Going to work can be both a good and a bad thing depending on the kind of environment you have to face. This is why it’s important to work in a productive and safe environment that will guarantee you peace of mind. If you happen to work in a toxic environment where you feel oppressed and neglected, then you’d probably want to walk out the moment you get there.
An ideal workplace is that which gives you space to express yourself and work without unnecessary discomfort. Whatever the case may be, a safe work environment will do wonders for the entire company. This means that every employee will be able to put in the much-needed effort that will influence the company positively. All said and done, here are some of the tips you can follow so as to establish the optimum work environment.
Before emotional safety and well being can be addressed, employees must feel safe and comfortable in a given work environment. This means having everything from clean bathrooms and comfortable chairs to great desks for your employees. Equipping the office with fire safety equipment is also a must. Once the physical comfort of employees has been achieved, employers can start to focus on the emotional and intrapersonal environment created in the workplace.
There’s no doubt that every company needs to have a purpose and mission that pinpoints the direction that it wants to go. This is why you need to have a clear company mission, and then get the entire team to fathom its meaning and application. It’s easier to arrive at a particular destination once you know where you’re headed. On the other hand, having no company mission will only mislead the employees.
It’s like being given a road-map that leads to nowhere. A company mission needs to be clear enough in order to set clear goals. Even if the company may be structured and subdivided into different sections and departments, a common mission will simply act as a guideline for the entire staff. Additionally, have an open discussion about how the company mission can help employees pursue their personal mission or goals
Working for a company for several years can eventually get you exhausted especially if you never get the opportunity to advance and learn new tasks. Even so, you wouldn’t expect that everyone you hire would initially do the work to perfection. There are obviously those that would start slow and may make a couple of mistakes since they’re just starting out. Being a good leader is all about understanding each and every employee’s capability, and then building on from there. You might notice that over time, an employee that was once sluggish at their work will get better at it.
This can even be better understood practically in that the more you do something, the better you get at it. Once your employees get to this level it could give you a chance to allocate the time and resources elsewhere, leaving the experienced one to perform work under minimal to no supervision. By doing so, they will get to a point where they can manage others. A company that encourages this sort of growth will most likely deliver since every employee will be determined to reach their goals.
Setting goals should be a part of every regular work environment. All the same, the setup of goals can still be further broken down in order to ease the achievement process. Ideally, you can divide the goals into a set of two: namely, individual and collective. By giving each and every employee personal goals, you’ll be able to push them closer to reaching their full potential.
A healthy work environment is that which enhances new skills and gives the workers an opportunity to learn and understand. A good example is giving your sales employee a goal of surpassing 1000 sales before the end of the month. You can equally do the same across the entire staff. You’ll notice that the creation of such a mentality will bring out the following:
On the other hand, the collective goal of the company can only be achieved by first completing the individual ones. This concept will eventually create work transparency, which is what you need to make your company grow and move ahead.
The human brain tends to have a limited concentration span regardless of what it is you’re doing. This means you’re likely to get hungry when you stare at fried chicken or you’ll crave for a gulp of cool cola once you see a bottle of soda in the refrigerator. This is just the same as the work environment. Employees that are involved in intellectual tasks require a clear focus, critical, and creative thinking that can bring about innovation.
Going to work every single day and coming to the same desk, the same repetitive work, the same work routine, the same task, and the same plant will only limit the worker’s thinking to the same line of thought. This will eventually make them feel frustrated and uninterested to stay working any longer. To make it worse, the employee won’t feel prompted to deal with challenges that come their way; hence, delaying work completion. The best solution to this is to change the scenery. You can easily set-up a conducive environment by exploring different workplace designs. One of the best settings is that of a lounge design where employees get to work in a home-like environment making them feel lively as well as comfortable.
Just the same way changing the work scenery can help boost creativity; subconscious cues can equally be used to improve concentration and creativity at work. Low volume music can be the ultimate method to facilitate better concentration, especially when played in moderation. Science has already proven that monotonous and creative work is best performed under an environment infused with ambient sound at about 70 decibels. In fact, most conversations typically release noise levels of between 60 and 70 decibels.
This is possibly the reason why a majority of corporate section workers prefer to relax and work at a coffee shop that has some traffic. Moreover, the color green is known to have a calming effect on the human brain. This means that you can introduce more plants around the work premises as well as within it. This will help reduce stress levels which will help improve worker productivity. Moreover, you can still paint the walls with light vibrant colors to create a positive mood for working.
Workers cannot be productive if they don’t have the proper tools and equipment to do so. This is where technology comes in handy. You can give your accountant a software program that allows them to quickly record and monitor company transactions. That way, they can always produce accurate results and have enough time to brainstorm on other ways to improve the accounting department. Alternatively, you can encourage your employees to bring their devices to work. Most modern workers love their electronics and cannot function properly without them. Therefore, when you allow such workers to use their equipment, you motivate and encourage them to be more productive.
If you want your workers to be productive, you have to create an ideal environment. You can use the above ways to achieve this result. As you do so, remember to include your workers in the decision-making process to make them more receptive to the changes.
Author Bio: My name is Gloria Jenkins and I am a writer and consultant from Texas. Before writing I worked extensively with technology companies. As a black lesbian I have faced plenty of discrimination in my work career and now am working to help companies reduce discrimination in the workplace.
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Tags: Ways to Create a Productive Work Environment
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