Tips To Keep Your Employees Happy

Employers are tasked with not only keeping their workforce happy but also producing results.

Without a workforce that is somewhat content, production is going to stall and business will eventually fold.

There are countless stories of disgruntled employees finally giving up and throwing their paperwork into the air.

There are also stories of companies that have mistreated their employees to the point where they went bankrupt as a result.

It’s very easy to be a task master in the workplace, but that will not necessarily help you get the upper hand. If you want to ensure that contentment is on the rise in your business, consider a few tips that can help with keeping employees happy.

Be a “Good” Employer

A “good” employer is one who sets clear expectations to employees, including what is to be done, when it is to be done by, and where it goes after they complete their responsibilities.

Within these expectations, you need to set clear boundaries, demonstrate healthy leadership and provide sound direction. This means spelling out rules, regulations, policies, and procedures.

While you can usually accomplish this by creating a comprehensive employee manual, a good employer or manager will also use the “personal touch” by talking with employees in group and one-on-one settings.

Whatever expectations you set, make sure they are consistent with all employees. Include such things as clocking in early, break times, lunch hours, etc.

For example, is it acceptable to clock in early and leave work early? Are breaks mandatory? Will an employee be “docked” if they consistently take too long for lunch? The more issues and expectations you outline, the fewer problems arise, which leads to productive workers. Source: reliableplant.com

Make sure Your Employees know the Company Vision

According to TINYpulse survey Only 42% of employees know their organization’s vision, mission, and values.

Keep Your Team Informed.

Be Transparent

“Our employee engagement survey found that the No. 1 contributor to employee happiness is transparency. – B.J. Shannon, manager of customer happiness at TINYpulse

Management transparency is the top factor when determining employee happiness.

Don’t Confuse The Work Required

Some companies make it very difficult to excel in any job or role. That’s because the roles and jobs aren’t clearly defined. People are working, but they are doing so many auxiliary tasks, that no one is truly getting anything done. When chaos reigns in the management areas, work doesn’t get done.

If you aren’t careful, you could harbor an environment where no one is doing the tasks that need be finished for the company to flourish. It’s for that reason that you’ll need to clearly define everything that should be finished. Without clearly defined roles, people will find themselves lost in the shuffle, and when apathy strikes, things really go south.

Build Ownership Among Your Crew

You’ve got to get employees to feel that they own the place, not just work there. “One of the principles of self-managed teams is to organize around a whole service or product,” Glick explained.  Prof. Leonard J. Glick is a Professor of management and organizational development at Boston’s Northeastern University, teaches the art of motivating employees for a living.

In other words, make sure company personnel feel responsible for what the customer is buying.

One way to inspire that feeling is to have each member of a team become familiar with what other team members are doing, allowing them to bring their ideas for improvement to the table and have input in the whole process.

If the roles are not too specialized, have your people rotate responsibilities from time to time. “It all contributes to a feeling of ‘it’s mine,’ and most people, when it’s theirs, don’t want to fail, don’t want to build poor quality and don’t want to dissatisfy the customer,” said Glick. Source: Forbes

Creating Value In The Role

The happiest of workers are those that feel as though they are part of something grand. When they feel valued, they will produce better.

Even when certain jobs are very difficult to manage, you’ll find that value can inherently allow greatness to come through. This is hard to do for some, but it’s actually simple. All it takes is a few signs that you care about your employees, and give them compliments.

Make sure that when someone does a good job, you are giving them praise. It’s easier to come from a place of praise than it is to crack the whip and punish people for doing wrong. There’s nothing fun about disciplining the workforce, so try to thwart that by making everyone feel as though they are valuable pieces of a larger puzzle.

Enable flexible work.

In a study, more than a third of small-business employees reported that flexible schedules would increase happiness and minimize burnout.

In order to balance the rising demands on both work and personal time, small businesses need to allow employees to work flexible hours and remotely. Small-business employees are not just looking to balance work and personal life, but to have the ability to blend the two together.

The underlying force behind flexible schedules is an inherent trust from employers that their employees will get done what they need to get done, in the time frame they need to do it, even if that’s not traditional 9 to 5 hours. This means that employees can step away at 11 for a school play, leave early to coach soccer practice or duck out for a doctor’s appointment and know they can finish work from home later in the day.

This allows people to not only juggle the increase in demands in their work life, but their personal life as well. Source: entrepreneur

Make Sure The Workplace Has Amenities

One of the biggest issues that people have with their jobs is not so much the work itself, but the atmosphere.

If you want to ensure that your employees are absolutely pleased with where they work, then create something special. That means allowing for breaks, windows that have sunlight coming in and out, as well as stocked kitchens, snacks, and more. Creating personalized spaces, and allowing individuals to feel as though their work is a second home, not just a place where tasks get done is crucial.

Help employees to be healthier

Two new reports find workers in  Canada and the U.S say they want more help from their employers in getting and staying healthy.

One of the health problem areas in which employers need to be better focused is mental health, the Towers Watson survey found.

Give them some Health incentives

Incentive pay for participation in health and productivity programs is one method of encouraging employees to take part in wellness programs and to stay healthy. Source: businessnewsdaily.com

You might also like to read:

• Who runs is happier and argue less at work
• Healthy Eating Can Make You Feel Happier
• Regular exercise makes you happier, but why?

Give Back Through Bonus and Incentives

A bonus program for workers that go above and beyond is a great way to improve morale and production.

However, giving back in terms of more vacation time, benefits, and even maternity leave can also produce great results. Often times, people get burned out on routine. Giving people opportunities to take time off, go on vacation, and have benefits that they can pass on to their family can work out very well.

Workplace elements that are incentivized will only provide great confidence for employees that you have working in your business. Don’t be afraid of finding new avenues to reward good workers, as this will pay off dividends.

Let People Voice Their Opinions

When you close the doors to opinions and conversation about work, you are going to cause problems.

Instead of letting people dwell on misinformation, distrust, and unhappy situations, let them voice opinions. Have meetings in which their voices are heard, and changes are made as a result.

When management gets into the trenches and works alongside employees, the morale goes up.

It’s when managers close themselves off and don’t let anyone have an opinion on anything that people get disgruntled. Simply put, this is not a good path towards a positive work environment. People need to feel as though they can create change in their workplace for themselves and others. They also want to ensure that their voices and concerns are heard, and not ignored.

Promote From Within

Do not seek outside employees for positions that open up in management and upper-level jobs.

This is one way to ensure that workers continue to work hard and develop their skills. If there are openings, make sure to hire from within first, and remember to always encourage people to learn, develop and work hard. When you reward people that have worked hard, you foster a growth culture that will only pay back tenfold over time.

It’s when you never hire from within, and you do not encourage learning outside of work, that you fall behind to competitors and morale drops to all new lows.

Work Alongside The Team

From time to time, managers and business leaders have to get into the proverbial trenches.

Instead of delegating every task, make sure that you showcase why you’re an expert in your field. By showing employees that you have what it takes to take on serious roles as part of a team, you earn respect.

This encourages people to work hard because they see that employers have a skill set that is at an expert level. Joining up as a team and involving others could be the ticket to increasing morale and unleashing a happy workforce into the world.

Employee happiness is more dependent on co-workers than direct managers.