How to Keep Your New Employees Happy and Productive 24 Oct 2018

Everyone wants to be happy at work. It even makes you more productive. A 2015 study by the Social Market Foundation and the University of Warwick’s Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy found that being happy increased the productivity of their participants by 12%. This is in a field where increases of 3% are considered very large. So, being happy at work actually leads to better work performance.

Unfortunately, being happy at work isn’t always easy to do. Workplaces can be full of problems that make it hard to get through the day, let alone have fun. What can employers do to keep their workers happy?

In this article, you’ll learn tips for keeping your employees happy and productive at work.

Allow for Individuality

Allowing for individuality in dress and office decoration makes employees feel like they can stand out. It also lets them decide what works best for them. For example, one day someone may be meeting clients, so they need to dress in professional business attire. While the next day, that person might be in their office without having to see anyone, so they can wear more casual clothing.

You can still set some basic standards for dress and office decoration, but letting people have a say in their clothing and personal spaces gives a sense of identity to their workplace. Individuality is so important to people that it can even affect which company they decide to work for. A poll by Stormline found that 61% of job seekers said the presence of a dress code would negatively impact their view of a business.

Help Employees Further Their Education or Skills

Providing opportunities for employees to further their education is a great way to help them increase their happiness. Furthering education can also help your business. In fact, a study by the Association for Talent Development found that companies that offer comprehensive training programs had a 24% higher profit margin than those that spent less on training.

The training or courses can come through your company or through a school. The most important thing is that you make it easy for your employees to further their education. You can do this by paying for it or by making it so employees can attend the training as part of their official work duties.

Offer Responsibility Instead of Assigning It

Some people enjoy taking on more responsibility, while others prefer to have less responsibility. So, instead of assigning responsibility to people who may not want it, play to people’s strengths and give it to ones who are qualified and want more responsibility. After all, a poll by Gallup found that people who use their strengths every day were six times more likely to be engaged in their job.

Of course, this requires you to learn your employees’ strengths and weaknesses. You can do this by talking to the employee about what part of work they feel they are good at and by looking at projects they’ve excelled at to figure out why they excelled there.

Make a Good Work/Life Balance a Priority

Employees may like their job, but that doesn’t mean they want to spend all their time there. Making a good balance between work and life a priority lets your employees know you don’t want them to spend all their time at work.

A few ways to encourage a good balance is to allow employees to do things for their family such as care for sick children without taking sick days, use scheduling options like flextime, and promote efficient use of work hours as opposed to more work hours.

Thank Employees for Their Work

Nobody wants a thankless job. In fact, the number one reason Americans leave their job is that they don’t feel appreciated. Fortunately, it’s easy to correct this problem. Just thank your employees.

One thing to remember about thanking employees is that everyone has a preferred method of being thanked. Some may want to be thanked publicly, while others would prefer a note or email. The easiest way to find out how your employee likes to be thanked is to ask them.

Now That We’re All Happy

Everyone wants to be happy at work, and it’s a lot easier to be by following these tips. In this article, we’ve learned how to keep employees happy by allowing for individuality, helping them further their education, offering responsibility, making work/life balance a priority, and thanking employees. But now that you know how to keep your existing employees happy, how do you get more new employees?

Download Trusted Employees’ free ebook Supercharge Your Hiring Process. This 11 step checklist will help you streamline your hiring process.