Increasing Your Employees Quality of Life at Work - Workology

Increasing Your Employee’s Quality of Life at Work - Workology Increasing Your Employees Quality of Life at Work Having fun at work and improving quality of life has long been tied to improved employee engagement and productivity as well as employee retention.   Recent studies show that fun at work also lowers employee healthcare and increases an employee’s overall quality of life. Research shows that the happiest employees take 66% less sick leave and that the happiest of people at work are good for teams and can boost the mood of colleagues. Increasing Your Employees Quality of Life at Work Having a work environment that promotes wellness and happiness not only increases mood, but productivity.   The same study reported that happy workers reported spending 80% of their week on work related tasks, while less happy workers spend only 40% of their time on work related tasks.   What boss doesn’t want employees spending more time on work related tasks?     The idea of having fun at work isn’t new. What is important is addressing the direct connection to an employee’s quality of work and life and their work performance without dramatically impacting your company or department’s bottom line. . Manage your workforce, but avoid micromanaging. No one likes their employer looking over their shoulder every minute of every day. More than ever there is a large pool of employees who don’t need managing. Self-starters are in abundance and work a whole lot better without a micromanager. Employees need to be given freedom to think for themselves and work in a space that isn’t constrained at every turn. In order to produce exceptional results, quit micromanaging. Recognize good work. How can something so simple improve quality of work? As GenY starts to become one of the largest demographics in the workforce they rely on constant recognition. You must ensure that as an employer you always have something positive to say about your employees and their work. Don’t rely on the old principle if you don’t say anything that means everything is fine, because GenY will take that as things being worse. Rewards, and other ways of keeping employees happy will make them feel that their effort is being recognized and that the company needs them. Set goals, reward if met. Have production goals that need to be met by the end of the day? Set a goal and do something fun if the goal is met. Giving your employees a challenge throughout the day will give them something to work towards and generally they will go above and beyond to meet the goal. For example, focus on production goals or deadlines that have to be met. If they meet them ahead of schedule, go out for happy hour on the company, extend their lunches, or if viable, let them take half a day. These simple rewards will revitalize your employees and give them more drive to produce the same results outside a rewards system. Challenge your employees. To go one step further on setting and meeting goals, challenge your employees with new tasks that might be outside their job function. Do you have a problem within your organization that needs fixing? Challenge an employee to head a taskforce or committee to identify, evaluate, and come up with a solution. Making employees feel like they are apart of a bigger change will encourage them and keep the quality of their productivity up. Food is fun. Food can be a powerful short term motivator for your workplace. Don’t give them food in exchange for having to listen to their boss go on and on about work, no one will stay and you’re basically using lunch to sell your employees. Free lunches boost workplace morale and wellness (depending on what you provide for them). Providing free food doesn’t only increase morale, but it makes employees appreciate a company a little more. Free food has this magic quality that instantly gives your company credibility with employees. Improving Employee Productivity What are you doing with your company that is promoting better quality of your employee’s work and life? Have you tried out some of these with success? Most of these employee productivity suggestions employee productivity can be implemented without breaking the bank. If you need to spruce up your company’s productivity, moral, or the quality of work, try them out and let us know how they work for you.