Keeping your employees happy is the ultimate way to drive your organisation forward. A happy workforce is not only more productive but can also contribute to a more engaging and collaborative work environment.
On the other hand, an unmotivated workforce can not only negatively affect employee morale but result in loss of revenue and higher turnover. By investing in your employees’ happiness, you can turn this all around.
To help you achieve this, we have put together a list of the best ways to boost employee happiness at the workplace.
1. Create a Company Culture
Creating a positive company culture should be one of your top priorities as a leader. Not only can this make your employees more productive, but it will also raise morale and bring your teams together.
To build a good company culture, you need to cultivate an environment of transparency. Within an open workplace environment, positive behaviour is identified, employees are encouraged to progress, and achievements are recognised. This shows your staff that they are valued and have plenty of opportunities to advance within your organisation.
2. Recognise Staff Achievements
From performance bonuses to shout outs, there are countless ways you can recognise your employees’ achievements and contributions to company projects.
Even if you’re on a tight budget, a simple ‘thank you’ can go a long way towards boosting staff happiness. You could even create a thank you box somewhere in the office, and encourage everyone to give each other thank you notes or cards to demonstrate their appreciation for one another. As a team leader, this is something you should also contribute to; showing your appreciation makes people feel valued and is a powerful incentive for employees.
3. Focus on Employee Development
By investing in your employees’ growth and development, you can push them to reach their professional potential. This will also show them that you believe in them and that you want them to prosper within their careers.
To do this, you can offer training programmes designed to augment their knowledge and enhance their skillsets.
Employee development initiatives help inspire employees to do their jobs to the best of their abilities but also offers them a sense of advancement within their roles. This, in turn, will help you to retain your top talent, which is vital if you want your business to succeed.
4. Offer Work Flexibility
Working remotely is a major contributor to employee wellbeing. In fact, a 2019 study by Wrike (PDF) found that remote work and flexible hours was the second most important factor for staff happiness in the UK.
Therefore, offering your staff more flexibility in their work provides employees with a greater sense of job satisfaction, a healthy work-life balance, and a greater sense of wellbeing.
5. Create Trust
Building rapport and establishing meaningful relationships with your staff is essential for employee happiness. To achieve this, you need to treat your employees fairly, regardless of their job title, age, gender or experience and get to know them beyond their daily tasks. It is also vital that employees can form trusting relationships with each other as this will boost morale and improve cross-team collaboration.
Having an open-door policy is also important. When employees reach out to you or share an idea, listen to them actively and show them that their opinion matters by considering their input. This will enable you to build trusting relationships with your team.
6. Avoid Micromanagement
With greater freedom comes greater happiness, and this cannot be achieved if you are micromanaging your team. Micromanagers tend to constantly monitor their employees, putting them under a great deal of stress, and damaging workplace relationships.
To avoid this, give your team opportunities to perform their daily activities autonomously. This has been proven to make employees feel more accountable and responsible for their work, which also improves their wellbeing and happiness levels. What’s more, this is a great way to create leaders within your company naturally.
7. Offer Meaningful Work
To inspire and motivate your employees, give them meaningful work. The Wrike survey also found meaningful work to be the strongest determinant of employee happiness. People are even willing to leave their high-paying jobs for a lower salary – but more meaningful work.
There are no downsides to meaningful work. Indeed, employees who feel connected to their work can be expected to work harder, take fewer sick days, quit at a lower rate and flourish in their roles.
8. Introduce Unique Perks
Making the office an enjoyable place will certainly have a positive impact on your employees. To find out what kind of additional perks are important to your team by conducting a survey or creating a suggestion box.
Some of the world’s coolest offices feature impressive architecture, indoor gyms, pet-friendly working environments and free meals. Meanwhile, leading companies and organisations prioritise things such as health insurance, paid sick leave and parental leave as well as flexible working hours. Granted, you won’t be able to deliver on every request, but you can still offer unique perks that are tailored to your team’s needs.
9. Implement an Employee Wellness Programme
Employee wellness programmes can encompass anything from meditation sessions to healthy snacks to yoga and in-office exercise.
As with unique perks, it will be beneficial to find out what your employees are interested in first. Either way, these programmes are a smart investment that can reduce illness and absenteeism, increase productivity and improve overall wellbeing and happiness. Indeed, research has found a link between staff happiness and productivity, which can help employees work at their full potential.
10. Organise Team Building Activities
Without question, you want your team to work well together, be more productive and perform to their maximum abilities. One of the best ways to achieve this is through team-building activities.
You could dedicate a day each month to outings and non-work-related events. From holiday parties and picnics to team building retreats and meals, find ways to get the team together for a day of bonding and team building. Undoubtedly, this will boost morale, strengthen interpersonal relationships and increase happiness.
Passionate, empowered, and happy employees are the driving force behind the success of any company. When employees feel valued, they are more likely to work productively and be satisfied with their roles. This can also lead to a more positive and engaging environment where your team can thrive.
In other words, it’s essential to cultivate a happy and inspired team!
Do you have any tips for increasing employee happiness? Join the discussion in the comments section below!