How To Make Sure Your Employees Are Happy
A happy employee is a good employee. Employees with a high job satisfaction rate are more likely to stick around and do a better job than an employee who is stressed and hates their job. That makes total sense, but how do you make sure your employees are happy?
It may seem like the easiest way to make sure your employees are happy is to give them raises, offer regular bonuses, up their commissions, or increase their paid days off. But this doesn’t always work as you might think. Money can’t buy happiness. Instead you need to show your employees respect, trust, and consistency if you want them to be stick around.
Here are 23 ways to make sure your employees are happy at work:
- Give Them Perks – Perks play a major role in attracting people to your company. Promote your perks and benefits and make sure your employees take advantage of them.
- Honesty – Employees want to know what’s going on. If they feel like you’re hiding things from them it can be frustrating.
- Work Life Balance – Your employees do more than just work for you. They also have hobbies, families, pets, and other things that occupy their time and their mind. Remember that and make sure they are able to balance work, life, and play.
- Provide Resources To Help Them – If your employees don’t have the things they need to do their job, they’ll never be successful. Provide them with the resources they need to the best job possible.
- Establish Trust – You have to trust that your employees are going to do a good job. Give them the space and the autonomy to get the job done. Don’t micro-manage them.
- Be Consistent – Always be consistent with everything you do. Your employees will respect it and they’ll know what to expect.
- Promote A Positive Company Culture – Your company culture is like the glue that holds your team and your brand together. Employees rely on and thrive in a culture that is positive and exciting.
- Open Communication – Communication is often an issue in the professional setting. Make sure people know what’s going on in a timely and professional manner.
- Offer Promotions – Employees want to climb the professional ladder. They want to see that there is room to move up in the company, even if they have to put in their time and work hard to achieve it.
- Recognition And Rewards – People like to know that they are doing a good job. If an employee does a great job, let everyone know about it.
- Cut The Dress Code – Most people don’t like to be told what to wear. Be slack on your dress code. This way people can express themselves and let their own personalities shine.
- Support Training and Learning – Help your employees become better at their jobs and their careers by providing the training and learning opportunities they need to achieve success.
- Be Flexible – Flexibility and understanding play a major role in employee satisfaction. Stick to the rules, but know when they need to be bent a little bit too.
- Say Thank You – Let your employees know that you appreciate their hard work. A little thank you will go a long ways.
- Get Involved – Go out of your way to be involved with your employees work. Help them do the heavy lifting or write the next report yourself. This shows that you can do more than just manage and employees love that.
- Promote Breaks – Breaks are an important part of the work day. Every break is like hitting the refresh button. It boosts morale and productivity.
- Healthier Lifestyles – Help your employees get healthy. Active employees who get regular exercise will be much happier than workaholics who never get outside.
- Fewer Meetings – Limit the number of emails and organized meetings that you require people to attend or read each day.
- Seek Input/Feedback – Ask your employees for their opinions. If they have a good idea, follow through with it.
- Offer Telecommuting/Flexible Work Opportunities – Technology allows us to do a lot of things like work from the beach or hold conference calls in our home offices. Promote the flexible telecommuting lifestyle. As long as the work gets done well, who cares where your employees do it.
- Challenge Them – Boredom is of the fastest ways to lose an employee. Set them up for success, but make them work at it too.
- Engage Individuals – Be sure to log a little face time with everyone. Don’t hide in your office. Go out and interact with the people who work for you. Get to know them as individuals, not just as workers.
- Organize Social Events – One of the best ways to get to know people is in a social setting. Organize holiday parties, create a company softball team, or take the crew on a field trip. These extracurricular activities will help your team bond at new levels.
These are just a few ways that you can make sure your employees are happy at work. Be creative and brainstorm other ways too. The key is to make your employees feel like they are a valuable asset and that management respects their hard work. It’s pretty easy to make sure your employees are happy at work if you just treat them like you would want to be treated.
Your employees are what make your business successful, so take the time to make sure your employees are happy at work.
See Also: 16 Reasons Why People Quit Their Jobs