The Office Perk – Natural Lighting
The benefits of natural light in the workplace have been a hot topic in recent years. It covers a huge range of welfare factors from employees’ health including employees’ quality of sleep and energy, productivity, overall mood, and energy costs. According to Neurology researchers at Northwestern University, people who work in offices with windows receive 173% more white light (i.e. light from the sun) during work hours and sleep an extra 46 minutes every night. Workers were better rested and therefore in a better frame of mind.
Natural light in the office will also create a more welcoming and homely office space, as the lighting will improve the mood of all of your employees, especially in the morning. It may even help to do away all Monday blues!
Create a Clean and Comfortable Space
It doesn’t take a psychologist to tell you that when you are in an area that is attractive, comfortable, and pleasant, you feel better. Whether you’re working from home or office, it’s important to feel comfortable so be sure to clear away clutter and broken equipment, mend flickering light bulbs and temperamental air conditioning or heating units. And though it may not seem like a big deal, invest in new, ergonomic furniture, plants, updated equipment, and stay organized.
Experts recommend educating your worker on the value of maintaining a clean and hygienic office space. An unhygienic environment will promote the growth of various germs and allergens. It will increase the risk of disease transmission, and you wouldn’t want your office to be a bacteria hot spot. Employing a daily cleaning service will do wonders for keeping your office space clean and hygienic. Your employee will not only appreciate that the company takes care of their welfare, they’ll be energetically affected by the space in a positive way.
Multipurpose Space – The Quiet Rooms
Open office layouts are a necessity in many cases. The purpose is to improve the working lives of your employees. Research shows that an average person spends one-third of their waking hours at work therefore a smartly designed office will help with the health and well-being of employees, employee retention, lower absenteeism, boosted productivity, job satisfaction, and improve creativity.
Therefore, a few multipurpose areas are significant whereby employees can retreat if they need a quiet thinking space or savored their time solitude to concentrate and brainstorm alone. It can cut down on the stress and interruptions, which improves mood and productivity.
Major corporations such as Google even offer nap rooms, and this shows how much they prioritize their employees’ well-being. It’s practically a KPI for your company’s success. Studies show that a 20- or 30-minute power nap is better than a cup of coffee to boost energy for those people who regularly work long hours, engage in intensive, complicated work, or travel to out-of-town bureaus.
Open-door policy
The basic idea behind an open door policy is that employees can approach any manager or executive to discuss anything without feeling anxiety or stress. Employees report higher job satisfaction and comfortable where they feel listened and appreciated. By bringing out an issue to discuss creating transparency between managers and workers, can help eliminate employee’s feelings of intimidation and the barriers to talk to the managers and upper-level executives and help promote fairness. And “open door” should be taken literally—keeping the door open encourages friendly communication.
Equip the office with Recreational Areas
According to Wikipedia, work is an activity generally performed out of “economic necessity”. Recreation on the other hand is described as useful to “recharge the battery” so that work performance is improved. If you can, create a questionnaire to know the hobbies of your employee. For example, outdoor hoops or an indoor ping pong table. Not only team members will enjoy having fun in the workplace, but also build a good rapport and team cohesion.
Benefits of Thinking Outside-the-Box
Companies like Netflix have started to experiment with unusual benefits like unlimited days off. Worried about excessive absenteeism? Researchers find that people who have access to unlimited time off actually spend more days at work than those with structured PTO. Much in the same way that pay-what-you-want pricing works, the idea is you are able to thin with a different lens, particularly the lens of the consumer. The average person will actually step up to the plate. On the other hand, the important thing ought to be whether the task given is completing, not how many days it is getting done in.
Offer Tuition Reimbursement
Starbucks, Apple, Bank of America, Best Buy are some of the companies that offer tuition assistance pr tuition reimbursement as an employee benefit while still working. Not only is this a valuable asset to many job applicants, but it’s good business to invest in the education of those already in your employ. By offer tuition reimbursement on expensive school costs, you’re giving them a chance to improve their skills which in turn will benefit your company in the long run.
Team Bonding
Set a day for example casual Friday, order foods for the entire office, and encourage everyone to eat together, whether it’s outdoors or in the conference room. Employees will appreciate and grateful for the perk and enforced camaraderie of office life. You can take this opportunity to get to know your employees and build rapport between teams.
Allow Work Space Personalisation
Many companies believe allowing employees to personalize their spaces can provide a sense of control and autonomy, which may lead to high productivity since they spend a good portion of their day at their workspace, so let them decorate their area in ways that are personal and appealing to them. By choosing a standing or adjustable desk, an office chair or a stability ball, and an ergonomic keyboard and mouse makes them feel free to adorn their cubicle or office with personal photos, plants, and desk lamps. When we customize our space, we feel more of a sense of pride, and that pride will extend to everything we do at work.
Introduce Wellness Program into Work Space
Some hardworking employee might prioritize their job over health, they might neglect a balanced diet or time to exercise and stay up late to get the job done. Consider implementing new and fun initiatives for the purpose of increasing happiness and a sense of well-being. For instance, award a prize to the employee who walked the most miles around the office via fitness app or smartwatch record. Besides, bring in some fresh fruit on a weekly basis at staff panty to help keep hunger.
Use Collaborative Language System
When you guiding or directing your employee a task, the language you use has a big effect on how they perceive and impact by your words and their role in the work. The phrases like “why don’t we try” instead “you have to,” you demonstrate appreciation and collaboration. No one wants to feel as though they are working for a tsar.
Reduce Meeting Time
In study after study, workers voice out that meetings are their biggest productivity killer, it not only time-consuming but also inefficient as most of the time employees are unable to arrive at a decision. The studies show that an average professional goes to 61.8% meetings per month, where 63% of meetings don’t have an agenda, and 73% of people are doing other tasks at meetings. In short, you can minimize unproductive meetings and schedule short meetings according to the agenda and only invite the most critical people to attend.
Schedule Fun Activities
One of the easiest ways organizing can ensure their employees get to know each other is by making liberal use of office funny icebreakers, which can be used to help employees feel connected to their peers. Besides, you can organize short and simple activities like celebrating every employee’s birthday with cake, hanging out for drinks on the company one evening per month, or organizing softball tournaments. When staff can look forward to a fun reward, it makes going to work a lot more pleasant. A little workplace appreciation goes a long way toward boosting.
Avoid Overloading Your Employees
Employee work overload is bad for business, be realistic about the amount of work that each employee can handle. However, when an employee fails to voice up their issue for more damaging than image problem, which translates to burnout, is one of the top reasons that people leave jobs. Research shows that productivity goes downhill fast when someone works more than 50 hours. But if you must give an employee more work, show that you value them by also giving them a raise or promotion. Alternatively, you could hire more employees or outsource your workload. However, this costs more for company business, but you will see greater retention and higher productivity in the long run.
Flexible Working Schedule
The traditional working hours are weekday nine to five from Monday-to-Friday isn’t necessarily the most beneficial or productive schedule for everyone. The 8-hour workday is pretty arbitrary and only became popular around 1914 when Henry Ford cut down his employees’ schedules from 14 hours per day (and doubled their pay!) and saw higher profit margins. With given opportunities to allow employees to work flexible schedules create flexibility to better meet family and personal needs and can work during the hours that fit your energy cycles best. This will inspire them to work smarter and waste less time. However, every business is different and it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution to workplace harmony. By fostering a positive office environment, employees will be happier and your business, in turn, will enjoy the rewards family-friendly place to work, longer retention, and boosts employee morale.
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