7 Tips for Boosting Employee Happiness in the Workplace
The meaning of happiness is dependent upon the individual and what they value. Because there are so many different ways that people define happiness, it is so incredibly difficult for employers to make every single one of their employees happy 100% of the time.
There just isn’t one simple template to follow in order to boost employee happiness in every organization. Advice from HR experts and business leaders is constantly being offered on how to boost happiness in the workplace. We have narrowed this advice down to provide you with the 7 best tips for boosting employee happiness in your organization.
#1: Company Culture
When looking for a job, company culture is one of the most important features that talent considers. People are looking to work for a company whose culture and values align with their own.
The staffing provider LaSalle Network recently conducted a survey on 6,000 recent college graduates and what factors they consider most important when searching for a company to work for. While 69% of the survey participants chose compensation as the most important factor, 61% ranked company culture as the second most important factor to consider when looking for a job.
Promoting the positive values and culture within your organization will draw the best talent to your organization and allow your organization to maintain the great talent you already have.
Another part of company culture that is valued by employees is feeling as though they are a part of a “work family.” Encouraging a “teamwork” atmosphere in the workplace can boost both the employee’s happiness and their productivity. “Help employees develop close, positive relationships with each other, so they’re working every day with good friends,” says Larry Sternberg, co-author of Managing to Make a Difference.
Encouraging employees to interact with each other on a daily basis will create a friendly environment that will make your employees want to come to work every day.
#2: Approachable Leadership
It is important for employees to feel comfortable interacting with their managers, supervisors and those in executive positions at your organization.
Approachable leadership allows, and even encourages, employees to speak with their supervisors about work problems, future career plans and their personal or career-related goals and aspirations. If an employee feels that their supervisors are not willing to listen to them, they will look for a new job with supervisors who will listen to them.
In order to avoid this situation, get to know your employees. Make an effort to ask individual employees about their needs, hopes, aspirations and goals, both inside the workplace and in their personal lives. Once you know what is important to that individual, take time to meet the needs of that employee and help them fulfill their goals and aspirations to show that you care about them.
#3: Employee Benefit Programs
Salary has less to do with employee happiness than you may think. Employee benefit programs play an important role in making your employees happy. It is vital that employers highlight these non-salary perks for their employees because more often than not, most employees do not know they exist.
Some common employee benefit programs include employee discounts, flexible work schedules, childcare, wellness programs, and more. Benefit programs help to ensure that employees feel appreciated by their company.
#4: Recognition & Appreciation
Though employees want to feel like they are a part of something bigger, they also want to know that they are valued as an individual. “People desire appreciation for the personal value they bring,” says Shawna Clark, the founder and an executive coach at Clark Executive Coaching.
McGohan Brabender CEO Scott McGohan has done an incredible job at showing recognition and appreciation to his employees. McGohan has started a video series called “Thankful Thursday.” Every week in his “Thankful Thursday” videos, Scott McGohan chooses a different person to publicly recognize and thank for their work at the company.
Showing your employees that you appreciate and recognize the work that they do is an easy and cost-effective way to boost employee happiness in your organization.
Recognition is the number one thing that employees crave. If employees do not feel that they have received the recognition for their work that they deserve it is likely that the employee will leave their organization. Some easy ways to show your employees that you recognize and appreciate the work that they do are through performance awards, anniversary awards, and to tell them directly that you appreciate them.
#5: Opportunity for Growth
Many employees value the opportunity to develop their skills and grow within their organization. This is especially true for millennials. It is important for employers to offer their employees the opportunity to grow and achieve success within the organization.
One way to ensure that your employees are on the right track is by ensuring that they are in the right role. When you have the right people working for your organization there’s no telling what you can do! Even when you have the right employees, your organization will only be successful if those “right people” are in the “right roles.”
If your most talented employee isn’t performing to the best of their ability, it may be because they are not in the right role. In order to increase the employee’s happiness and performance, work with them individually to discover where they fit best inside the organization.
Some ways to assist the growth process for employees in your organization could be encouraging your employees to expand their interests, provide feedback to the individual, and offer employer-led workshops.
Working with your employees to assist them in growing within the company shows the individual that you care about their future at the company, and that they are valuable enough to the organization that you are willing to invest in them.
#6: Flexible Work Schedules
Flexible work schedules are valuable to employees of all ages, but flexibility is especially attractive to millennials and working parents. According to a survey conducted by FlexJobs, 84% of working parents expressed that flexibility in the workplace is the most important factor in a job.
Employers will notice that allowing their employees to have flexible work schedules, it will boost happiness in the workplace. Balancing work and life is difficult and sometimes stressful. A flexible work schedule is one simple solution to ensuring your employees’ happiness.
#7: What’s YOUR “Why”
What makes you want to get up and go to work every morning?
Take a couple of minutes to think about what drives you to get out of bed every morning and go to work. If you, the employer, are not motivated and inspired to come into work every morning, odds are that your employees feel the same way.
One way to ensure that your organization is good at keeping your employees happy and inspired to come into work every morning is to create and send out an employee happiness survey once a year or once a quarter. Asking your employees what your organization is doing right and what you are doing wrong is important in boosting employee happiness in the workplace.
You want your employees to know that there is a bigger goal than just bringing home a paycheck. Make the necessary changes that will transform the workplace into something you, the employer, will be excited to visit each morning and that will boost your employees’ happiness as well.