What Are The Best Tips For Improving Work Environments?

Arguably one of the essential elements in motivating and engaging employees is having a healthy company environment. But, how exactly can you make an environment where team members are productive, happy, encouraged, and accepted? Try these eight valuable tips, and you’ll be on your way to having a healthy company environment. 

1. STAY APPROACHABLE 

Stay visible to your team. Always have an open door policy. Indeed, you don’t want to undermine your managers and make people feel like they can work around the rules, but you want to weigh in on staff meetings and big decisions and ask for public feedback. Too often, business owners disappear into their offices and do not seem approachable once the first layer of management is hired. It’s also important to share the vision, mission, sales goals with the entire team so that everyone knows what you’re working toward and how valuable their role is in it. 

2. ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO TAKE BREAKS 

No one’s whole life should take place in front of their laptop. Everyone in your business should take a break, including you as the business owner. People need to step away for lunch, a water break, a phone call, or even a walk. The clearing of one’s head is essential. It allows employees to recharge to stay fresh and on top of all the tasks in front of them. 

3. KEEP IT SOCIAL

When you have a small team, you want to help everyone get to know each other. The goal is to help everyone build trust and find common ground, especially with a multigenerational team. Once a month, organize something social for the group, such as a book club, monthly birthday celebration, a happy hour, a bowling night, or a potluck feast. If you have a virtual team, look for an opportunity to get everyone together in person at least once a year, as conference calls can get stale. 

4. OFFER OPTIONS FOR MOVEMENT 

People are too passive; movement is key to keeping people engaged and on their toes. Offer your employees standing desks if requested. Allow people a changing area to shower if they hit the gym before or after work. Encourage walking or biking to work, and stretching in your workplace should be mandatory for everyone. Hunching over a computer is not suitable for posture or alignment. 

5. OFFER FLEX TIME 

Working 9-5 doesn’t work for everyone. Some people have small children or eldercare responsibilities, or they don’t do their best work in the morning. The more flexible you are with your employees, the harder they work. Commuting is tough for people, especially those in big cities with nightmare traffic. Allow people to work from home a couple of days a week or move their hours to 7 am-3 pm to make their lives work better. Use Zoom, conference calls, and project management software like Teamwork to ensure critical projects and routine tasks don’t get dropped. 

6. ENCOURAGE PEER TO PEER COMMUNICATION 

Encourage your employees to talk to each other, especially if there’s any conflict. Passive aggressiveness should not be rewarded. Instead, train your managers to always encourage direct communication among your team members or facilitated communication if there is renal dysfunction. If there’s a workplace bullying issue, that’s something different, but miscommunication happens when people make assumptions about other people’s intentions. Miscommunication also happens when everyone doesn’t have all the information needed to do their job. Mentor your employees to handle conflicts themselves. A direct conversation that is factual and not emotional can go a long way towards building a solid team. 

Let me know how you’ve changed your work environment.