So, if you’ve come to this page, chances are you’re a small business owner (or you work closely with one) and you’re concerned about your workforce. And you have every right to be – no matter how happy and fulfilled they seem – as they’re vital to the success of your business.
When employees are feeling happy and engaged, productivity levels and performance goes up, and company profits follow. Additionally, a happy workforce reduces the amount of turnover in the business. Recruitment is a lengthy and costly process, so anything you can do to reduce that is beneficial.
So, for some tips and tricks for creating a happier, more fulfilled workforce, read on.
1. Listen to your employees
It’s hard to create a healthy working environment in which your employees are flourishing if you don’t have a connection with them. As a business owner or boss, it’s up to you to make connections with your employees, and learn about their lives, what they enjoy, what they don’t like, and what they’re looking for in a role. This doesn’t mean you have to sit down and have a one-on-one with everyone (although this is a good idea), but it does mean you have to make time to listen to them.
2. Promote career progression
For employees to stay the course and spend a lot of time in one business, they need career progression. This allows them to develop within a business, work hard to achieve promotions, command a higher salary, and see themselves staying at your company long-term. This kind of approach – training, development, and progression – also works to spread a good opinion of your
business through word of mouth. People respect businesses that respect their employees.
3. Thank your staff
Make sure to show your workforce that you appreciate the work they do. This doesn’t have to be installing a beer tap in your office (although that’s no bad thing) – it can be through genuine words of thanks between you and your workforce, or through different means of thanks. Offering rewards for good work – be that a social, a meal, or vouchers – goes a long way to ensuring staff feels appreciated and valued. That, in turn, helps them to be happier in their roles.
4. Allow flexibility
Flexible work schedules are the future of business. While for some businesses it’s impossible, for many, it’s not only possible, it’s encouraged. Flexible work schedules allow employees to balance their personal life with work and feel more in control of their time.
This then leads to greater feelings of happiness and increased productivity. This is because employees feel able to control their workloads and feel autonomous. It also allows them to make time for activities outside of the workplace that make them happy – is that a gym session or being able to pick their children up from school.
5. Focus on a good work-life balance
A workforce of overworked, burnt-out employees is a sure-fire way to having a very unhappy workforce. By focusing on delivering your employees a good work-life balance, you can build a positive working environment in which people aren’t pressured to work all hours of the day. This can be a hard balance to achieve, especially in a high-growth company, but it can make all the difference to the happiness of a workforce. An employer who respects and values their employees’ time is vital.
This is so crucial to having a happy, contented workforce. If you focus on any of these tips, this is arguably the most important.
6. Offer perks
There’s a reason why this comes so far down in this list of recommendations, and that’s because there are ways of improving employee happiness that is thoughtful and genuine, and don’t mean throwing money at the issue. On the other hand, employee perks are super important and are genuinely appreciated.
For example, offering employer dental insurance can make a huge difference to employee happiness and also hiring power. Other businesses offer wellness packages – these include yoga courses, gym passes, or meditation app memberships.
7. Make the office a nice environment
You can boost the happiness of your workforce by pouring a little bit of love into their working environment. After all, they spend a huge amount of time at the business, so it makes sense that a nice working environment will make them feel happier at work.
There are specific consultants that you can employ to fit out the office to your own specifications. if this goes beyond your remit. Additionally, you can speak directly to the staff to see what they would like in a working environment.
8. Offer more holidays
Offering your workforce more vacation time is an easy win – while it can cause some trouble when it comes to resourcing, this can be mitigated by having clear holiday-approval rules – as employees value time off a lot. Take a look at your current offering and see what you can do – the immediate results on employee happiness can be significant. It demonstrates that you want them to be happy, that you recognize their hard work, and that you encourage them to take time for themselves.
9. Prioritize mental health
In this present age, you can’t shy away from the importance of mental health, especially among the people who work for you. If you can create an environment in which staff feel supported and listened to, and able to reach out they’re struggling, then you’re doing a brilliant job.
You can employ mental health first aiders who can assist you in this task. Additionally, you can open up the forum, leading by example by talking about your own mental health in an open and shame-free way.
Hopefully, this guide has provided you with some inspiration as to how you can create a happy, healthy, and fulfilled workforce. While you don’t have to action everything on this list, by taking a few different tips, you can really change the way your staff feel about their roles and ensure your business develops positively.
