Be Happy in the Workplace: Here’s How You Do It

Are your employees truly happy in the workplace? Work shouldn’t be misery. It shouldn’t be a place where your employees feel stifled and bored all the time. If that’s the way it feels at your workplace, you are doing something wrong that you will want to correct. The happier your employees are the more productive they will be, which means the more successful your business will become. The eLeaP continuous performance management system provides organizations with powerful options to attract and retain high caliber team members.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you want to turn your workplace into a circus where nothing gets done. Instead, you need to find the right balance, so you can improve employee happiness and morale. Below, you will find some great ideas that will help you increase the levels of happiness at your job.

Provide Recognition for Work Well Done

One of the top reasons people are sick and tired of their jobs is because they never receive any praise for the good work they do. The employee comes into work day in and day out, works hard, goes above and beyond, and is not considered any more valuable than the guy that keeps calling in sick.

You need to be sure you have a system in place that will make it easy to provide your team members with the recognition they deserve. This will increase their satisfaction in the workplace. Simple acknowledgment in person, in an email, etc. can help them to feel a lot better. Impromptu praise can be great because it is genuine. They know you see what they are doing.

Of course, you can do a little bit more. You might want to consider creating a monthly reward for team members who are performing well, for example. The reward doesn’t have to be large, of course. It could be a gift card to a local restaurant or store, for example.

Ensure People Have Fulfilling Work

Everyone wants to feel that the work they do matters no matter how large or small their role might be. They want their work to be fulfilling, and you need to make that happen. Of course, you need to know the purpose of each role in the company and why it is important. What would happen if there were no one in that role?

Once you know the role and its importance, you can then have a better understanding of how that employee’s work is contributing to the overall goals of your organization. No matter the job, there are always ways to show it has a purpose. Show the employees their purpose and value, and your appreciation, and they will feel more fulfilled in their role.

Provide Flexibility When Possible

One of the things that we learned from the pandemic is that it is possible to make changes and concessions in the workplace when needed. Remote work, for example, became popular over the past several years, and a lot of people want to continue with remote work. Others might want more flexible schedules that will better match up with their personal life.

While it may not always be possible for companies to make changes to accommodate their employees in these and similar situations, it is at least worth trying. Showing that you are trying to be more flexible is a great way to improve morale and make people happy in the workplace.

Invest in the Growth of Your Employees

Personal and professional growth is essential for the happiness of most employees. There may be some who are content to go to and from work each day doing the same job for 30+ years, but that doesn’t apply to as many people as it once did. Today, more and more people want to advance their careers and move up in the company. They might want to take on leadership roles, or they could be looking to train and transfer to a different department.

You should encourage this, and you should try to provide the training that will help them get there. After all, this is going to end up benefiting your company. Consider investing in their personal development too with some coaching or classes. The more you help them the better, as it will help to foster loyalty.

If you don’t invest in their personal and professional growth, you will soon find that they become bored. They may start looking for other jobs, their productivity will decline, and they will be unhappy at work.

Provide a Livable Wage

While having good benefits and perks at the workplace are highly important today, you can’t forget the importance of paying a good salary to your employees. As much as they might like some of the benefits and perks like bagels on Friday, that doesn’t pay the rent. Consider the cost of living in the area and try to pay a good wage that allows people to live without needing to get a second job or live with roommates.

Have Fun Events at the Office and Outside

You should also consider some fun things that you can do at the office and outside of the office. Having a company picnic, movie day, bowling, a day at the lake, etc. are great for unwinding, helping employees to bond, and reducing stress.

Make Wellness an Important Part of Your Business

Here’s something more and more companies have done in recent years, and it’s something you will want to consider. Make health and wellness important to your company. Having healthy employees will reduce absenteeism, and it can help with the cost of health insurance.

There are plenty of ways that you focus on wellness. For example, you might want to pay for gym memberships for the team or work out a way they can get a discount with a local gym. You can have healthy pot lucks, create step/mile challenges at work, encourage people to enter a local 5K, add healthy snacks to the vending machines, etc.

When people are healthy, they tend to be a lot happier, so don’t discount this tip quite yet.

Build Trust with Employees

Your team wants to be trusted and they want to trust you. Of course, trust doesn’t come freely. It needs to be earned, and there are ways you can do this. For example, you can show that you trust your employees by letting them do their work without micromanaging them. Make them accountable for getting their jobs done, and if they don’t, you will want to ensure there are consequences. This shows them that you see them as capable adults and not people you need to babysit.

Additionally, you don’t want to lie to your employees, and you don’t want to try to take credit for something someone else did. Once you build trust, you want to keep it.

Why is trust important to happiness? Think about your personal life. If you didn’t trust your friends and family, how would you feel? When you think about it in that context, it’s easy to see why trust is essential for people to be happy in the workplace.

Best Reasons to Ensure People Are Happy in the Workplace

You now have some great tips that will help you get a better understanding of how to make your work a happier place. Of course, you might not yet understand why happiness is essential. Having a happy office environment will provide your organization and your team with some fantastic benefits, as noted below.

When you have happy employees, it makes the workplace a much better place to be. Happiness is contagious and when you have employees who enjoy their work, you’ll find that the rest of your team starts to get on board.

Those happy employees also tend to be more productive and successful than those who are unhappy in their roles. They have increased self-confidence and better overall performance.

Happiness will reduce stress, which is more important than ever in today’s busy, anxiety-producing world. Positive work environments tend to be more creative, and people are willing to take more risks, which can lead to great rewards. The employees are willing to do more, and they will support and help one another.

When they are happy in the workplace, the rate of absenteeism tends to drop. People who like being at work are only going to call out if they are ill. They won’t call in sick just to take a day off. Along the same lines, you will find that a happy environment usually means less turnover.

Most of the time, employees leave because they aren’t thrilled with the company and what they are being offered. They might have a workplace that tries to stifle them. When you use the tips discussed above, you can make more people happy in the workplace and reduce turnover. Considering just how much it costs to replace an employee this is a major benefit.

Using the simple tips above will help your employees, managers, and yourself be happy in the workplace. Of course, these aren’t the only things you can do to improve the level of happiness at the job. Keep an eye out for other things you can try, too, and incorporate them when it makes sense.