While customers are the drivers of your business, so are your employees. Employees that are satisfied and enjoy coming to work are statistically more positive and productive. According to an article by Forbes, highly engaged employees and teams can increase business profitability by 21%. Employee engagement not only increases profitability but also promotes a reduction in absenteeism and company turnover.
Since your employees are the backbone of your business, we’ve put together this guide to help you create a positive and productive workplace for your employees.
Why does employee happiness matter?
A common phrase many often say is, “When you enjoy the work you do, you never work a day in your life.” This phrase ultimately shows that happy employees enjoy and engage in work more effectively.
Employee happiness matters to your business because it can multiply the success of your company and decrease employee stress. For example, if you have an employee that is not happy with their job, the employee may be more likely to make critical errors or promote a negative experience with a client or customer. If critical errors on tasks and projects occur or a client has a negative experience with an employee of your business, this can cause damage to your business, reputation and future business opportunities. Long-term impacts on your employees can be important to your business’ success. Ultimately, happy employees create a more positive work environment, which creates more positive experiences with clients and promotes more success and growth for your business.
What are ways I can achieve more employee happiness and engagement?
Build trust and respect with your employees
As a business owner, building trust, respect and rapport with employees is mandatory to having a successful business. Doing so can increase your employees’ happiness and engagement as well. One way to build respect and trust with your employees is to create employee fairness in the workplace. This can be done by promoting team-building exercises and embracing fair compensation and competition. For example, if an employee is going above and beyond their daily duties, reward them with praise and recognition for their hard work. Paying your employees fairly for the work they are doing across the board can also ensure fair pay and competition among employees.
If there are open opportunities for promotion in your business, make sure that employees who are equal in work ethic and time within the role have an equal chance of the opportunity. Promoting based on favoritism can create ill-will amongst your staff. Make sure to provide feedback to your employees on how they can improve if they fall short of promotion potential.
Focus on team building and camaraderie activities
Most businesses strive and survive on team efforts within the company. A captain cannot sail a ship without its crew. The same goes for many businesses. It cannot survive without its employees. Most business owners and managers should not only build trust, respect and rapport but also look to empower and promote team building and camaraderie activities. To focus on team building and connecting with your employees, schedule and maintain regular team meetings. As a leader, your praise and validation will go a long way to increase employee morale. When your workforce sees that their manager cares about their opinions and efforts, it will develop a greater sense of pride for them.
Invest in your employee’s personal and professional growth
Employees like to feel their work is meaningful and appreciated. Employers who invest in their employees will see their employees invest more in the company. Here are some ways you can meaningfully invest in your employees:
- Offer benefit and incentive opportunities for employees. Rewarding them for their hard work gives them a sense of purpose and validates their efforts. You can give gift cards, gym memberships or freebies such as a work from home day or a paid day off.
- Host lunch and learn meetings to allow employees to learn new skill sets.
- Encourage employees to shadow other roles in various areas of the company if they show interest.
- Offer incentives for employees to learn more outside the company with tuition or class discounts/reimbursements. If budget allows, investing in further education of your employees can allow them to grow more professionally in the company.
Promote an open-door policy
Most businesses are never perfect, nor will they ever be. In business, problems will naturally arise, and your employees have personal lives and challenges outside of their work. An employee troubled by workplace or personal problems will tend to be less productive. To address this issue, implement an open-door policy for your employees. This will make your employees feel comfortable about airing their grievances and maintaining open communication with their management.
Employee happiness is an important key to the success of your business. Your employees are the face of your company, so maintaining a positive and happy work environment has shown to increase profitability among businesses. At Spring Green, we assist our business owners with all the support needed to manage a team of employees.