Is Your Business Thriving? If Not, How Can You Get There?

There is no argument that when the people in a company thrive, so does the business. Successful companies have employees that completely understand the company, the goal, the work and where they stand in it all. Creating a supportive and enjoyable work space for the employees, will see productivity rise.

So, what’s your company like at the moment? If you’re seeing increased productivity and happy workers, then you’re doing something right. If it’s moving just a tad too slow or you really need a push in the right direction, then I’ve got some tips for you.

Everyone wakes up in the morning. However, the way we feel about leaving the house for work each morning can vary. You want to know that your employees are waking up and heading to work excited for the day. Don’t get me wrong, there’s only a fair few that are pumped for work EVERYDAY (not sure who they are) but you can set up your workplace so that majority of the time, your employees are happy and enjoy their time spent there.

If you provide the atmosphere, you will receive the production. Some simple ways to provide and receive are the following:

• Create a friendly workplace

• Look at the Design of the workplace

• Create comfortability

• Encourage discussions

• Support Your Employees

Create a Friendly Workplace:

Make your workplace a peaceful and enjoyable place to be and as long as your employees continue to get their work done, keep it that way. If your employees feel respected, they will respect you.

There are a number of ways to encourage productivity. You could include incentives such as ‘Worker of the Month’ for the person that contributed the most, or you could hold a quarterly dinner for all.

A quiet workplace with lots of typing, phone calls, noise, coffee machines, etc can be very distracting. Putting on some nice background music can not only assist in that but can also set up a calming mood.

Simple things like this can create an atmosphere that people want to be part of.

Design of the Workplace:

This is a little thing that a lot of people overlook. The design. If you walked into a black and grey building with no ‘life’, what would you think? It doesn’t take much effort or cost to brighten up the workplace. To create an inviting environment, think about a nice photograph/painting, some flowers or even a simple paint job. There are some amazing pictures and magazines easily accessible that you could learn from and copy, so have a look around and really put that artistic cap on.

Create Comfortability:

There’s nothing worse than sitting in an uncomfortable office chair, with the computer levels all wrong and to top it off, bad lighting. For the amount of time during that day that people spend at work, the more comfortable they find it, the better and more productive they would be. Ensure that you have created a comfortable work space for your employees.

With a simple Google search, you can find instructions on how to set the work space up so your employees are comfortable and not straining their eyes or bodies.

Encourage Discussions:

At one office I worked in, every day at 12pm, all the workers would come to a specific room and form a circle. The boss would start the conversation with what work he had completed that morning, followed by what he would complete by the end of the day. Around the circle the conversation was sent until it made its way back to him. He would then start a new topic explaining if he was stuck or not. This went around the circle and anyone that could assist a person with a stuck would do that.

I really enjoyed this. It gave us a chance to say exactly what we had been doing and if we needed any help. It also made us all feel equal to one another - even to the bosses.

After the circle chat, we would all have our lunch. Once a week, they had BBQ lunches and once a month, a big company meeting lunch. It kept the atmosphere friendly while still encouraging work.

Support Your Employees

Support is such a big thing. Everyone wants to feel as though they have support behind them. Make your employees know that you care by picking up on the little things. Say, one person decided to stay late one day because there was so much work for them to do. Maybe you could give them an hour early mark one day the following week to make them know that you appreciate them.

Give your employees the support they need and they will respect you back for it.

I hope this advice helps you in some way, even if it is to just get you thinking. Creating a particular atmosphere in the workplace can completely change the way your employees work. Take this into consideration and mold the office to affect productivity in a positive way.