Your staff are there to help push your business forward, sure, but it’s important to remember that it’s not just a one-way street. You’ll get a lot, sure, but you also need to give a lot — and that includes more than just a paycheck.
You’ll need to take care of their overall well-being and make sure that they’re generally happy working for your company. If you do, you’ll find that staff retention and satisfaction improves, as will, incidentally, your company as a whole.
Below, we take a look at some tried and tested ways for improving the overall well-being of your employees.
Be Open
One of the most important factors when it comes to the overall happiness of an office is how open it is when it comes to communication. Things are much better when a team of employees know that they can take their concerns and queries to the boss and be met with respect.
This helps everyone connected with your company, in fact, including you! You’re able to be direct with your staff, and they can be direct with you.
It’s a healthier way to run a company — problems and resentments usually develop when it feels as if communication has broken down, so be sure to have open dialogue a core principle of your leadership style.
Natural Light and Comfort
It’s important to consider just how influential our surroundings can be. They can greatly influence our mood and happiness levels! Think about this: there is clearly a big difference between working in a dark and dingy office, and working in a light and spacious one.
The general scene influences how happy your staff are when they arrive at their office, and how long they’re able to work.
Dark offices can make us feel prematurely tired, after all. As well as the light situation, you’ll also want to focus on the overall comfort. You can’t expect your team to work for many hours if they’re forever uncomfortable in the seats that you’ve provided.
Healthy Workloads
Sure, you want your company to progress as much as possible, but it’s important that you’re not pushing your staff to the limit. If you do, you’ll only end up with stress-related illnesses on your hands. While there’ll be times when everyone needs to push themselves a little, you’ll want to find a healthy balance as a default.
It’s worthwhile remembering that asking your staff to work more and more hours doesn’t necessarily increase productivity or output — it just makes them tired, and resentful of their job.
Open communication should help with this issue; if your staff feel comfortable talking with you, then they’ll simply speak up when they need a break.
Managing Illness
You can tell a lot about how much the bosses care about their staff by the way that they approach illness related matters. If you’re rolling your eyes when your employees tell you they’re sick, then you’re part of the problem.
It’s best to have a modern, caring illness policy — essentially, it should be that staff can feel free to stay off work (or work from home) when they feel like they’re too ill to come into the office.
In so doing, you’ll be developing the bond between you and your team. Some companies have a miserable approach to employee sickness, and while it can help to limit the number of lost days through illness, it always ends up backfiring — employees don’t just accept the mean-spirited approach. They end up hating the company.
Workplace Issues
If you put enough people in a small place, then they’ll have issues. It’s just inevitable. Workplace conflict doesn’t have to mean the end of the world, but it does have to be handled.
You can reduce the chances of it happening by first hiring pleasant staff who will be unlikely to cause conflict — this process involves looking beyond the CV, and taking a look at the person underneath before hiring.
Hiring just one bad egg can have a negative influence on office morale! Even if you do hire all kind souls, there will likely be one time or another when you have to step up as a leader and move past the conflict.
The key thing is not to let problems fester; the earlier that it’s taken care of, the better.
Calm Spaces
As we mentioned above, there’ll be times when work is a little bit stressful for your staff. There’s nothing wrong with that; it’s just the way it goes. There are always times when there are deadlines or more strenuous work to do.
What’s important is that you’re not introducing stress into the workspace unnecessarily. If your office is overly loud or otherwise harmful to a calm spirit, then it’s time to make some changes.
You can click here to add sound insulation to your workspace, which will help to keep unwanted noise at a minimum.
You’ll also want to look at adding a calming, relaxing space in your office — it will be much appreciated by your staff, who can visit the space when they need a few minutes of calm throughout the working day.
Work Hours Only
Yes, you’ll want to do everything you can to push your company forward, but it’s important that you’re not crossing boundaries. Your staff will give it their all when they’re at the office, but when they’re out of the office and “off duty,” they’ll want to relax.
The rise of the internet and personal devices has made it easier than ever before to stay in contact with employees after the working day has finished. But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Unless it’s an emergency, keep any thoughts or conversations until they’re back in the office. It’ll help your company in the long run — people need time to switch off if they’re going produce their best.
Staying Secure
You’d hope that everyone that interacts with your business would wish you well, but this isn’t always the case. It’s important that you keep your office secure, so that no unauthorized persons can enter your building and cause problems for your staff and business. More broadly, you’ll want to look out for their health and safety, so that there are no accidents on your premises. This will involve taking a look at your current setup, making a note of anything that could be dangerous, and then making changes.
Personal Interest
Nothing everything has to be about work. You spend so much time with your staff, that it’d eventually be strange if you didn’t know anything about them! Be sure to express a personal interest in their lives.
This will help you to discover the motivations and aspirations, as well as any difficult aspects they’re dealing with. It becomes much easier to look after other people when you know something about them. In the end, it could become that you’re like a family, not just colleagues.
Signs of Stress
Finally, you can help your staff by learning the symptoms of stress, and intervening if you notice that any of your employees are showing the telltale signs. A boss that pulls a staff member to one side and orders them to go home and rest will be adored.
Conclusion
Ultimately, it’s all about remembering that the relationship you have with your staff should be reciprocal. They’ll give their all for your company, but you should look after them. That involves paying them a good wage, helping them to grow professionally, and ensuring that they’re happy and healthy.
