Why You Must Prioritize Employees’ Well-Being

Why You Must Prioritize Employees’ Well-Being

Want to get more (and better) productivity out of your employees? A recent study by Warwick University found that keeping employees happy could increase productivity by 12%. Even better is happy employees work more effectively and collaboratively when they love their job.

There is a lot you can do as a leader to influence how happy your employees are at work. Here are a few ideas to increase productivity and employee well-being in your business.

Be a Good Listener

Ultimately, employees want to feel heard. They want to feel as if their opinion counts.

When an employee comes to you, listen to her. Listen to her feedback. Be open to her ideas. You might be surprised by what you can learn from people who work face-to-face with your customers and immerse themselves in your workplace for several hours at a time.

Be Proactive in Team Building

Have you ever employed someone who didn’t mesh well with your team? Or how about someone who constantly complained and never liked to play nice with other employees? Having this type of cancer in the workplace can drag everyone’s happiness levels down.

As a manager, you can be proactive in building up your team’s camaraderie. Host regular team outings away from the workplace to enable your employees personalities to gel. Hold trainings to teach others about how to work well with different personality types. Encourage friendships to form at work by pairing people with similar interests. Doing this will help bring your team members closer together, improving the workplace morale.

Be as Flexible as Possible

You have various shifts you must fill. Still, there are ways you can be flexible with your employees schedules.

Each employee has a life outside of work. They have children, school, and other family obligations. They’re trying to balance their personal life with their job and as a manager, you can make this process easier by offering flexibility.

Using an online scheduling app gives your employees the option to switch shifts with other employees as needed. They can also login to view their schedule wherever, whenever so there’s never a question about whether they’re obligated to be at work or not while making plans. Having these options available can greatly improve their happiness.

How Will You Improve Your Employee’s Well Being?

There are countless ways for you to make your employees a little happier at work. Ultimately, by listening, team building and offering flexibility, you can set your business up to have a happier vibe.

Author Profile Jon Forknell is the Vice President and General Manager of Atlas Business Solutions, Inc., a software marketing company specializing in employee scheduling software, including ScheduleBase employee scheduling software, and other business software solutions. In the past, Jon has been recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration as a SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Atlas Business Solutions was named as one of Software Magazine’s Top 500 Software Companies in 2004 through 2007 and again in 2010, 2013 and 2014.