee’s overall happiness and job satisfaction can have a direct correlation to better job performance as well as increase productivity which in turn has direct benefits for the organization as a whole. So why are more companies not focusing on making employees happy?
Often organizations have a narrow focus on profitability and that clouds organizational focus on making the overall happiness of employees a top priority. Because employee happiness is hard to measure and does not have an exact dollar amount, happiness and employee morale often become an afterthought for many organizations. Creating an environment where overall happiness is the goal for your employees will ultimately help increase revenue by directly increasing your employees productivity. Establishing an environment where employee happiness is the top priority for the organization will not cost your company a lot of money, in fact it can actually help with increasing revenue. Making employees happy involves having an organizational cultural shift in making the goal of happiness a top priority, this has to be the focus among management as well as the executive team.
Here are a few simple things that can be done to increase employee moral and happiness…
1.Show appreciation to your employees on an ongoing basis:
Showing appreciation to employees involves being aware of the work they are doing and not taking them for granted. Simply saying Thank YOU, and giving them recognition for the great work they are doing can win you tremendous respect and create loyalty. Taking a moment to send an email with an acknowledgement for the job well done will motivate the employee to continue to put 100% effort into the work they are doing. It is not necessary to always provide recognition monetary every time
2.Motivate and Encourage:
Give your employees opportunities for growth by allowing them to take on tasks that they want to do..If an employee comes to you and asks to be on a project, allow them opportunity to take on the job that they are asking for. Encouraging and motivating employees in such a way further creates job dedication and organizational loyalty. Your employees will perceive that your organization is looking out for their best interest.
3.Empower your Employees:
Create a sense of empowerment among your staff and employees. What this means is basically to TRUST your employees to make smart business decisions. Remember you hired an adult to work for your organization, so that means we have to treat the employees as an adult. Don’t micromanage your employees and allow for them to do their job independently, micromanaging will result in the employee becoming resentful towards the manager and the company and actually reduces productivity for individuals.
4.Communication
Good Communication is key to success within many organizations. Having a decentralized form of communication within the organization allows for executive team and management to be aware of things that are happening on the ground floor. The more in tune management is what is happening the better informed you will be. Allow for communication to flow synchronously among the organization. Encourage your management team to get to know the employee on a personal level. Creating a hierarchy within the organization contributes to general unhappiness among employees and often will stifle the communication among the organization with a heavy management layer.
5.Allow Job Flexibility
Many companies today have the ability to offer remote work or job flexibility of some type. Unless there are specific business sectors such as medical field and or the work can not be completed remotely, there is no reason why companies should not allow this type of benefit. Technological advances allows for more flexibility for getting work to be completed anywhere and anytime, thus allowing your employees job flexibility where they have the option to have to work from home or have flexible business hours, further increases job satisfaction and reduces overall job stress and job turnover.
The steps that were mentioned above really do not cost much to implement, it is really a cultural shift that needs to happen within your business and organization. Focusing on employee recognition and better communication really allows for the employees to be happy as well productive individuals.