We spend most of our lives at work. But despite that, several studies show that employees are not always happy at work. The best thing you can do for your employees is to provide a pleasant working environment. Employees’ happiness at work is strongly influenced by the environment in which they work.
It is the organization’s task to create a good working environment in which employees can perform optimally because happy employees = happy customers, better business results, less turnover, etc.
Creating the best working environment
But how do you create the best working environment for your employees? And what makes a good working environment?
Set goals and communicate them
Setting goals motivates. From research shows that 95% of organizations lead to greater productivity in setting goals. Do you as an organization have a clear idea of what you are all working towards? Have a clear dot on the horizon. Communicate clearly to employees why you exist and why you do what you do. Work from your dot on the horizon back to goals for each year or even for each quarter.
After that, it is important to let employees align their own goals with these company goals. Unfortunately, in many organizations, goals are still imposed by the managers or higher management.
They determine who gets to work with what and what the associated goals are. This way of working is not at all inspiring for the growth and development of employees.
Let employees set their own goals based on the organizational goals. This way, they see that they make a valuable contribution to the organization’s success, and they will be more involved.
Give employees the opportunity to grow
One of the main reasons employees leaves a company is because they have too few growth opportunities. Therefore, organizations that invest more in training, growth and development, and mobility perform better than their competitors.
As an organization, emphasize learning and development and give employees the opportunity to grow.
Put employees in the right place
This tip is quite logical. It is super important to put the right employee in the right place to perform optimally. You should also not let a carpenter lay bricks; there is a good chance you will have a crooked wall. Who is good at what, and where do employees work best? Every employee has talents.
It is up to the organization/manager to ensure that these talents are used as effectively as possible. See your employees as entrepreneurs and let them tell you what they are good at. Give them the confidence and responsibility to fill this in the way they want it.
Give trust, direction and responsibility
Trust and responsibility are two of the most important ways to make employees feel at home within an organization. Unfortunately, we notice in practice that it is still the most normal thing in the world for many organizations to talk about each other instead of with each other. This is disastrous for trust within the organization.
Give employees the responsibility to fulfil their roles and tasks in the way they think is best. You can direct from above what someone should do and how he/she should do this, but often employees are much better at this themselves.
Then why not let them do it themselves? Give the confidence that you believe in your employees and treat them as professionals by giving each their responsibilities. Let them know that you support them and want to help them grow and develop.
Give employees the opportunity to develop
Investing in the growth and development of employees is one of the things most valued by employees. Discuss with employees how they want to fill this in themselves and ask how the organization can help.
Growth certainly does not always have to mean that you take a vertical step. Growth can certainly also be done in width. For example, you can become a specialist in a certain field, work in an advisory capacity or improve your internal processes. Make sure you facilitate this as an organization.
Provide feedback and recognition
Employees long to hear regularly if they are doing well. It is important to provide employees with feedback regularly.
By receiving feedback, employees know what is going well and where there are still development opportunities. In this way, they can raise their productivity to a higher level and achieve (business) goals
