Today it has become more important than ever before to make employees feel happy and productive. It’s because they’re more engaged and productive which leads to higher financial gains for the company. Also, they contribute to a healthy corporate culture and make the office a more attractive place to work in. On the other hand, dissatisfied and unmotivated employees hold the business back. However, making employees satisfied and productive isn’t as easy as it may sound. It requires time, continuous effort, and a few tricks you can learn if you continue reading this article.
Create a Friendly and Pleasant Atmosphere
The atmosphere in the workplace plays a vital role in how employees feel at work. If the atmosphere is friendly and pleasant, they feel satisfied and happy. As a result, the results of their work performance are more than satisfactory. More importantly, research shows happy employees seldomly take leave of absence as opposed to unhappy ones. On the other hand, a hostile and tense work environment inhibits employees from performing, building relationships, and realizing their full potential. If you’re looking for ways to make your employees happier and more productive, then creating a pleasant atmosphere is the first step.
Hone Their Soft Skills
In every industry, apart from technical skills, employees should also have the so-called soft skills. Critical thinking, teamwork, problem solving, and leadership are some of them. However, most managers would agree one soft skill matters more than others and that’s communication. Whether employees work individually or in teams, it doesn’t matter. They should be able to effectively communicate with clients, customers, colleagues, and the management. The best part about soft skills is that they can be honed with adequate training. If some of your employees lack communication skills, you can train them to become better at business communication. You can find out more here on useful communication tools for your staff, so they can practice their skills right away.
Involve Your Staff
Employees have personal and professional objectives they strive to achieve. Sitting idle in the workplace doesn’t help them develop professionally. That’s why it’s best to keep them involved. Taking part in the workplace and organizational activities gives them both a sense of purpose and belonging. For example, team building activities bring the staff together and make their bonds stronger. As a result, they collaborate better and support each other in the workplace. Hosting fairs or workshops and letting employees help with their organization is another great idea. You can also encourage them to volunteer as a team. Helping others will serve as a morale booster and it’ll also show to others your company cares for its community.
Instill Trust
When you have your team working together in the same workplace, you can monitor their work. This way you can be at ease knowing they’re doing their job the way they’re supposed to. When most teams switched to remote work during the pandemic, managers felt the urge to micromanage. In most cases, it created a stifling work atmosphere. You can be sure your employees will do their work without micromanagement. All you have to do is instill trust from the beginning. Your employees are responsible enough to meet deadlines and fulfill all their duties and responsibilities. Also, they feel happier when their boss isn’t breathing down their neck until they finish their tasks.
Allow Flexibility
What could make your employees happier the most is having greater flexibility in respect to their working hours. Meeting private and professional commitments is challenging when employees work 9 to 5 every day. That’s why they could use flexible working hours. It would allow them to balance the commitments and dedicate themselves to all life areas equally. You wouldn’t have to deal with employee burnout and frustrations in the workplace because employees don’t get enough time to spend with friends and family. They’d feel most productive when setting their working hours instead of sticking to the fixed ones. In the end, balancing it all would make them happy which would reflect positively on the quality of their work too.
Motivate Employees
There’s no greater reward than when an employee accomplishes something they wanted for a long time. At that moment, the employee feels on top of the world. More importantly, that feeling of satisfaction drives them to accomplish more and become the best version of themselves. To motivate employees, you should first know what their ambitions are. For example, some employees would like to break an annoying habit but don’t know how to do it. You can step in and motivate and support them in accomplishing their goals. Once they do it, they’ll have no problem overcoming greater challenges and feeling happier and prouder of themselves.
Make Employees Feel Valued
You should be encouraging to your employees and praise them when they do a good job. In that way, they will feel that you appreciate what they do. It’s also essential to remember that mistakes are bound to happen at some point. What’s important is your reaction to them. You shouldn’t punish the person definitely or make them feel bad and humiliated.
Instead, you should talk to the person, teach them the right way to do something as well as encourage asking questions whenever needed. Employees need to feel that they can make a mistake, as long as they learn something out of them. Punishing employees in any way can have detrimental effects on their productivity. They might even feel the need to get back at the company somehow. So, it’s best to be civilized about any potential mistakes. However, if the mistakes repeat, then you should perhaps evaluate whether the person is right for the job.
Wrapping Up
Happy and productive employees are willing to go above and beyond to make the company succeed. Since this is the ultimate goal of every manager and entrepreneur, doing whatever it takes to make employees feel this way is pivotal. Luckily for you, with our tricks, you’ll be able to make your staff as happier and more productive as they’ve ever been.
