As an employer you want your employees to be comfortable, happy, productive and motivated while at work. One of the easiest ways to get started with this is to make sure their working environment is more than adequate for their working day.
At the end of the day, your employees spend a good chunk of their time in the environment that you provide for them, and they’re not likely to be motivated or stick around if it isn’t pleasant or stimulating.
Let’s have a look at some of the ways you can create a good working environment for your employees:
The Office Space
The first thing you should look at is the workspace or office space that you are providing. Are you renting? Are you buying? Once you have this sorted you then need to work on the actual space you are dealing with.
Think about maximising space with an office refurbishment, create free-flowing spaces, allow plenty of room for each desk, have quite areas for meetings or breaks, have an adequate kitchen area where they’re able to make food and drinks. It could be a good idea to speak to your employees about what they would like to have in the office too, especially if they’re employees that are going to be around for a while.
Provide Good Lighting
It’s essential that you provide good.lighting for your employees. Having incorrect lighting can not only create a dull but negative environment that can also be damaging to their physical and mental wellbeing. If you don’t have many windows that can provide natural light think about adding in natural light bulbs and have extra lamps available if they’re needed.
Looking after the lighting in your office space can also help with your employees health, especially if they’re using screens on a regular basis, it could be a good idea to offer a compensation voucher towards eye testing and glasses if they’re needed.
Quiet Zones
It’s a good idea to provide quiet zones for your staff. This will enable them to have the space they need to look after their mental wellbeing. We all know that at times work life can be demanding and stressful so proving a safe space where they can grab five minutes to recuperate is essential to a happy, safe and motivated team.
Have An Open Door Policy
An open-door policy doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to sit with your office door open, it’s understandable that at times you will need to have privacy as a manager. However, you should make it clear to your employees that they should feel comfortable to be able to approach you at any time, whether it’s to share concerns, talk about their work, ask for time off, speak about things that may be affecting their work or just to vent a little, having an open-door policy will mean that your employees feel safe.
These four areas are important in order to create a good working environment for your employees, do you have anything else that you have implemented that works? Please share them in the comments below.
