Employee happiness can be one of the most valuable assets a businesshas. It makes employees stick with the same businesslonger, boosts their productivity and encourages them to form stronger partnerships with their coworkers. Happier workers also tend to make smarter, more considered decisions.
Some of the most successful businesses owe their success to happy employees — and the workplace and leadershipstrategies that helped make them happy in the first place.
Emulating these strategies at your own business is one of the best ways to boost employee happiness.
Involve Employees in Big-Picture Work
Involving employees in the decisions that determine the direction of your business can help them feel more involved. Clear communication can also help — if employees see the direct connection between the work they do and business wins, they may feel better about what they do.
Most employees want to make a difference with their work and feel like they’re really helping to shape the company they work for.
Employees may not be directly involved in all high-level decisions, but they should have a good idea of where the business is headed and why.
Create Two-Way Feedback Opportunities
Employees often want to know what they’re doing well and how they could do even better.
Most businesses are good at one-way feedback — like employee reviews where a supervisor tells an employee how they’ve been doing. Fewer businesses, however, offer two-way feedback — opportunities for employees to both receive and give feedback related to their work.
Soliciting feedback from employees during feedback sessions can make them feel like their voices are being heard. At the same time, you and your team will also gain a valuable, ground-level perspective on day-to-day work and how your business is doing.
When you act on feedback received from employees, it’s a sign to them that you’re paying attention to their experiences. It also shows that you’re willing to take concrete action to fix unfair situations and help employees out. This can be a serious morale boost for any team.
Recognize and Reward Employees
Like two-way feedback, direct recognition of employee success can help employees feel more empowered in the workplace — potentially boosting employee happiness.
If employees aren’t in contact with clients or stakeholders who see their work, consider passing on comments and compliments. Knowing that people from outside the business appreciate what they do can also help make employees feel much more fulfilled at work.
Frequent positive feedback is often better than big, once-in-a-while awards or events. While these events give employers a chance to recognize employee talents, the benefits of recognition can fade over time. Newer, more relevant compliments will help keep employee morale high.
Avoid Over - and Understaffing
Both under - and overstaffing can have a major negative impact on employee morale. Overstaffing can cause problems beyond stretching a business’s budget.
Too many workers dedicated to the same amount of work may find that they have nothing to do throughout the day. They may also receive too much direction or co-worker feedback on the work they do need to handle.
Understaffing can create problems even sooner. Employees may quickly become overwhelmed by the amount of work they need to handle. Communication may slow down as workers have less and less free time throughout the day to spend responding to instant messages and emails.
Burnout may also start to set in — potentially causing long-lasting mental health impacts that make it harder for employees to focus and take pride in their work.
Strategies like strategic workforce planning help you to meet current and future staffing needs- ensuring that you don’t struggle with over - or understaffing.
Build a Strong Office Community
Everyone wants to feel welcome at work — like they’re a real member of the team. Building a strong and welcoming office community can be difficult, however, especially when a growing number of employees are working remotely.
Still, there’s a lot that every business can do to create that sense of community. Regular social events, retreats, team-building exercises and collaborative skills trainingare all a good place to start.
Creating social spaces in the office can also help. Being able to chat with coworkers in the office kitchen or by the watercooler will help make sure people know who they’re working with. Even the right decorcan make employees feel more creative and open to communication.
Give Your Employees Options
Most employees will appreciate options in how and when they work. Remote work, for example, tends to significantly boost morale — one UK study found that more than half(56%) of workers felt happier when they were able to work from home.
Not every business can provide the same amount of flexibility. Some workers will have to come into the office some of the time, no matter what. Figuring out where you can offer some extra choice, however, is often a great way to provide employees with more options in day-to-day work.
The benefits of remote work, for example, don’t begin and end with a 40 hour week exclusively working from home. Some research has shown that offering just two days of remote worka week could provide even greater benefits than a work week spent entirely at home.
Even a little bit of flexibility can demonstrate serious trust and investment on the part of the business, helping to encourage employees to trust management in turn.
Leadership Strategies to Boost Employee Morale
The right management techniques can make a major difference in employee happiness — which can help you to reduce turnover and boost office productivity.
Even simple changes — like encouraging two-way communication during employee reviews — can help to significantly improve employee morale.