A happy employee is a productive employee, this is a truth. In order for your staff to reach their potential (the potential you saw in them when you hired them), you need to make sure their work-related needs are being met, and help them feel supported in their role. We are of course talking about comfort, a safe place to work, challenges, pathways and guidelines, and health and safety. Aside from that however, you should look at additional ways to boost the wellness and overall mood of your staff. The morale of your workforce says a lot about you as a manager!
There are many ways you can put into place small ideas that will boost the wellness and mood of your staff, and whilst nobody is going to be happy 100% of the time, you can easily incorporate a few hints and tips, to make going to work a much more enjoyable and fun experience for your workers.
Let’s explore a few ideas you might like to put into place and trial in your office environment.
Look at The Furniture
What type of furniture do you have in your office? Does it instil a sense of pride in the place your staff work in? Is it clean? Is it cluttered? Is it streamlined? Ergonomic furniture is a great addition to an office, because not only does it look the part, but it is also designed with comfort and proper alignment of the body in mind. There is no better source of wellness than that! So, look into cool desks for your staff; everyone wants to work in an attractive and modern space, and Calibre Office Furniture & Interiors Ltd have a great range you can check out.
Encourage Fitness
We’re not suggesting group step aerobics classes at lunch, but having a space for your employees to look after their fitness and health is a great idea. If you have a large space, how about installing a small gym? If you don’t have the room for this, is there a wide open space outside, which you could encourage staff to use as a jogging circuit or for walking? You could purchase everyone a Fitbit and have challenges – the winner at the end of the week wins a prize!
There is a sly double point to this, because by encouraging health and fitness, you’re actually boosting the overall mood and wellbeing of your staff. This means they are much more likely to want to work hard for you, go the extra mile, and therefore make your business successful. You have to look at everything in different ways!
Go Into Partnership With a Healthy Food Outlet
Is there a local business which could help to provide your staff with healthy lunches? For instance, is there a local organic business, or a small vegan restaurant? If so, consider a partnership, whereby they provide lunches for your staff, which are healthy and packed with vitamins and minerals. This saves your staff money, because they don’t have to keep buying food for themselves, but it also means that they’re getting a healthy and balanced diet. This ensures constant focus throughout the working day, without those slumps which occur in the middle of the afternoon or morning.
Do You Have a Healthcare Scheme in Place?
Are your staff able to see a doctor easily? For instance, is there a healthcare scheme as a benefit of working for your company? If not, look at implementing something, so your staff have their healthcare needs covered in the eventuality that they need it. In addition, if a member of staff needs to go to see the doctor at short notice, have a plan in place which allows for this to happen – full time staff can’t go and see a doctor easily for routine problems, because appointments don’t usually work around working hours. Have a procedure in place to facilitate this.
Is There a Support Network Accessible?
Another idea is to work with a support network, e.g. a counselling helpline, so if your members of staff need to speak to someone confidentially, e.g. after losing a family member or when they are feeling low, they can access this help as a benefit of working for your company, without fear of anyone finding out. Again, this looks after the core basic health needs of your staff, boosts morale, and helps keep your workforce happy, healthy, and, importantly, actually at work and not off sick.
Make Your Office Somewhere Staff Are Proud To Be
We mentioned earlier about having a funky desk or designer office chairs, but it’s important to make your staff want to come to work, because they are proud of who they work for and where they work. Install a brainstorming room, where staff can go to bounce off ideas, perhaps a little breakout furniture here and there, spacious conference room tables, basically some comfortable and luxury office furniture which makes the job easier.
Having a happy and healthy workforce is one of the most valuable assets, probably THE most valuable asset a business can have. Without your staff you are nothing, and a successful business recognises this fact and puts into place mechanisms and routes towards making this happen.
Ensuring that your staff’s basic human needs are catered for is the absolute minimum, but offering a fun and light place to work will make coming into the office every morning a joy, rather than simply somewhere to go to earn money. If your staff have this mind-set, rather than a negative one, then your business will be successful to the max, and will overtake competitors very quickly indeed.