Not everyone can have an exciting job. After all, somebody’s got to clean the toilets at NASA, and behind every Olympic champion there are about a dozen admin assistants filing bureaucratic paperwork. But if you choose to create a positive work environment, the boost in morale from those employees can be staggering. Here are three simple ways you can create a more attractive work environment for your employees – and hopefully, turn a few frowns upside-down.
Do some remodelling The average person spends just under 100,000 hours of their life on the job. Rethinking the layout of your office could put a massive dent in the sedimentary existence your employees have come to dread. One strategy companies are experimenting with is to have fewer desks than people. It promotes activity-based working, friendly competition and far more social interaction with colleagues. That interaction can lead to new collaborations that could ultimately help the company. Another option is to remove chairs entirely from your meetings. Without a place to sit, you can no longer justify those 90 minute meetings that seem to drag into next week. Meetings need to be short, punchy and active. Or, if you really want to go the extra mile, knock out a wall. Research shows that workers without access to a decent view are 15 percent less productive than their window-adjacent colleagues. If windows aren’t an option, another study from Washington State University reckons that even just the presence of a live plant can noticeably reduce staff stress levels and bring down blood pressures.
Be flexible with hours Just because the 9-5 rule is a convention does not make it infallible. Over the last decade, more and more experts have come out against the archaic model. Psychologists say the first four hours of the working day are by far the most effective. After that, energy levels tend to drop, attention wanders and many workers will fail to accomplish much for the rest of the day. Schools are trying to combat this lack of productivity by starting lessons later in the morning – but not every worker is after a lie in, either. Letting early risers and night owls have more say over when they stroll into the office and when they leave can be a major morale booster, and also eliminate the daily productivity wall most of us crash into long before home time.
Diversify your workforce
It might sound nice operating in a like-minded workplace where everyone gets along all the time, but nothing could be worse for business. You should strive to maintain a diverse workforce composed of different thinkers from contradictory backgrounds. Not only will that eliminate the risk of groupthink, but it will also keep things fresh. Once you’ve got the cogs of change turning, it will only attract more and more unique individuals that can help to make your workplace quirky and interesting. In the short-term, studies also suggest that an office pet can go a long way to improve staff cohesion and interaction. One of the top benefits of working from home is that, after losing focus on a task, you can take the dog for a walk and come back 25 minutes later with a clear head and renewed motivation. The same principle works in the traditional workplace – and quite a few corporate giants are already reaping the benefits from keeping office pets. Sometimes, it only takes a few tiny adjustments to create a huge boost in employee morale. It can admittedly be a trial and error process. But if you’re truly listening to your staff and constantly trying to improve their work environment, it will never go unnoticed.
Source: https://www.business2community.com/human-resources/make-workplace-attractive-employees-01142585
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