If there’s one thing that helps turn a decent company into a great one, it’s a good working environment. Workplace satisfaction is key to business success; happy employees are more productive, better leaders, more creative and better team players.
However, creating that healthy working environment seems to be a difficult task for many executives and business owners. Maybe it is the worry of swinging the pendulum too far towards ‘fun’: employees spending all their time in the company game room, employees always drunk on the beer from the company beer fridge, and so on. Despite this, a good working environment doesn’t have to be a “no work” environment. Some relatively simple steps can be taken to help keep your employees happy without sacrificing work.
The most important thing you can do is trust your employees. If you don’t think they will work without you sitting in the room, you should probably find some new employees. None of the other steps you take will function without trust. It is easy for your staff to tell if you don’t trust them, and this has two effects: a loss of confidence as they start to believe they need to be micromanaged or a growing resentment for not trusting them when they are already doing the right thing.
Now that you have employees that you trust, what next? You need to get to know them. What are their interests? Are they married? Children? No one wants to spend significant amounts of time in a workplace with someone they aren’t friendly with or hardly know. You want your employees to be comfortable talking to you if there’s an issue at work, or at home. If employees feel comfortable with you, you are no longer just the person who pays their bills, but, hopefully, a friend they get to work with. Knowing your employees also helps you make more proactive changes in the workplace. John’s wife is pregnant? You can probably assume that John will need some time off for ultrasounds and tests and start planning accordingly. However, if you didn’t bother to find out anything about John’s personal life, you would be surprised when John can’t make it to that important business meeting during his wife’s final few weeks of her pregnancy.
You trust them; you know them. Now you need to look after them. This comes in two parts. First is keeping them up-to-date in their field. Give your employees time (and motivation) to train and improve. Of course, this helps them professionally, but it also makes sure that your company stays knowledgeable and promotes a culture of innovation. Second, make sure that there is a reason for them to be employed. Chase up projects and clients to keep work coming in. The last thing you want is your employees using this spare time to start sharpening their resumes because they think the company is about to go broke.
Your employees are all distinct, and each person has individual strengths. If John is great at app development and Jane is the best team member for web interfaces, it makes sense that John is the app lead and Jane is the web lead. You can (and should) have high expectations that employees work to reach their potential, but you should also let them know when they meet or go beyond those expectations. Use their skills to teach the rest of your staff; have everyone share the knowledge they have attained. Not only will this increase what your entire team knows, but it helps those like John and Jane to feel appreciated. Everyone wants to feel like they have contributed, and that their work has been noticed. Showing your employees that you appreciate their efforts will always be a good thing. It doesn’t need to be huge, just some kind words or a free lunch.
When it comes to keeping employees happy, a raise and a couple of perks will rarely go astray, but what really matters is the relationships you build with the people around you. At FACTORinteractive, we recognise the importance of a happy, healthy team to reaching our goals and achieving success. The experience of each member is integral to delivering quality service to our customers. A workplace in where happiness and productivity thrive is a workplace where you trust your employees, get to know them, look after them, and encourage them.
