Employee happiness leads to more productivity. This notion seems common sense, but was still a point of contention enough to merit a study by the University of Warwick in England, which found that happiness led to a 12 percent bump in overall output. Of course, keeping your best employees happy is paramount. But what should you be doing to that end?
Heather Huhman of Entrepreneur listed some advice on how to do just that:
- Emphasize collaboration: In a study by Spherion, 84 percent of respondents said that they would prefer a collaborative work environment over a competitive one. Employees in general like feeling comfortable and not like they have to perpetually be on their toes.
- Free food: Eating with your company facilitates a greater sense of loyalty, says Huhman, and that loyalty could be the difference between a worker deciding to stay or leave.
- Raise leadership awareness: Making sure you have “mindful managers” in place can be a huge boon to a company’s overall productivity. Higher ups who are conscious of how their workers feel and work naturally lead to happiness in the workplace.
- Peer-to-peer interaction: This is important if you want to engender a team mentality. “In the modern workplace, employees need opportunities to recognize one another for their hard work. By boosting peer-to-peer recognition through online platforms and software tools, employees can become more engaged, motivated and productive at work,” says Huhman.
- Reward positive relationships: One way to incentivize a happy and productive workplace is to pinpoint and recognize those whose relationships have done the company good. Knowing that your work with someone else will be pointed out makes you want to contribute to an overall cooperative office demeanor.
HR software systems can free up the time for you to implement these sorts of policies, and HR Software Solutions are the people to turn to when you need assistance in integrating that system into your office.